funtrials

Good luck at the trial!

I like your positive outlook on life.

So your average, typical, median body fat % is likely around the 9% mark (but only god knows), I suppose? That quite impressive. How do you think your (say 9%) compares to Dougie and Bou? What if you were to (not that you need to, mind you) drop it to say 7%....would that be better for regular trials, and/or overall health, or not? What about 11%?

Sea salt, obviously.

I'm not round, in fact, I have the body of a GOD (unfortunately, it's Buddha.)

Excellent info, as per usual. Thanks. Good point about eating at REGULAR times, so your body does not store fat. I've never really thought about it that way. I'll definitely try to stick to a regular schedule. And small/frequent meals, like you advise. I'll generally go with your 6-13% athlete figure as a goal to shoot for. Thanks. But what about a 46 year old? What about my 70+ year old dad? What about pre-teens like Nigel Dabster? (Ok, ok, I've never met him, but judging from the intellectual-level of his posts, to be fair, he's probably a couple years OLDER than that.) You wrote "would need 1750 just to lay in bed. If you want to start moving around a little then this needs to increase as your resting metabolic rate (RMR) only covers the amount of energy required to keep essential functions ticking over (heart, brain etc)." But on some non-trial weekends I just lie on the couch in front of the TV working out by doing a lot of "remote-control curls", so I don't really NEED my brain to work, so I'm going to feel free to eat fewer calories on those days than what is recommended to maintain my RMR.

billy, I just added "buy a banana" to my trials checklist. Thanks.

If you listen real real carefully, I bet you can almost HEAR your competition getting fatter. Must be a good feeling.

Oh yeah! Well there's "more of her to love" (literally) than YOUR girlfriend!

I love how some people on the very same thread refer to stone, others refer to pounds, and still others refer to kg.! It's kind of if like English, Spanish and German were all spoken on the same thread. To communicate better, from now on I suggest we all start referring to everything, when referring to weight, in the SAME measurements....in CHEESEBURGERS (I prefer food over rocks, don't you?) I weigh 112.36 cheeseburgers, for instance. I have a body fat of 25.347 cheeseburgers. To reply to Nigel Dabster's post above, my average dry-stool weight is 1.945 cheeseburgers (which is of course well under the median weight for a world-class trials rider - see an old thread that I, of course, started - so I'm pleased.) My GasGas weighs 93.444 cheeseburgers (but if FEELS like about 500 cheeseburgers when it's lying on top of me after messing up on a 6 foot...oh hell, 1.96 meter....rock ledge.) My girlfriend weighs 255.04 cheeseburgers (before she's eaten any, uh, cheeseburgers that day, that is.) We could also start a new consistent measurement system for *length*, etc. as well. Inches/feet/miles are just too dang hard to work with! Quick, in your mind convert 1.1 miles to inches...can't do it can ya! See! Comedian Jay Leno was once referring to the length of something, (right after he'd been making fun of a Pamela Anderson naughty video, for some reason which escapes me), and he held up both hands a ways apart and said "it's about one Tommy Lee". The audience roared, but I don't know why. We'd need a conversion chart. For instance, 1 "Tommy" = 10 "Funtrials" etc. Females, while gossiping/bragging on dating web sites, would refer to their date's Tommy-to-cheeseburger ratio. That's much much more OBJECTIVE than "he's cute", or "think Pee Wee Herman on a really really cold day", etc., so I definitely like it. We guys already do a sort of version of this for the yumminess of their ladies, basically. For instance, my girlfriend is officially (they have interactive web sites to determine this kind of thing, thank god) 0.0034 "Britney's". Yes, I'm a very, very lucky man.

Thanks for your feedback. Folks, isn't BMI the most-used indicator for ideal weight? That's good. However, NFL wide-receivers (not hefty linemen, etc.) are for my height (a bit under 6 feet 2 inches) at an average weight of 203 pounds, and they are in better shape than over 95% of the population. The BMI index for that height say it's good to be as low as 150.....150!!!! Would you rather be 150 (and arguably no muscle mass), or 203 with a low body fat as well, and lots of muscle. They obviously have more muscle mass than the average person. So if a person has no real additional muscle mass then I think BMI (which, again, is NOT body-fat percentage) is a good indicator. My doctor has a BMI chart PERMANENTLY ON THE WALL in his office. But maybe he's more of a Witch Doctor, I don't know.

Yes, dry-weight, consistency, color, feel, caloric content, frequency....I kid, I kid!

Scott (toughest one-day trial around)....Scottish (toughest trial in the world)....marathon....so I'm thinkin' the phrase "couch potato" does NOT describe you, correct? You COULD just sit around and watch TV like a relative of mine does, you know. But seriously, to not lose weight during the zillion mile Scottish 6 Day you must "fuel up" (as I think you say) quite a bit during those 6 days, no? What is a good approximation of the amount of calories per hour of riding a rider needs to consume during that trial?

I've been 37% I believe, at one point in my life, so I hear you on that!

