How does Matt Stonie stay in shape?
Introduction
If you want to be lean, with abs, everybody knows that you should eat plain foods like salad and boiled chicken, right?
They also know that you should stay well clear of large amounts of greasy fast food and calorific foods and drinks.
Well, in theory, that’s correct, but providing you’re sensible with your diet and enjoy everything in moderation, you can eat large amounts of pizza, fast food, hot dogs, burgers, ice cream, and other foods and drinks synonymous with junk food, and still have abs.
Don’t believe us?
Just ask competitive eater Matt Stonie.
Matt is a dude that eats upwards of 10,000, even 20,000 calories in one sitting, yet if you looked at him, you’d think he’d barely been able to manage 2,000 calories a day, let alone in one sitting.
He stands at 5 ft 8 and weighs only 130 – 138 pounds, yet he can eat meals that guys three times his body weight would struggle with, all while maintaining a lean and ripped physique.
So, what’s his secret?
How does Matt Stonie stay in shape?
Let’s find out.
Who is Matt Stonie?
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Before we can address the question of how does Matt Stonie stay in shape?
We’ll first learn a little more about this competitive eating sensation.
Matt Stonie is a YouTuber and competitive eater from the USA.
As of this writing, he is ranked 5th in the Major League Eating rankings, and has set numerous records, and has won multiple competitive eating contests over the years.
Born in 1991, in San Francisco, California, Matt has Japanese, Lithuanian, and Czech ancestry in his blood.
He has millions of followers on his various social media profiles and is one of the most exciting competitive eaters in the industry today.
The fact that he is so small in stature makes his accomplishments even more impressive.
Competitive Eating Career
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Matt’s first win as an amateur came in 2010 when he placed 1st in a lobster roll-eating contest in New Hampshire.
He won in emphatic style, and it was clear that he could eat, especially for being so light in weight.
Matt made his competitive eating debut in 2011, at the Stockton Deep Fried Asparagus Championship in California.
He was just 18 years of age at the time and was the youngest member of the MLE (Major League Eating) organization.
Over the years, he would enter various other contests and would often place extremely well.
He picked up plenty of wins along the way, but his most famous win would come in 2015, at the prestigious Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest.
The contest is considered arguably the biggest competitive eating contest in the world, and is televised nationally.
Going into the contest, Matt was a distinct underdog, not only due to his size but because he was going up against the world’s greatest competitive eaters.
At the top of the rankings was Joey Chestnut.
Joey Chestnut stands at 6ft tall and weighs around 230 pounds.
He is a lean, but big and muscular guy with a very athletic physique.
Considering Stonie was close to 100 pounds lighter, nobody expected him to challenge Joey.
Joey Chestnut was the reigning, defending Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest champion and was the favorite to win.
Amazingly, Matt would put on the performance of a lifetime and would put away an astonishing 62 hot dogs.
What’s even more impressive is the fact that Joey Chestnut only ate 60.
That’s right, Matt had defeated the champ, beating a guy much bigger than he.
It was a true David vs Goliath story, and the fans couldn’t get enough.
Following this win, Matt Stonie became a competitive eating sensation.
His absolute best ranking in the MLE was 2nd place, making him the second-best competitive eater in the world.
His ranking tends to alternate between 2nd and 5th place, so he is still very consistent.
Matt has amassed more than 15 million subscribers across his social media platforms, though his YouTube is generally considered his most popular.
He has even partnered with TGI Fridays to release his very own franchise of restaurants.
He actively encourages customers to attempt to beat his times for various meals served there.
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How does Matt Stonie stay in shape?
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Okay, now we know more about Matt himself, and we certainly know that he can eat, but how does he stay in such great shape?
Matt is lean and athletic, with noticeable vascularity in his biceps and visible abs under his clothing.
He likely sits at around 12% – 14% body fat.
Now, for starters, it’s obvious that Matt is blessed with a very high metabolism, so he actually struggles to gain and maintain weight.
Matt works out regularly, and he often goes for a run after eating and letting his food settle, but he is not what is known as a ‘gym guy,’ although he is there 4 or 5 times a week.
Competitive eaters such as ‘Beard Meats Food’ along with ‘Joey Chestnut’ and ‘LA Beast’ are more like Highschool jocks, and often weight train both for aesthetics and to ramp up their metabolisms, but Matt Stonie isn’t hugely into training like a bodybuilder, but rather, he’s more diet and cardio based.
The main way that Matt stays in shape is through his diet.
He counts his calories and has 2 high-calorie days (usually when he is doing an eating challenge for his social media pages) with 2 or 3 low-calorie days between them, where he eats below maintenance.
Despite eating 2 x very large meals per week, by fasting in between and eating well below maintenance, by the end of the week, he will still be hitting his macronutrient targets and will be eating just enough calories to maintain his weight.
On a low-calorie day, for example, he’ll prioritize protein for muscle growth and repair and will begin with a protein shake or smoothie with a cup of black coffee and multivitamins.
A couple of hours later, it’s back to more protein shakes, this time with a few carrots.
For lunch, he’ll have a protein shake with an apple, and as a snack, a few hours later, he’ll have a protein shake with a handful of almonds for some healthy fats.
He’ll have a protein shake for his dinner with some bread, and right before bed, he’ll have a slow-release casein protein shake, along with another handful of whole almonds.
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