# Lion metabolism

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lion-metabolism/118272>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 10, 2002, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lion-metabolism/118272 "2002-07-10T17:33:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2002, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lion-metabolism/118272/1 "2002-07-10T17:33:12Z")

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Lions in the wild gorge themselves once a week or so, then sleep up to 20 hours a day the rest of the time. If I ate and slept that much I’d weigh 900 pounds and wouldn’t be able to move, let alone chase down zebras and gazelles. So how do they do it?