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Man vs Shark: British adventurer, Ross Edgley, attempts to mimic the diet of a tiger shark by consuming a whopping 41,103 calories in 48 hours (and he claims it was surprisingly easy!)
If washing down pizzas and burgers with litres of custard sounds like your dream meal plan, extreme athlete Ross Edgley's 'Tiger Shark Bulk' might be the diet for you.
In his new documentary 'Shark Vs. Ross Edgley', Ross takes on Earth's most formidable predators on their own turf.
While trying to swim faster than a Mako or out-jump a Great White might seem impossible, Ross' biggest challenge didn't require any exercise at all.
Ross polished off a 41,103 calorie feast including pizzas, burgers, two full English breakfasts, and seven litres of custard - all to try and go meal-for-meal with a tiger shark, which is also known as the 'trash can' of the sea.
Ross told MailOnline: 'Fasting is quite trendy now, but I think we humans could learn a lot from a shark's primitive fasting and feasting.'
Ross says he got the idea for the challenge while swimming 1,792 miles around the circumference of the UK
During his 'Tiger Shark Bulk', Ross consumed more than 40,000 calories in 24 hours and piled on 10kg (22lbs). You can see him before eating (right) and after (left)
The inspiration to test himself against sharks came while Ross was swimming the circumference of the UK.
Ross was followed by a basking shark, a harmless but gigantic plankton-eating shark, which swam alongside him for miles at a time.
'I'm not a bad swimmer, I have a few world records, but this shark just took one flick of its tale to 20 of my stokes,' he said.
'When you're looking at the best swimmers in the world you only have to look at the apex predator, and so this fascination turned into a bit of an obsession.'
For an athlete interested in achieving peak biological function, it is easy to see why sharks might trigger such a fixation.
Sharks are such uniquely effective predators that they have survived four of the planet's five mass extinction events.
Extreme athlete Ross Edgley (pictured) is no stranger to intense competition, but taking on sharks as part of his new documentary was 'on a whole other level'
While swimming around the UK, Ross was followed by a basking shark and was fascinated by its natural grace and power
Scientists believe that the first sharks emerged around 420 million years ago, meaning they have been around for longer than both trees and the rings of Saturn.
And while the human body is composed of a measly 40-45 per cent muscle, sharks are 65 per cent muscle and don't even have bones to slow them down.
From the Great White's 10ft vertical 'Polaris Jump' to the Mako's 45 mph (72kmph) top speed, this lets them achieve some of the most impressive athletic feats in nature.
So, even for someone used to tackling the impossible, Ross was under no illusions about his chances of beating a shark on its home turf.
'I knew I was doomed to fail against any shark,' he says.
'You're just a naked ape going up against an apex predator, if I could close that gap ever so slightly that would be amazing.'
However, of all sharks' incredible capabilities, the one that might be hardest for a human to replicate is the amazing eating habits of the tiger shark.
Ross says: 'Tiger sharks will migrate for thousands of miles without food but then when it finds a whale carcass or a turtle shell it is able to just gorge.'
Known as the trash cans of the sea, tiger sharks will eat almost anything from crabs and venomous sea snakes to chunks of sharks unfortunate enough to be nearby.
Tiger sharks can eat so much in a single sitting that the food will fill up their stomach completely and collect in their throats until it can be digested.
In his latest documentary, Ross tries to replicate sharks' amazing abilities, including trying to match the 10-15ft vertical leap of the Great White Shark
By storing that huge meal as fat in their livers, these incredible ocean carnivores are able to go months in between meals as they travel.
To replicate the tiger sharks' 'famine and feast' diet in the lab, Ross tried to purge his body of nutrients before seeing how many calories he could consume in 24 hours.
For 24 hours, Ross fasted and expended the last of his body's resources by spending up to 16 hours in a heat chamber at Loughborough University.
'That 24 hours trying to deplete as much as possible was the hardest,' Ross says.
'You can't sleep because you're so hungry and your body starts cramping because you're so depleted of water and electrolytes.'
But once his long fast was over, just like a tiger shark, Ross gorged himself on a meal fit for an apex predator.
Ross says: 'It was all scientific and systematic so immediately we had to replenish water and electrolytes.
