Man takes on 41,000 calorie challenge to eat like a tiger shark and gains 1.5 stone in 24 hours

Swimming 500km non-stop in 56 hours, running barefoot for 1,000 miles with a 50kg backpack and completing an Olympic Distance Triatholon, while carrying a tree, all sounds like the work of a bit of a mad man.

And, well, I guess that would be fair to say but Ross Edgley is no stranger to doing things to the extreme. I mean, why swim over 62 miles across the Caribbean sea without pulling a tree?

But despite having a whole slog of wild challenges to his name, taking on sharks for his new docu-series truly pushed his body to limits.

Ross after his dramatic weight loss. (Supplied)

Shark vs. Ross Edgley sees the bloke go head-to-head with four of the ‘ocean’s most formidable sharks’, such as the white shark, mako shark and hammerhead.

Out of his four challenges, the 38-year-old told LADbible that eating as much as a tiger shark was the one thing he ‘could actually compete at’ and he certainly gave it a really f**king good go.

He explained how tiger sharks will travel for thousands of miles when hunting or migrating without any food. And then, being the ‘trash cans of the sea’, they can chow down on the likes of whale carcasses or turtle shells to ‘dustbin lids and tires’.

So, to mimic that (under medical supervision, of course), Ross underwent a challenge to see how much weight a human can lose and gain in 48 hours. To kick things off, he spent about 18 hours in a heat chamber ‘just cycling, running, trying to lose as much as possible’.

Then, after no food and with his skin ‘looking paper thin’, it was time for the ‘re-feeding’ as he consumed all sorts of stuff.

“My record seven litres of custard – that was what I was most proud of. It was amazing.”

Although, while you might think after going through all of that time without eating, you might be desperate for a real, big scran, that wasn't quite the reality.

They fed the shark 'a jelly lollipop' to see how much it could consume in one bite. (Supplied)

Ross explained: “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.”

But then things did ‘just get silly’ as his mum made him two ‘slab’s worth of cheesecake' to see off with the drowning of custard.

Also included in his hefty ‘Shark diet’ was four bags of Haribo mix, a pizza, fish and chips, burger and fries, two entire Cinnamon loaves, two Full English breakfasts, four tubs of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and four mars bars.

In total, the bloke ended up consuming a whopping 41,103 calories, gaining a whole 22lbs in 24hours.

Ross after consuming over 40,000 calories in one day. (Supplied)

But despite that sounding like an absolutely mega challenge, the defeat was ‘brutal’.

To see just how much a tiger shark might consume, Ross’s team created a massive gel like ‘jelly lollipop’ for the creature to take a bite out off. They then measured the size of this and if it was a slab of whale blubber, the shark would have ‘taken down 20,000 calories in one bite’.

“I felt pretty good about myself with that 40,000,” Ross admitted, “before we found out that a tiger shark would do half of that in one bite.”

Either way, that many calories in one day is absolutely wild – and obviously, not advised.

You can watch Ross’ mammoth challenge when his docu-series Shark vs. Ross Edgley lands on Nat Geo WILD in the UK on 22 July for SHARKFEST.