While Joey Chestnut and Matt Stonie are names that are well known in the world of competitive eating, there’s another competitive eater who’s making a name for himself — and big bucks — by making YouTube videos of food challenges restaurant by restaurant. BeardMeatsFood is the YouTube channel where Adam Moran has raked in $4.2 million by displaying his food challenges. Before getting into competitive eating, Moran was a banker in the stock division of Lloyds Bank. He’s also a personal trainer who says that competitive eating with 2 hours of weight training per day has improved his body fat ratio. With a variety of restaurants offering food challenges, Moran has accumulated over 2 million YouTube subscribers and 1.1 billion views so far. His videos generate an estimated $8,000 per day. He also makes extra income through prize money from competitive eating, which averages around $10,000 for 1st prize and $5,000 for second prize. It’s not unusual for the 38-year-old to consume 10-12 pounds of food and over 10,000 calories in one sitting. His challenges include The Five KFC Festive Bucket Challenge (12 pieces of original recipe chicken, 12 mini filets, 16 hot wings, 2 boxes of popcorn chicken, 4 large orders of fries, 2 large orders of beans, 4 large containers of gravy, 1 chocolate shake and 2 1.5 liter bottles of Pepsi), the Quadruple Bypass Burger at the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas (4 ½ pound hamburgers, 3 tablespoons of lard, 20 slices of bacon, 8 slices of American cheese, 20 slices of caramelized onion baked in lard, 8 tomato slices, 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons of ketchup, and 1 tablespoon of mustard), and the 5½ pound French Toast at Diggle restaurant in Northern England. In case you’re wondering, Moran says that on a normal day he eats less than 2,000 calories, which includes a lot of vegetables, fruit and lean meat. He also hits the gym for a couple of hours a day. Who would imagine being able to make millions simply by eating your way through life?
