Wall Street Journal on Sonya Thomas

June 29, 2006 at 12:35 am by ojrifkin · More posts about:Sonya Thomas

The Wall Street Journal has an article about Sonya Thomas’ training techniques. A subscription is required to read the full article. I am not sure if this article will appear in Thursday’s print edition or if it is online only.

Comments (7)

7 Comments »

  1. Rufus said

    June 29, 2006 @ 9:11 am

    I’m sure Beautiful Brian will hate to hear about this. Somehow he believes that publicity should be spread equally among every eater, regardless of the level of talent. He’s already put down Sonya, the LeFevres and many others. Just go to his bits and pieces.

  2. beautifulbrian said

    June 29, 2006 @ 11:04 am

    Rufus it seems that you get a pleasure out of misinterpreting what i write. Where in bits and pieces did i put down the Lefevre and Sonya? Aside from Chestnut and a few others they are the top eaters in the IFOCE. Is questioning Sonya’s update from this past weekend a put down? Lefevre’s getting a jump on the bandwagon for most of the publicity in the last two or three years a put down? What is considered nothing more than an opinion on my end is considered a put down on your end. “spread equally among every eater regardless of level of talent”???? You are putting words in my mouth i never uttered.

  3. The Tubesock Destroyer said

    June 29, 2006 @ 2:47 pm

    Here’s the full article:

    Woman Trains to Become
    Champion Hot-Dog Eater
    June 29, 2006

    Editor’s Note: What’s Your Workout? is an Online Journal column that looks at busy people’s fitness routines. Here we talk with competitive eater Sonya Thomas about how she trains for the annual Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot-Dog Eating Contest held at Coney Island in Brooklyn, N.Y.

    Sonya Thomas

    THE COMPETITIVE EATER

    Sonya Thomas has been eating competitively since June 2003 and has set records for wolfing down everything from oysters to meatballs to tater tots. Her ability to outeat larger, male competitors has earned her the nickname “The Black Widow.” During the day, the 38-year-old champion eater manages a Burger King restaurant located at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. She lives in Alexandria, Va.

    THE WORKOUT

    Eating 37 hot dogs is a workout in itself — certainly not one a personal trainer would prescribe. But for Ms. Thomas, competitive eating is a sport, and just like soccer or baseball, it requires training. Ms. Thomas, who competes in one or two contests a month, gobbling everything from cheesecake to tacos as fast as she can, follows a peculiar regimen that keeps her at the top of her eating game.

    VIDEO

    See a youtube.com video1 of Sonya Thomas winning a crab-cake eating contest in Baltimore in April, 2006.

    To gear up for contests, she constantly tries to maintain or improve her hand speed, eye-hand coordination, jaw strength and stomach capacity. She says her day job as a Burger King manager keeps her hand speed and hand-eye coordination in top form.

    “When I’m working I’m non-stop for eight hours, constantly moving and walking around and I can tell my body is working hard,” she says. “I’m pulling orders out of windows and scooping fries.” She also keeps her jaw in shape by chewing two pieces of sugarless gum at a time throughout the day. Once or twice a week she eats dried squid. “It really exhausts your jaw,” she says.”You have to keep your jaw strong when you eat so much and are using the muscle for such a long time,” she says.

    Ms. Thomas says she rarely practices before competitions, noting that it’s not healthy to consistently eat large quantities of food in short periods of time. She tried practicing with hot dogs, swallowing as many as she could in six minutes but she felt ill afterward. “I’m not good at practicing,” she says. “If it’s not for a contest then I don’t feel like doing it.” When Ms. Thomas isn’t used to eating a particular type of food she has to eat in competition, she sometimes practices eating that food quickly for a period of no more than one or two minutes.

    IFOCE/Matthew Roberts

    Sonya Thomas at Nathan’s Hot-Dog Eating Contest in 2005

    Ms. Thomas also walks on a treadmill five days a week for 90 minutes at a steep incline and a speed of 4.4 miles per hour. “Sometimes I have to hold on because I’m going so fast,” she says. She’s been doing the same exercise routine for 10 years.

    THE DIET

    Ms. Thomas has lost weight since she started eating competitively, dropping down to 100 pounds from 108 pounds in the last three years. At 5′ 5″, that makes her fairly petite, particularly considering her fondness for eating contests. She attributes the weight loss to her one-meal-a-day diet. Before she began eating competitively she used to snack throughout the day on junk food like potato chips, pretzels or chocolate bars. “Sometimes I’d eat an entire bag of pretzels and I wouldn’t even realize,” she recalls. She decided it would be better to stop snacking.

