A whaaaaaaaat...... Man tries Tiger shark’s diet by eating 41,000 calories in two days
British adventurer Ross Edgley consumed 16 days' worth of calories in just 48 hours, mimicking the typical meal of a tiger shark. The extreme athlete from Grantham, Lincolnshire, embarked on this unusual challenge to eat as much as one of nature's most formidable predators.
Edgley managed to ingest a staggering 41,103 calories over two days, including burgers, pizzas, cheesecakes, two full English breakfasts, seven liters of custard, four Mars bars, four tubs of Ben and Jerry’s, and much more. Surprisingly, the 38-year-old found it relatively easy.
The inspiration for this challenge came during Edgley’s 2018 swim around the entire 1,780-mile circumference of the UK, where he was shadowed by a massive, harmless basking shark. “When you’re looking at the best swimmers in the world you only have to look at the apex predator,” he told MailOnline. This fascination with sharks turned into an obsession.
Ross comparing the size of one tiger shark bite to his own (Picture: Ross Edgley / National Geographic)
Edgley aimed to replicate the tiger shark’s feast-or-famine diet, where they can go months without eating but gorge on large amounts of food in one sitting. “Tiger sharks will migrate for thousands of miles without food, but then when they find a whale carcass or a turtle, they gorge,” he explained. These sharks consume almost anything and store the food as fat in their livers, allowing them to go without food for extended periods.
Before starting, Edgley fasted for 24 hours and spent 16 hours in a heat chamber at Loughborough University to deplete his body of nutrients. He admitted that this was the hardest part, causing sleeplessness and cramping due to dehydration and lack of electrolytes.
He began his caloric intake with 3,000 calories from smoothies and sports drinks, then turned to seven liters of custard for hydration and calories. “It seemed like the logical choice,” he said, noting his taste buds went to a "very strange place."
Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) inspects a Tiger shark mistaken for the Great White in ‘JAWS’ (1975)
Further reading
By the end of the challenge, Edgley had gained 10kg and believed he had matched a tiger shark’s caloric intake. However, after consulting with expert Dr. Mike Heithaus in the Bahamas, they discovered a tiger shark can consume 20,000 calories in a single bite of a whale carcass. Using a "giant lollipop," Dr. Heithaus demonstrated that the shark’s intake far surpassed Edgley’s effort.
Edgley ultimately consumed the equivalent of 16 days’ worth of food for an average man, but this was only about 28% of what a tiger shark eats in one meal. Reflecting on the experience, he suggested that humans could learn from the shark’s primitive fasting and feasting habits, adding, “Fasting is quite trendy now, but I think we humans could learn a lot from a shark’s primitive fasting and feasting.”
This challenge is featured in a new documentary, Shark vs. Ross Edgley, airing on Nat Geo WILD at 8 pm on July 22.
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