EUGENIZATION.

Takeru Kobayashi is a competitive eater. Correction: he is THE competitive eater, the top dog, the one everyone is out to beat. He is the current holder of the world record in the sport’s most illustrious event, the hot dog eating contest, in which he has remained undefeated for 5 years straight.

But that’s not the point of this post.

In 2001, when he first won the contest with a staggering 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes, Kobayashi weighed a mere 131 pounds.

During the most recent contest, depending on which account you believe, Kobayashi weighed in at somewhere in the neighborhood of 144-150 pounds. Makes sense that a competitive eater would gain a little bit of weight in 5 years, considering the quantity of food he’s consuming.

Here’s a pic of Kobayashi in 2001.

Here’s a pic of him winning the 2005 contest.

Not too shabby, eh? He could probably win Bill Phillips’ Body For Life contest with results like that. Kobayashi revolutionized the competitive eating world in 2001 when he won, not just because of the amount of food he ate, but becuase of his emphasis on training and proper mental focus. Looks like eating mass quantities of food to stretch the stomach wasn’t the only “training” he was doing.

Good luck in 2006, Kobayashi - gambatte ne!!