Most Americans call their Thanks- giving dinner a feast. For Bryan "Big Sexy" Beard, it's more like a snack.

You want some astronomic gastronomic numbers? Check out a few of these Big Sexy sporting accomplishments:

• Consumed 85 chicken wings in five minutes in Denver on Jan. 24, 2009.

• 113 Chinese dumplings in 10 minutes in Los Angeles three years ago.

• 2.77 pounds of funnel cake in 10 minutes three years ago in Minnesota.

While most people would run for the nearest bottle of Pepto-Bismol after digesting those mammoth meals, the 27-year-old Beard is ready for dessert. A native of Keenesburg, Beard is Colorado's top competitive eater. He's ranked 37th in the world by Major League Eating, the official sanctioning body of the "sport" whose logo is that of a fork enclosed by a fist.

At 6 feet tall, Beard weighs in at 415 pounds. That's down about 50 pounds from a few months ago. Stresses in his life of late have led him to stop eating as much. One of his best friends was Alex Sullivan, a victim of the Aurora theater shootings.

On a recent weekday at Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs in Lower Downtown, Beard had a "light" lunch of two well- garnished, large all-beef dogs and a good-sized hamburger. He talked about the allure of a sport many might call hazardous to one's health.

"I think eating can be an escape, but when I found out I could make money eating chicken wings, I ended up making over $1,000 in my first contest (85 wings, down to the bone, in five minutes at the KBPI Wing Bowl in 2009)," Beard said. "I enjoy it. It's a rush in a way for me.

"But if you devote yourself 100 percent to the sport of competitive eating, it's going to take a toll on your body. It will. Your body can only naturally take in a certain amount at one time. You can mess up your stomach and your digestive tract. So the careers of competitive eaters seem to rival those of an NFL running back."

Which means it's a short career.

Beard, a full-time board operator at 104.3 The Fan FM, figures he has at least a couple more good years of professional eating in him, though. He signed with Major League Eating in 2009. He would like to crack the top-20 world rankings and win or finish highly in the sport's most famous event — the annual July 4 hot dog-eating contest at Nathan's Famous in Coney Island, N.Y. Beard qualified for the 2010 contest and finished 15th while eating 15½ hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes. Joey Chestnut, the reigning top-ranked eater, won with 54 hot dogs consumed.

"I can't tell you how exciting it was just walking to the event, though, seeing so many people there to watch us," said Beard, who got his nickname after jumping into a pool after an eating event wearing just a Speedo.

You don't have to have a huge stomach to be a champion competitive eater. For years, that was evidenced by the man considered the all-time legend of the sport, Takeru Kobayashi. Despite a 5-foot-8, 128-pound frame, Kobayashi won the Nathan's contest six years in a row, regularly consuming 50 or more hot dogs in 10 minutes. He holds the all-time chicken-wing eating record (an incredible 337 at the Wing Bowl in Philadelphia this year) and most Twinkies in one minute (15).

Kobayashi is able to expand his stomach through "training" (usually all-you-can-eat buffets) but is able to shed the weight gained (often 10 to 15 pounds directly after a contest) through exercise and occasional purging, which in competitive eating is called "reversal of fortune."

Another legend of the sport, Ed "Cookie" Jarvis, retired because of a bout with thyroid cancer. From 2001-06, his weight ballooned from 365 pounds to 525. A buffet restaurant in New York once banned him for cleaning out its inventory on a regular basis. A real estate agent from the Long Island, N.Y., area, Jarvis now weighs less than 300 pounds and seems slightly torn about his competitive eating career.

"I have so many great memories and feel like I was a pioneer of the sport," Jarvis said. "But eating 16 or 17 pounds of food at a time, hey, it's not for everyone. I became more obsessed with winning than I ever did with eating. But you can't do it forever."

Digging into his sauteed onion-lathered hot dog, Beard said: "It's a life choice. I'm not an unhappy eater. At some point, I'll stop and lose weight. But I'm having too much fun right now."

Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360, or