Raga looks about maybe 7-8% body fat (not to be confused with BMI, by the way) in a video I've seen of him at Jordie's swimming pool. Should I shoot for that, or should I shoot for MORE than that because at around 24 years old he's half my age? I've heard a person around 46 years old needs to ideally add some % to their "youthful ideal body-weight" figure as they age. For my 71+- year old dad should it be even more body fat than for me? I'll let him know after I get responses....he's now training 5 days per week (cue Rocky XVIII theme-song.) Also, if down the road I ever want to GAIN body fat how exactly do you folks actually recommend that I go about doing that and...oh...wait....nevermind....(an image of 2 golden-arches just flashed across my mind)....nevermind. Also, why not just shoot for basically eliminating body fat altogether like singer Iggy Pop on free heroin day? Health reasons, I believe? Yes, riding and endurance/strength training and diet are all at least as important as body fat, arguably. I appreciate the feedback you guys give me and all of us on this great forum!

Balderdash! None of my local competitors who are overweight can beat me in a trials and...wait...uh...hmmmm.....oh nevermind...(now where's that "delete post" key?)....

Impressive. I too lose a ton of weight after a long ride! Riding is the key, like you folks have been saying. I wonder how much of that is water weight loss, however, and not fat loss. If I eat the exact amount of food (and do my usual activity level) the next day I gain more weight that day than I do on non-rode-the-day-before days, so I think I need to take billy's advice and drink more water during a trials/practice.

I like the logic! I've never seen a cheetah on a trials bike so I'm religiously avoiding eating gazelles, too. :-)

Lance Armstong and Michael Phelps are apparently 6% or less....but they don't have to physically handle a 150 pound piece of high-torque machinery over the toughest terrain that any motorized vehicle traverses, like trials riders routinely do. What percent body-fat are Dougie, Bou, Raga, Fuji, etc.? Or better yet, what % would they ideally LIKE to be? At 46 years-old, what body-fat percentage would be the very very best for me, trials-wise? Is it closer to the body-fat percentage of Iggy Pop on free heroin day, or documentary-maker Michael Moore on free Hot Fudge Sunday day? I'm tracking my body fat percentage occasionally (I'm not really looking at my WEIGHT, per se, any more, if you can believe that!) and would like to find the best goal to shoot for.

For what it's worth, HEART-health wise, my doctor said that trials riding is not great exercise....I was surprised when he said that. He's said it twice now. Intense cardio is what he recommends for heart-health, at or above 130 beats per minute (for a 46 year-old, that is.) Heart-health is certainly one factor for us to consider. He also recommended yoga for trials (balances, stretches, etc.) Interestingly, I only see a tiny tiny percentage of yoga-class attendees and aerobics-class attendees who are MEN. Those classes have lots and lots of well-toned *women* in them...hmmm, but now that I think about it, maybe I SHOULD attend those classes... So I'm unsure if those type of classes are best (not just good, but BEST) for men, who want endurance and strength (and wouldn't mind extra muscle size, as well), like many trials riders do. I'm not particularly, as such, trying to reduce the fat in my hips and butt to fit into a smaller dress size...

...yes, from what I understand, reducing body fat (like billy says above), is the best way to get "cut" if you already have plenty of muscles. I'm taking CLA pills (I think it's "conjugated linoleic acid"....or something like that) to help burn fat. But when I don't *exercise* I simply can't lose much fat (unless I reduce to 1200 calories per day, which worked for me years ago but is NOT the way to go, I believe.) Diet AND exercise seems to be what works for me best.

Apparently Twinkies have a shelf-life of DECADES.

Well so much for my Twinkie diet. Dang. Ok, based on this forum's advice I just went out and bought some quite healthy rolled oat food for "carbing-up" at a trial. It takes pretty decent, too. Lots of carbs...no fructose and no items that I can't even pronounce, unlike most processed foods. Powerbars are now no longer a part of my vocabulary. I'm doing more reps while weight-lifting (for endurance), thanks to billycraig. On my shopping-list spread-sheet I'm up to about 44% (roughly) of my diet being protein (I want to build muscle & lose more weight!), about 33% carbs, and about 23% of calories from good fats. 1.5 grams/gov't serving of saturated fats (or less!), and no trans fats. Lookout Toni and Adam! Two foods that I hear alot about and am buying way more of, for muscle growth and weight-loss, are egg-whites (buy in liquid form) and oatmeal (as far as whole grains go, good amounts of protein - I'm cutting out Corn Flakes completely.) You guys might want to include those in your diet more? Egg-whites have more protein per calorie than just about any food in the world. My food groups break-down roughly as follows: Veggies: 23% Whole grains/rice: 20% Meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, and nuts: 20%...or more if I can't meet my high protein requirements. Fruits: 18% Oils: 13% No-fat dairy/yogurt (calcium, etc.): 6% Twinkies (is that a food group? ): 0% Any advice on this would be appreciated. I'll probably make some adjustments on my spread-sheet based on your suggestions, folks (as you can see I've already done that alot.)

I've likely mentioned before how I'm able to turn tighter now since on my '08 GasGas I removed that rubber turning-stop that's against the frame. I put a small piece of tape to (well, somewhat) keep where the fork-brace HITS the frame (now that that rubber turn-stop has been removed) from chipping the paint on the frame. It's worth it. The most experienced rider in the US National series uses that technique, and I like it. One of my riding partners balked at doing this, however.

I've never heard of that technique. Sounds interesting. I might try that. By the way, after some recent fiddling, I'm now of the opinion that THREE things (not two!) are needed for optimum trials fitness/results: 1. Getting at or near your "ideal" body-fat percentage. 2. Cardio training. 3. Weight-lifting. I left out #1 and #3 for about 3 decades, and I paid the price for doing that. I'm off to the gym to lift weights and lower my body fat percentage.