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Xiao Hui has set several eating records, including consuming 6.5 kilograms of rice with braised pork belly in 42 minutes and finishing 15.5 bowls of rice with braised pork and bamboo shoots in just 20 minutes.

She has also represented Taiwan in international eating competitions and earned the nickname “unbeatable competitive eater,” according to CTWant.

Xiao Hui recently shared CT images of her stomach before and after eating, giving her followers their first look at how it changes during one of her challenges. After the meal, her stomach looked “like a giant water balloon,” filling most of her abdomen and extending toward her pelvis, HK01 reported.

The contrast was so striking that Xiao Hui said she was shocked.

Xiao Hui said the scans were taken in Japan in 2025 while she was filming a television program. Producers arranged for her to arrive at a famous Chinese restaurant franchise after fasting and continue eating until she was completely full. Scans were taken before and after the meal to compare the appearance of her abdomen.

In the pre-meal image, her stomach appeared normal in size and remained in the upper abdomen, above the transverse mesocolon. After she consumed a large amount of food and liquid, it appeared severely distended, extending into the iliac region near the pelvis and displacing loops of intestine and other nearby organs.

Xiao Hui said she experienced neither shortness of breath nor acute abdominal pain, though she developed lingering lower-back pain after the meal. She also said it took about two days before she felt she had fully digested the food.

Consuming enormous quantities of food and liquid over a short period can place the stomach under extreme strain and, in severe cases, cause complications requiring emergency treatment or surgery, gastroenterology says.

Extreme distension can interfere with the stomach’s ability to contract and empty normally, leaving food inside for an extended period. If the pressure becomes high enough, it can also reduce blood flow through the stomach wall, potentially causing ischemia, tissue death and perforation.

A perforation can allow stomach contents to leak into the abdominal cavity, causing life-threatening peritonitis and sepsis.

CT images taken in Japan in 2025 show Xiao Hui’s stomach before she ate, left, and after she ate to capacity. Photo from her Instagram account, @xiaohui_foodie.

Severe gastric distension can also cause nausea and vomiting. Forceful or repeated vomiting may produce a Mallory-Weiss tear in the lining where the esophagus meets the stomach, causing gastrointestinal bleeding that can occasionally be severe.

Forceful vomiting can even cause a full-thickness rupture of the esophagus, known as Boerhaave syndrome. The condition is a life-threatening medical emergency.

The report also warned that consuming large amounts of fat and protein at once may increase the risk of acute pancreatitis, in which digestive enzymes activate prematurely inside the pancreas.

Doctors cautioned that the extreme stomach expansion seen in competitive eaters reflects physiological overload and temporary adaptation, rather than a special ability that others can safely imitate.

Xiao Hui undergoes CT scans in Japan in 2025 to document changes in her stomach before and after eating to capacity. Photo from her Instagram account, @xiaohui_foodie.