Step 1: lose weight if you're obese
A former American speed-eater champion
Ed "The Animal" Krachie proposed a "belt of fat theory" which claims that the belt of
fat that obese people (including himself - 462 pounds) has prevents the
stomach from greatly expanding during a speed-eating contest. In fact, many expert Japanese speed-eaters are very skinny.
Step 2: practice an eating method
The current world record of eating hot dogs is held by
Takeru Kobayashi of
Japan, who ate
50 hot dogs in 12 minutes at the annual international Nathan's Famous
Fourth of July hot dog eating contest held in
Coney Island,
doubling the previous year's record. His method was dubbed "double-Japanesing," which adds to the method known as "Japanesing" in
the States, and "Tokyo-style" in Japan.
The contestants practicing the eating method of Japanesing would separate the bun from the hot dog, dip the bun in a bucket of water, and consume the two separately.
What Kobayashi did instead was to focus on a pair of hot dogs at a time by eating two buns simultaneously, followed by consuming two meats simultaneously.
The winner of this annual event wins a trophy, a year's worth of Nathan's hot dogs, and the coveted mustard yellow international belt.
Sources:
Year 2001 record held by Takeru "tsunami" Kobayashi - 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/07/04/hotdog.contest/
Year 2000 record held by Kazutoyo "the rabbit" Arai - 25 & 1/8 hot dogs in 12 minutes.
http://www.maximonline.com/grit/articles/article_3537.html
Year 1999 record held by Charles "hungry" Hardy - 22 hot dogs in 12 minutes.
http://www.geocities.co.jp/HeartLand-Keyaki/7973/topix/hotdog.html
Ed "The Animal" Krachie
http://64.45.18.110/nathans/news/htmls/japanesse_cut_mustard.asp
Nathan's famous homepage
http://nathansfamous.com/