Scientists Have Finally Calculated How Many Hot Dogs A Person Can Eat At Once

Over the Fourth of July weekend, Joey Chestnut broke his own world record for hot dog eating, finishing 75 hot dogs in 10 minutes in the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest.

Dr. James Smoliga, a veterinarian and exercise scientist, has been working on a mathematical analysis of the maximum number of hotdogs a human being could theoretically consume in 10 minutes.

"The answer is 83."

The answer to the question came from 39 years of data collected from Nathan's Famous Hot Dog contest.

Dr. Michael Joyner from Mayo Clinic said the paper holds water, saying "It's a great paper."

Dr. Smoliga's calculations show that when adjusted for body mass, the competitive eaters could outeat a grizzly bear or coyote.

He says bears can eat about 8 hot dogs per minute, and Joey Chestnut can eat 7.5 hot dogs per minute. However, bears can only continue that pace for about 6 minutes. Endurance is what Chestnut holds over animals.

Surprisingly, a gray wolf could eat about 11 hot dogs per minute.

The trait that leads to being a great hot dog eater is the ability for your stomach to stretch itself. In a study, they had a competitive eater and a normal volunteer compete in a contest. The volunteer said they would be sick after eating 7 hot dogs, whereas the competitive eater ate 36 hot dogs.

Dr. Metz of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, said hot dog contest people only get better overtime, because their stomachs continue to stretch. He said eventually though, the stomach may lose its ability to contract back to the correct size, which will leave the person with a "big flaccid bag for a stomach."

83 seems like a lot, but Joey Chestnut was only 8 away from that amount, so I think it's definitely attainable, and sounds like a challenge to me.

Read more at NY Times