Joel Hansen

Joel Hansen is a competitive eater, and a popular YouTuber.

He has more than 700K subscribers on his eponymous YouTube channel.

He is a Guinness World Record holder; and previously was a fitness model.

Introduction-

Joel Hansen was born on 19 August 1995 in Canada.

He has two siblings, a brother and a sister.

Joel’s sister, Justine, participated along with him in a few eating challenges and likewise, she got featured in a few of his YouTube videos.

Born	Joel Hansen; 19 August 1995, Canada
Occupation	Competitive eater, YouTuber; previously, fitness model
Guinness World Record	Most Ice Cream Eaten in 30 Seconds
Website	joeleats.com
YouTube channels	‘Joel Hansen,’ ‘Joel Hansen Raw’
Years active on YouTube	2018-present
Genre	Competitive eating
Subscribers	777K on eponymous channel and 77.4K on ‘Joel Hansen Raw’

From bodybuilding to competitive eating-

At a young age, Joel was not heading down the best path and during that time, his ex-girlfriend’s mother inspired him into weightlifting and bodybuilding.

He started working out at a gym and got interested in bodybuilding and personal development and thanks to all these, he got on the right path.

Unfortunately, Joel suffered few significant injuries by which he wasn’t able to lift weights according to his expectations.

As he always loved to eat and was capable of eating quicker than others, he entered into competitive eating.

Joel also liked the fact that much like weightlifting, competitive eating also has the aspects of competitiveness and exertion.

Modelling & acting-

Prior to competitive eating, Joel did independent fitness modelling for a year and he also did act.

As his height was 5’11, he used to get frequently rejected by modelling agencies and this is another reason for him to choose to become a competitive eater.

Bodybuilding helps in competitive eating-

Joel started intermittent fasting while bodybuilding and this later helped him while preparing for competitive eating.

While weightlifting and exercising, he started eating larger quantities of bulky food items like vegetables, fruits, beans, etc. and he did this for a couple of years and this too later helped him to eat larger quantities of food in competitive eating.

His inspiration & first challenge-

As Joel has always been a foodie, he always wanted to participate in the food challenges on seeing food challenges in the menus.

He was greatly inspired by the videos of Randy Santel to become a competitive eater.

Randy Santel is a very popular professional eater.

In December 2017, Joel participated in his first eating challenge.

As a part of the challenge, he ate a 12-patty burger with cheese, bacon, two buns, and a lb of fries at the Olde Dublin Pub in Charlottetown, Canada.

Even though Joel struggled to finish this challenge, this challenge started his love for food challenges.

Preparing for eating contests-

Initially, Joel used to prepare himself both mentally and physically before an eating competition.

He used to visualise himself eating the food in detail and envision finishing an eating contest.

Joel used to also think of the best and worst possible outcomes and assert himself accordingly.

He used to do a little liquid stretch 5 to 8 hours prior to the contest and this helped him to clear his stomach for the contest.

Later, Joel stopped doing all these because he got habituated to participating in the eating competitions but he always ensures that his stomach is empty before participating in a competition.

He also stopped fasting before participating in eating contests.

His secret & a Guinness World Record-

Joel’s secret to fast eating is that he doesn’t chew well and swallows his food quickly.

On 1 July 2019, he created a Guinness World Record by eating most ice cream in 30 seconds using a teaspoon.

Joel created this record in order to promote his YouTube channel.

In addition to the Guinness World Record, he also holds several food related records.

Joel also participated in many eating contests like the Smoke’s Poutinerie World Poutine Eating Championship, World Pumpkin Pie Eating Contest, etc.

According to his website, he had won more than 450 food challenges.

Thanks to his participation in eating competitions, Joel has been promoting many restaurants.

Being fit despite competitive eating-

On the days in which Joel isn’t competing, he eats normal quantities of food.

He also ensures to eat a lot slower than he does in an eating competition.

Joel also regularly workouts and tries to stay lean and doesn’t consume fast food at all on the normal days.

For a few weeks after participating in eating competitions, he reduces his food consumption and diets.

His YouTube channels-

Joel started his eponymous YouTube channel on 12 November 2017 and started filming videos with his phone.

Initially, he used to publish informative videos onto it but later, he started uploading food challenge videos.

On 26 January 2019, Joel started his second YouTube channel by the name, Life Lessons With Joel.

He is regularly publishing videos on his Joel Hansen channel rather than on his second YouTube channel.

Joel also has a website.

A successful YouTuber-

As of January 2024, he has 777K subscribers on his eponymous YouTube channel, 273K followers on his Facebook page and 40.3K followers on Instagram (modelvsfood).

Joel earns through advertisements on his YouTube channel, selling merchandise and also by accepting donations through PayPal and Patreon.

Personal life-

Joel hasn’t revealed much about his personal life except in one of his 2020 YouTube videos that he is single.

Some interesting facts about Joel Hansen-

• On a few days, as a part of the eating challenges, Joel had consumed a whopping 30,000 calories in a single day (a general male consumes around 2,500 calories in a day).
• Barbecue is his favourite food but he doesn’t like eating cheese, pho, liver, noodles, haggis and balut.
• MMA is Joel’s favourite sport.
• His hobbies are hanging out with friends and travelling.
• Joel loves watching Star Wars and his favourite TV shows are The Mandalorian and Game of Thrones.
• He got featured on CTV Morning Live and here, he participated in McDonalds Fry Eating Contest.
• Joel auditioned for the 2022 America’s Got Talent.

So, how are you inspired by the success story of Joel Hansen?

Share with me in the comment section below.