....via an interview with him:
Al Norton: How do you prep for the eating challenges you do on the show?
Adam Richman: It depends because there are hot challenges, cold challenges, and volume challenges. Sadly because of the shooting schedule I don't always get a real chance to prepare. Here's the thing – I'm not a competitive eater. I have no aspirations to be, and I don't mean that as a slight against competitive eaters. The simple fact is that if I eat at all the day before I have a major, major obstacle going against me when it comes to the big challenges. The way the production schedules work sometimes it's just not feasible or possible for me to get a day off before them. If I do have a day off I don't eat, or eat very minimally, and I drink a lot of water and club soda to keep my stomach stretched and full and to keep myself hydrated. The most important aspect is that I work out like a beast. I work out like a beast the night before and the morning of. Right now I'm in North Carolina and I have a 17 chili dog challenge tomorrow. We're about to go do a shoot right now at a restaurant, and we're shooting late night, so the odds are stacked against me.
I never wanted to face these challenges from a competitive eating standpoint, ever. For me, it has to have the feel that comes with a bunch of dudes, or guys and girls, taking a road trip across the country and you find that one place that looks cool or your friend's friends used to live there and they told you this place had amazing burgers, burritos, nachos, you fill in the blank, and you go there and you learn that if you finish the Wattusi Burger or whatever they call it, it's free or you get a tee-shirt. It's all just a hoot. It's all meant as a lark. It's not meant to be Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.
