The Rise and Fall of Takeru Kobayashi

There is no secret here that I am an admirer of the professional eater, Takeru Kobayashi.

What I admire about him is that over the course of his professional career he built himself up from 110 pounds to what I now think was close to 190 or 195 pounds of ripped muscle.  The picture of him below was taken in 2005 a few years after he had appeared on the professional eating scene.  I think he weighed around 135 or 140.

The picture above was taken in 2007.  Though he's all covered up, he probably weighed around 150 pounds.

The two pictures above were taken in 2008 when he just exploded with muscle.  The blurry picture of him in the tank top was taken at a gym in Tokyo and is of him about as big as he ever got.  The picture of him showing off his abs while flexing his arm was taken I think later the same year.  I think he may have weighed around around 180.

The picture above was taken in 2009.  I think that is when he was biggest and most muscular.  I think that he may have topped around 190 to 195 pounds.  I have seen pictures of him working out at that time where he is just massive and thick with dense lean muscle.  He was an Asian Adonis, just packed with powerful muscle.  Seriously sexy.

Then he developed his jaw problem.  It was translated as "arthritis" in the press here.  He lost the hot dog eating contest that year and hasn't won it since.  He also stopped his serious bodybuilding activity the same year.  He's been shrinking ever since.

The picture below was taken in 2010.  You can see that he's lost a considerable amount of weight.  He's still lean and ripped, but has lost the thick, massive appearance.

The picture above was taken in mid to late 2011.  Kobayashi is still super fit.  His physique is lean and ripped and attractive in a skinny muscle kind of way.  I'd kill for abs like his.  But he is even smaller than he was in 2010.  In a recent interview he said that he is 75 pound lighter than he was when he was at his biggest.  He claims to weigh 121 pounds now.  That confirms my supposition that at his biggest in 2008-2009 he got as big as 195 pounds.  

I'm glad that he's healthy and he looks suprisingly hot at only 121 pounds.  But I do miss the massive, muscular Kobayashi.