Man Mimics Tiger Shark Diet By Eating 41,000 Calories In Two Days, Gains 21 Pounds In a Day

Ross Edgley, a renowned multi-record holder in various athletic pursuits, is the one who took on the challenge.

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• Published in Animals
• July 24, 2024

Swimming 500 kilometers non-stop for 56 hours, running a thousand miles on barefoot with a 50kg backpack, and completing an Olympic Distance Triathlon while carrying a tree might sound like the feats of a superhuman. And, to be fair, Ross Edgley certainly embraces the extreme.

Ross Edgley is known for pushing boundaries. For example, he once swam over 62 miles across the Caribbean Sea without dragging a tree for good measure.

His latest venture, “Shark vs. Ross Edgley,” further tests his limits as he faces off with some of the ocean’s most formidable predators, including the great white shark, mako shark, and hammerhead shark. At 38, Edgley said that out of his various challenges, mimicking a tiger shark’s eating habits was one he felt he could genuinely compete in.

Tiger sharks, known for their immense appetite, travel thousands of miles while hunting or migrating and can eat everything from whale carcasses to tires. To simulate this, Edgley undertook a medical-supervised challenge to see how much weight a human could lose and gain in 48 hours.

He began by spending about 18 hours in a heat chamber, cycling and running to shed as much weight as possible. Following this intense period of starvation, he began the ‘re-feeding’ phase, consuming a wide range of foods.

Among his accomplishments, Edgley was particularly proud of consuming seven liters of custard, which he described as his proudest achievement. Despite his efforts, the experience revealed that after all the deprivation, the anticipated desire for a substantial meal didn’t quite match the reality.

This is Edgley after his drastic weight loss.

I was like ‘no, no, hydrate’. We did electrolytes and a Hulk smoothie as well which was just a green smoothie – just to replenish the body.

Then things got downright ridiculous when his mom made him two huge slabs of cheesecake to go along with all that custard.

His shark diet also featured four packs of Haribo candy, a pizza, fish and fries, a burger and fries, two whole cinnamon loaves, two full English breakfasts, four tubs of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, and four chocolate bars.

In total, he managed to consume an astounding 41,103 calories and put on a staggering 22 pounds within a day.

Edgley after consuming over 40,000 pounds.

Even though it might sound like an epic feat, the outcome was still pretty harsh. To gauge how much a tiger shark could eat, the athlete's team crafted a gigantic, jelly-like "lollipop" for the shark to munch on.

By examining its size, they estimated that if it were a chunk of whale blubber, the shark could have consumed a staggering 20,000 calories in a single bite.

Edgley felt quite proud of consuming 40,000 calories in a day, only to learn that a tiger shark could eat half that amount in a single bite. Regardless, taking in that many calories in one day is incredibly extreme—and definitely not recommended.

You can catch Ross’s colossal challenge when his docu-series Shark vs. Ross Edgley which will premiere on Nat Geo WILD.

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