Who is Matt Stonie?
Matt Stonie is an American influencer and competitive eater who is active on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and other social platforms. He was born on 24 May 1992 in San Jose, California, United States. He is known for posting food challenges on his social media.
Early life and family of Matt Stonie
Matt grew up alongside his brother, Morgan, and his parents, who gave him a multicultural descent. Matt's heritage includes Japanese, Czechoslovakian and Lithuanian descent. His father, Dorian Stonie, worked as a procurement manager for a computer company. On the other hand, his mother, Kathy Stonie, was a stay-at-home mom who took care of Matt and Morgan. While Matt never planned to become a competitive eater, he was born in the same city as Joey Chestnut, another world-famous competitive eater.
Education of Matt Stonie
While many people expected that Matt grew up eating everything in sight, it wasn't the case. He never planned to make eating his career as well, as he didn't know he had the ability to do so. He was just a normal boy with an average score while attending Evergreen Valley High School in San Jose. Once he graduated, Matt expressed interest in continuing his education and began looking for nearby universities. He eventually entered California's Mission College, where he ended up majoring in nutrition. His education in nutrition helped him later in life when Matt had to maintain his physique while eating enormous amounts of food sometimes.
Matt Stonie's first eating contest
Before even learning about competitive eating, Matt entered its world by accident. When he was 17 years old, Matt joined his family on vacation in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. While enjoying his holiday, Matt heard about an eating contest nearby and wanted to participate just for the fun of it. Since the restaurant was just 5 minutes away from where he was staying, Matt decided to give it a shot. The contest was about eating as many lobster rolls as possible in a specified time for a prize of 1000 US dollars for the winner. While the restaurant itself had a presumed winner, Matt beat the guy by half a lobster roll. Not only he surprised everyone, including himself. Matt also made more money from the contest than from his summer job.
Major League Eating
Just a year after his first win, Matt was already stoked to try something similar again. He enjoyed the hype he got after the first win, but that wasn't all that pushed him forward. As a junior in college, Matt was just as broke as any other student and wanted to earn some extra money. Since eating competitions often offered nonnegligible cash prizes for the winner, Matt decided to enter as many as possible. In 2011, he encountered Major League Eating organisation for the first time. The organisation organises the most official eating competitions while running some TV shows as well. The contest Matt attended was called Stockholm Deep Fried Asparagus Championship, and it consisted of the contestants eating as many sticks of asparagus as possible. While he didn't win, Matt was cheered on as the youngest member of Major League Eating. He signed himself as a member of the organisation, which allowed him to compete in different contests all around the world.
Matt Stonie's journey
To be able to travel that much, Matt had to put his studies on hold, which came out as a shock. After all, dropping college to stuff your mouth with loads of junk food doesn't sound like the most responsible action. Naturally, Matt's parents felt the same way, as they didn't initially approve of his actions. They thought about competitive eating as a phase which would, eventually, go away. Even though he didn't have his parents' approval, Matt began training for future competitions. After some time, Matt's competitive eating became a part of the family business, as his brother, Morgan, began helping him get online publicity. Once Matt's parents saw how hard he was working, they came around and began supporting Matt in his life goal.
How many world records does Matt Stonie hold?
Once he learned how to properly train his body for competitions, Matt began getting closer to the top prizes once again. But the first time he actually didn't believe his achievement was in 2013 when Matt broke his first world record. He ate a 5.5-pound sweet birthday cake in only 9 minutes and 7 seconds, which made him a world record holder. Since then, Matt has broken several more world records in competitive eating, but there was still one goal that kept getting away from him. Since his first attendance in 2011, Matt desperately wanted to win the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, which was held every year. Matt competed for 4 years straight, but every time, he lost against Joey Chestnut, the expected winner of that contest. After improving his technique and training for hours, Matt finally beat Joey in 2015, when he ate unbelievable 62 hot dogs.
How is Matt Stonie staying thin?
