Call it a sport that's seen a growth spurt or two, a fascinating hobby or just plain gross. You've seen the photos, or at least heard of the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest -- personally my favorite part of July 4th -- but what about the other 364 days of the year? Who are these ferocious feasters and what is their life like outside of competition?

To get inside the world of competitive eating, we consulted competitive eater Crazy Legs Conti, ranked 15 in the world and most recently the cannoli eating champion. People assume competitive eaters must be 400-pound individuals who gorge themselves at all-you-can-eat buffets, and nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, Crazy Legs is 6'3'' and weighs 215 pounds.

You also might be surprised to know that he's a dedicated runner and does yoga two to three times a week. "Throughout the year I eat competitively 40 to 45 times," he says. "So I'm watching every bite, chew and swallow to be able to go the table and perform to the best of my ability. It's like preparing for a marathon, but it's a marathon of eating." With about 80 competitive-eating events a year, thousands of dollars of prize money on the line and tons of buzz surrounding these events we definitely wanted to hear more from this eating expert about how he stays fit, while eating so much.

That's Fit: People might assume you sit around and eat all of the time, but you're pretty active. What is your exercise routine like?

Crazy Legs: The first thing I do is running. I jog the Williamsburg Bridge [between Brooklyn and Manhattan, in New York] three or four times a week. I travel to so many cities, so I always bring my running shoes. I'm from New York, so I don't have a car. My running shoes are what get me around these cities. The other thing I've done in the last year which I've found incredibly helpful is yoga. Now, traditional yogis would probably grossly offended that I took up yoga to eat hamburgers or hot dogs, but yoga is great for digestion -- there are poses that help digestion. The other component is breathing. I do vinyasa yoga which focuses on alternate nostril breathing. When I'm eating, my mouth is obviously full but my nose is not, so through doing yoga two to three times a week and using a neti pot my breathing has improved. I call my body the basketball-player shape, so yoga was a little daunting at first, especially with all of the tight clothing. I have gear with the Buddha on it which I thought is the perfect combination of yoga and competitive eating. He's a little plump, you know? Overall yoga and running are my main ways of exercise to burn off calories and prepare for consuming so many calories too.