Watch a fitness model and extreme eater scarf down 19 donairs in 55 minutes
Joel Hansen is a Guelph University applied nutrition graduate student, who also does food challenges
Joel Hansen is a fitness model, applied nutrition student — and, perhaps, the first person to eat 19 donairs in less than an hour.
Just a few hours into 2019, and not out of a desire to soak up a wild New Year's Eve, Hansen headed to King of Donair.
"It kind of started out of humour," he said. "Then we said there's nothing out there anywhere close to being a record so let's see what we can do."
It's unclear if it's a world record — there doesn't appear to be an established record — but it is helping him build a rather unique brand: Model vs. Food. More than 9,300 people had seen his livestream of the event by Wednesday morning.
And he's had great success with donairs before, polishing off a three-kilogram donair in an extreme challenge in Cape Breton in the spring.
A model strategy
Anyone hoping to challenge Hansen's record could follow his strategy: pump water and heavy metal throughout. (The latter to help from the fact that you're very, very full, Hansen said.)
It's also important to know when to throw in the foil, he said.
"Around the 55-minute mark or whenever it was, I decided we better just call it quits — it was a lot of donair," he says, laughing.
And Hansen's body might have been in recovery.
Burgers and fries
During his holidays in the Maritimes, Hansen also devoured a 4.4-kilogram burger in Moncton and about 8,000 calories worth of pepperoni, wings and fries at the Oasis in Halifax.
Unsurprisingly, he keeps getting the question how he can eat that much and stay so fit.
"It's definitely a little bit of work," he said. "If I go to do a food challenge one day, my caloric intake is very, very high … so the prior days and absolutely the subsequent days, I drop my calories a little bit to kind of counteract."
It's unlikely he'll have another donair feast anytime soon; Hansen flew back to Ontario Tuesday where he's in the middle of a masters degree in nutrition studies at Guelph University.