Once he became popular on the internet, Matt began receiving comments and questions as to why he was not fat. It might seem like a stupid question, but people couldn't help but compare Matt to another infamous food influencer. Nikocado Avocado is known for consuming large amounts of junk food in front of a camera as well, but his appearance is diametrically different from Matt's. While Nikocado made eating junk food his everyday lifestyle, Matt only does it for certain videos and competitions. When it comes to working out, there is another big difference: Matt works out regularly, while Nikocado probably never.
Matt Stonie's journey to competitive eating
The first time Matt tried competitive eating, he ended up bloated and nauseous for days. As he studied nutrition, Matt figured out that all the sugars, fats, and sodium wasn't doing his body any good. Since then, he began researching ways to calm his body down and handle all the food at once. While it wasn't obvious at all, a big part of preparing for an eating contest consisted of working out. Just as any other athlete, Matt had to train his mouth, throat and stomach to handle all of that food at once. He had to work on his everyday diet as well. While eating contests require him to eat fast food, Matt's daily diet is, above all, healthy. He eats average amounts of food while making sure to add enough nutrients and vitamins to it. That way, when his body is healthy, it is capable of providing Matt with yet another victory.
Matt Stonie on YouTube
Matt decided to create his YouTube channel under the name MegaToad in 2012. The nickname referred to a character from the Super Mario Brothers universe, and while Matt eventually changed the nickname, most of his fans still call him by it. Since Matt grew up in the era of computers and phones, building an audience for himself was relatively easy for him. Matt's journey started with him filming his at-home training for future eating contests, usually in the Man vs Food format. While Matt was just preparing as usual, the viewers were instantly amazed by his ability to shovel down food. With his thin figure, Matt's ability to eat enormous amounts of food in a matter of minutes seemed almost supernatural. With his cheerful personality, funny commentary and casual honesty, Matt attracted millions of followers to his social media.
Matt Stonie – Popular videos
While he literally ate for a living, Matt became popular for challenging himself to eat even more. His most viewed videos consist of him eating either thousands of calories in one sitting or him breaking some eating record. His most popular video is Most Korean Fire Noodles Ever Eaten (x15 Packs), with over 140 million views. The spicy Korean noodle challenge was once a trend on YouTube. Some people were just trying to handle the spice, while others tried eating as much of them as possible. Since he was a pro in the field, Matt decided to handle the challenge his own way. To make sure to eat more noodles than anyone on YouTube, he prepared full 15 packs just for himself. With the timer as his witness, Matt swallowed all the noodles on his plate in under 10 minutes while almost crying from the spiciness.
How much does Matt Stonie earn? Net Worth
As of 2023, his net worth is estimated to be over 11,5 million US dollars. While he has a huge following on a few social platforms, his YouTube channel is by far the most profitable. Besides earnings from social media, Matt regularly collects big cash prizes from his eating contests, which usually offer noticeable financial rewards.
Interesting facts about Matt Stonie
- As of 2023, he is 30 years old.
- His zodiac sign is Gemini.
- His height is 5'8" or 174 cm.
- His weight is 61 kilograms or 134 lbs.
- He comes from San Jose, which is the birthplace of another competitive eater, Joey Chestnut.
- He completed his high school education at Evergreen Valley High School in San Jose.
- He studied nutrition at California's Mission College but put he put his college education on hold.
- His first won eating contest happened when he was on vacation with his family.
- In 2011, he joined the Major League Eating organisation for competitive eaters.
- As of 2023, he is currently numer 3 in the competitive eating world.
- He had beaten Joey Chestnut in 2015 during the yearly Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest.
- He holds several world records in competitive eating.
- He is known under the nickname MegaToad.
- Besides eating contests, he maintains a healthy diet.
- He has over 16,2 million subscribers on YouTube, with an additional 3,2 million followers on TikTok.
- His most popular video is Most Korean Fire Noodles Ever Eaten (x15 Packs), with over 140 million views.
- As of 2023, his net worth is estimated to be over 11,5 million US dollars.