'Then it was vitamins and minerals so we made a "hulk smoothie" with greens and double cream and ice cream - it's amazing!'
However, after polishing off almost 3,000 calories in sports drinks and smoothies, Ross says his 'taste buds went off to a very strange place.'
Known as the 'trash can' of the sea, Tiger Sharks can eat so much in a single meal that food actually overflows their stomachs and piles up in their throat
'I was dehydrated, but I also needed calories, so custard seemed like the logical choice and I just saw off seven litres.'
That was quickly followed by two of his mum's 3,000-calorie cheesecakes before Ross got started with his main meals.
And with well over 30,000 calories still to go, Ross started to get creative with his consumption.
Ross says: 'My favourite was taking a 12" baguette and then wrapping it in a pizza like a calzone, it was amazing.'
During his 24-hour feeding frenzy, Ross piled on 10kg (22lbs) in weight - replacing everything he'd lost in the fast and an additional 12 per cent gain.
Although Ross didn't eat so much that it wouldn't fit in his stomach, when the time was up he still felt like he had come pretty close to meeting the tiger shark's record.
However, much to his surprise, the documentary team soon discovered that he hadn't even come close.
To see how well he had done, Ross joined leading shark experts to record the bite size of a Tiger Shark. In this picture you can see a piece of ballistics gel which a tiger shark has taken a chunk out of
Ross joined leading tiger shark expert Dr Mike Heithaus in the Bahamas to work out just how much a Tiger Shark could eat.
By letting a shark take a bite from a 'giant lollipop', Ross and Dr Heithaus calculated how much food they could consume in just one bite.
Based on their measurements, if a tiger shark took a full bite from a blubbery whale carcass, it could consume 20,000 calories in a single bite.
Ross says: 'There I was thinking I'd done well with 40,000 and it turns out the tiger shark would have beaten that in two bites!'
Comparing their body weights to the number of calories they can eat in a single day, Ross managed to consume about 28 per cent of what a Tiger Shark can put away.
However, although he didn't managed to out eat a Tiger Shark, Ross says the challenge wasn't without its upsides.
Ross says he was fairly confident he could give Tiger Sharks a run for their money when it came to putting away calories
By looking at the size of the bite, the team calculated that tiger sharks could consume 20,000 calories of whale blubber in a single mouthful
One of the most interesting, and potentially most surprising outcomes, was the absence of any of the usual digestive 'complications' you might expect after eating 40,000 calories in one sitting.
Ross says: 'If you went out and smashed a massive curry or something like that there would be repercussions.
'But what was so interesting is that, because I was so depleted going into it, all of the food I had was just assimilated.'
During his fast in the heat chamber, Ross says his skin began to feel 'paper thin' while his face became gaunt and hollowed.
As he began eating, Ross describes how his muscles filled up 'like a sponge' so fast that he could literally see the veins begin to swell in his arms.
And, while it might have been an odd way of going about proving it, Ross says there are some important scientific lessons to be learned from his efforts.
He says: 'The idea was also to use a bit of a spectacle as a Trojan Horse to bring shark science to a new audience.'
'Sharks are so fascinating, their physiology, their behaviour, their eating habits are so complex and intricate; I think it important people start to understand that.'
Ross says he hopes seeing just how impressive sharks are in comparison to a human will inspire more respect for these amazing creatures.
Ross says we might be able to learn something from the Tiger Shark's diet habits by getting in touch with our hunger and thinking about what foods our bodies really need
He even believes that humans might be able to help some useful sporting lessons by looking at tiger sharks.
While Ross says that the 'Tiger Shark Bulk' is already becoming a bit of a joke in the fitness community, it is the shark's capacity to fast which could be more useful.
'For so much of our human history that's how we've lived but now that we've got a fridge and a freezer we can just go to.
'But looking at how sharks migrate, hunt, and eat I think it would be really good to tap back into that.'
Just as Ross craved water and vitamins after his long fast, he thinks that by becoming more familiar with hunger we might be able to choose more nutritious meals.
'When you've been fasting or you've been through a huge workout it's amazing how you will just appreciate a basic bowl of porridge oats rather than a massive chocolate bar,' he added.
Shark Vs. Ross Edgley premieres on Nat Geo WILD on 22 July at 8pm.