Infuse Issue 8 June 2019 | Page 28
From Football
Player to Professional
Eater to Dietetic
Student
The unlikely journey of
Randy Santel
P
by Men’s Health. I ended up winning and
to celebrate my friend, Dan, invited me to
be his partner in a pizza-eating challenge
in St Louis, Missouri. We won and collected
a $500 cheque. Shortly thereafter I got
more serious about professional eating.
rofessional eater turned
dietetic student, Randy
Santel, has almost 200
million YouTube views and is set to
become one of the most followed
nutrition professionals in history.
Learn how this former football
player went from living in his
parent’s basement to social media
star, and now aspiring dietitian.
Since starting your own food challenge
journey, you’ve also founded the
international foodchallenges.com
website. Can you tell us a little more
about how this evolved?
What inspired you to get into food
challenges in the first place, and to become
a professional eater?
Before Dan and I attempted our first pizza
challenge, I looked all over the internet
for tips to prepare. There was basically
nothing out there. As my audience grew,
I got more questions about preparing
for eating competitions so I created
randysantel.com as a resource for
other eaters.
I played American football in high school and
college, and was pretty overweight during
those years. After college, I started focusing
on losing weight and in 2010, I entered my
first body transformation contest sponsored
© Dietitian Connection
28
Infuse | June 2019