ELI5 - How do competitive eaters such as Eric the electric not damage their bodies?

Submitted by Iron-Wall t3_126cmwn in explainlikeimfive

I understand many of these guys have healthy lifestyles outside of eating with a regular diet and exercise, hence it's easy to maintain a healthy weight.

However, when they consume up to 50x the recommended daily intake of sugar, or 20x the recommended salt intake as I've seen in some challenges, how do the kidneys/liver/heart not suffer overload?

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Comments

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Hefty-Set5236 t1_je8oenl wrote

My understanding is that they regurgitate (vomit) up the consumed food after the competition has ended. They also don't compete on a daily, or even weekly basis, for the most part.

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Fortunfavrsbold t1_je92b5j wrote

It's definitely a skill most people do not have. Maybe they train to eat more and exercise like crazy and not eat for a few days, maybe they vomit it all up afterwards, or maybe they just have larger stomachs that can hold excessive food. It might also vary from competitor to competitor

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VinylJitsu t1_je9ke7f wrote

The short answer is, just like pretty much every competitive doer of anything, they do. Above a certain leve, performance costs health.

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