    THE WORKOUT ROUTINE

    Monday: 90 minutes walking on the treadmill. Incline 12-14. Speed 4.4 mph.
    Tuesday: 90 minutes walking on the treadmill. Incline 12-14. Speed 4.4 mph.
    Wednesday: 90 minutes walking on the treadmill. Incline 12-14. Speed 4.4 mph.
    Thursday: 90 minutes walking on the treadmill. Incline 12-14. Speed 4.4 mph.
    Friday: 90 minutes walking on the treadmill. Incline 12-14. Speed 4.4 mph.
    Saturday: Day off
    Sunday: Day off

    She now eats one huge meal a day spread over an hour or two and accompanied by nearly a gallon of water or a no- or low-calorie drink. She thinks eating like this stretches her stomach so it can handle the large quantities of food she eats at competitions. She usually eats around 8:30 p.m. when her Burger King shift ends and five days a week her meal is the same: a grilled chicken sandwich without mayo, a king-size order of fries and three 42-ounce Diet Cokes. “Afterwards I’m not so full,” she says. “Just comfortable.” When she’s not at work she usually eats a large salad or sushi and lots of water. She usually avoids eating the day before a competition and if she has a meal, she eats a salad without dressing.

    THE COST

    Ms. Thomas recently purchased a treadmill for her home that cost about $1,800. She also uses the treadmill at a gym located on the Air Force base. Because Burger King is on the base she can use the facility at no charge.

    THE EFFORT

    The record Ms. Thomas is most proud of is when she ate 46 dozen oysters in 10 minutes early last year. She set a women’s record for eating 37 hot dogs in 12 minute at last summer’s Coney Island hot dog competition but she has been unable to win what’s considered the top title of competitive eating. She placed second to Takeru Kobayashi last year and hopes to end his five-year winning streak on July 4.

    QUESTIONS ON FITNESS?

    Email your questions on working out and dieting, plus suggestions and thoughts on the column, to Jen Murphy at workout@wsj.com2.

    Read previous installments3 of this column.

    She says the hardest part of competition for her is staying mentally focused. “I’m very competitive and don’t like to lose,” she says. “I swallow more slowly than men so usually I start out behind and start thinking I can’t win. But I know that they’ll eventually slow down when they get full. I don’t slow down. My pace from start to finish stays the same.”

    THE BENEFIT

    An eight-hour shift at Burger King is both exhausting and stressful, Ms. Thomas says. She’s in charge of managing crew members and dealing with demanding customers. “Sometimes I have a headache at the end of the day but exercise gives me a fresh mind,” she says. “Sometimes you don’t feel like doing it but once you get started you feel so great.”

    Write to Jen Murphy at workout@wsj.com4

  4. beautifulbrian said

    June 30, 2006 @ 3:24 am

    That is a very impressive workout regime Sonya has. I can tell you from experience in the gym that 90 min on a treadmill at 12-14 incline at speed of 4.4 is unreal. I can do 15 min at 15 incline twice a week (which is the max incline for ballys treadmill) at 3.5 speed and after that i am zonked! But i burn 400 calories at the speed , time and incline . Sonya is able to do 5x the amt of what im doing now . The incline is the key. It burns calories 3x as fast compared to doing 5.0 speed or higher with no incline . incline is torture but gets results. Sonya burns 2500 calories per day . Freakin amazing. This is why she is able to maintain such a slender weight and the one meal a day helps just as well. If you can stay on the treadmill 90 min at a 12-14 incline you can bet your life your weight will drop a ton. Good work Sonya.

  5. Mega Munch said

    June 30, 2006 @ 8:20 am

    The YouTube video linked in the WSJ article was posted by our old pal Liz of Urban Honking fame.

  6. Rhonda Evans said

    June 30, 2006 @ 9:44 am

    Sonya will improve again this year. As much as I cheer for her, however, there is no way she will ever beat Koby. But as I said in another post, the Japanese no longer dominate this sport.

  7. Rhonda Evans said

    June 30, 2006 @ 2:37 pm

    Liz you are wonderful (as is OJ and BB)! I don’t know what I’d do w/o you “guys.”

RSS feed for comments on this post

Leave a Comment

Log in | Register | Comments by users who have not logged in will be held for approval