How can a marathon eater maintain their health?

Question

Longtime lurker, first-time poster. My best friend (who is a big user of this site) was reading this post from another forum:

https://startups.stackexchange.com/questions/11189/starting-a-completely-new-industry

He's a super competitive guy, and he's now got this into his head that he's going to try out marathon eating. I was telling him this is crazy and it's going to be horrible for his health, but he insists that it's not that bad. So to settle some disagreements, we both agree that I should post some questions here:

• How does one actually keep their health while doing something like this? Are there certain exercises or eating habits that will help?
• This guy talks about eating over 100 McDonalds burgers in 12 hours and 44 boxes of Oreos in 8 hours. How does one actually do that? Is there a physical limit on how much somebody can eat? Do they exercise while eating to burn calories?
• If someone were to attempt to marathon eat, what are the best/worst foods to do this with?
• How much rest does somebody need between marathons?

Thanks!

Answer 1

This is a health site, so I'm only answering the part about health dangers of binge eating:

1. Weight gain

• 1 hamburger, plain, single patty, 86 g = 254 Calories
• 100 hamburgers = 25,400 Calories = enough for 10 days for a moderately active man. To maintain body weight, this means 1 day with 100 hamburgers and then 9 days of complete fast.

2. Health Consequences & Medical Complications of Binge Eating Disorder (The Center of Eating Disorders)

• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol levels
• Heart disease as a result of elevated triglyceride levels
• Type II diabetes mellitus
• Obstructive sleep apnea
• Edema (swelling)
• Kidney disease
• Gall bladder disease
• Various forms of cancer
• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
• Insomnia

3. Acute gastric dilatation in a patient with anorexia nervosa binge/purge subtype (PubMed, 2010)

Acute gastric dilatation is a rare complication of anorexia nervosa binge/purge...Early diagnosis and intervention is critical since delay may result in gastric necrosis, perforation, shock, and death.