Clearly no one signs up for an eating contest of any kind with the goal of minding their portion sizes. For participants in the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, an annual 4th of July event, the more you eat the better. Each year two men continually beat the rest of the contestants and battle it out for the infamous hot dog title.
We all know that whatever is in a hot dog is questionable, but do you think Joey Chestnut, of the U.S., and Takeu Kobayashi, of Japan, have ever stopped to read the food label on their pile of hot dogs? We think not. The folks at CalorieLab did the math and calculated exactly what the nutritional aftermath looks like when you eat 66 hot dogs on 66 buns (the total consumed by Chestnut in the 2024 event).
That tallies up to 6,600 grams of hot dogs and buns, 14.5 pounds, eaten in a regulation time of 10 minutes! After reading this, we dare you to keep down your hot dogs.
- 19,600 Calories (about 10 days’ worth of calories)
- 1,280g Fat (that’s 2.82 pounds)
- 490g Saturated Fat (1.08 pounds of the unhealthy fat)
- 43,410mg Sodium (1.53 oz, or 1,800 times the RDA)
There’s no telling what kind of health repercussions these two hot dog connoisseurs face afterward. Tummy aches are sure to ensue, and hopefully a lot of fruits and vegetables!