IO Genix Cyclodextrin - Carbohydrates Performance Endurance

What is IO Genix Cyclic Dextrin?

IO Genix Cyclic Dextrin is a carbohydrate powder designed to be drunk during exercise. A 25 g serving provides 24 g of carbohydrate for 95 kcal, with zero sugar. It is mixed into 400 to 500 ml of water and sipped steadily.

Highly branched cyclic dextrin, often sold under the Cluster Dextrin name, is a carbohydrate made from maize starch by an enzymatic process that yields very large, heavily branched molecules. It is not a sugar: the “of which sugars” line in the table reads 0 g, which is rare for a fast-acting carbohydrate source.

Its interesting property is a physical one. A cyclic dextrin solution has a low osmolality despite a high carbohydrate concentration, because the molecules are few in number but very large. In practice, it leaves the stomach quickly and feels less heavy than a drink loaded with simple sugars. The rest of the Spanish range is in our IO Genix aisle, and the other products in the category in our cyclic dextrin aisle.

What is in a serving of Cyclic Dextrin?

The per 100 g column is calculated from the per-serving values published by the manufacturer.

24 g of carbohydrate without a single gram of sugar is the figure that justifies the price of this kind of powder. A conventional sports drink based on simple sugars would give you the same energy with 20 g of sugars and, for a great many people, a heavy stomach after forty minutes. Here that line of the table reads zero, and that is what changes the experience on long sessions.

One point about the composition has to be flagged plainly, because the manufacturer's documentation contradicts itself. Some of its material presents the product as a single-ingredient powder; its ingredient list, however, declares two sweeteners, sucralose and acesulfame K. We go by the ingredient list, which is the reference document where composition is concerned. The powder is therefore slightly sweet to the taste, without providing sugars in the nutritional sense. If a complete absence of sweeteners matters to you, the label on the tub you receive is the authority.

Missing from the manufacturer's file: the net weight of the tub and the number of servings are not disclosed. We will not infer them. No health claim is authorised in Europe for cyclic dextrin either: we describe its physical properties and its composition, without attributing any quantified performance effect to it.

Ingredient list

Cluster Dextrin (highly branched dextrin), sweeteners (sucralose, acesulfame K).

May contain traces of GLUTEN, EGGS, MILK, FISH and SOYA.

How do you take Cyclic Dextrin?

Serving: 25 g. Liquid: 400 to 500 ml of cool water. Timing: 15 to 30 minutes before exercise, during exercise, or within the 30 minutes that follow. Frequency: one serving per hour of exercise in endurance sports. Duration: as needed, with no course to complete.

The volume of water is the parameter that decides everything here. 25 g in 500 ml gives a light drink that goes down effortlessly. The same 25 g in 250 ml gives a solution twice as concentrated, which cancels out the very advantage of the product and causes exactly the heaviness you were trying to avoid. If you take away only one instruction from this page, make it that one.

Sip small amounts every fifteen to twenty minutes rather than drinking it in one go. That holds for every sports drink, and particularly for this one, whose point is to deliver a steady supply over time.

The powder dissolves very easily, even in cold water, with no lumps and no foam. A simple shaker is enough; make your bottle up before you set off rather than attempting to mix it on the move.

It combines perfectly with an electrolyte powder in the same bottle — carbohydrate and minerals then cover both needs of a long session — and with EAAs if your last meal was a while ago. After exercise, it pairs without difficulty with a protein.

A word on the hourly amount, because the question comes up often: the manufacturer allows for one serving per hour of exercise in endurance sports, which puts the intake at around 24 g of carbohydrate per hour. That is a cautious, well-tolerated level. Experienced cyclists and trail runners often go higher, but that is built up gradually in training, never on race day: the stomach is trained like everything else.

Finally, cool water is preferable to lukewarm water, not for any physiological reason but because a lukewarm drink quickly becomes sickly after an hour of exercise. It is the kind of detail that decides whether the bottle is finished or abandoned half full.

Who is Cyclic Dextrin for, and who is it not for?

It is aimed first at efforts that last: cycling, trail running, long-distance running, swimming, combat sports, back-to-back CrossFit sessions, weight training sessions running well beyond the hour. Below sixty minutes of exercise, taking carbohydrate during the session does little for someone who has eaten normally beforehand.

It suits stomachs that are sensitive during exercise particularly well, the ones that tolerate neither gels nor very sweet drinks. That is in fact its whole reason for existing, and the only argument on which it genuinely stands apart from an ordinary maltodextrin.

The manufacturer advises against it for children, adolescents and pregnant or breastfeeding women, and asks that the recommended daily dose not be exceeded. The product may contain traces of gluten, eggs, milk, fish and soya.

What not to expect from it: this is carbohydrate, nothing else. It has no stimulant effect, does not replace electrolytes in a sweaty session, and provides no amino acids. Nor does it make you lose weight — it adds 95 kcal to your day, which is its function. If you are in a calorie deficit and your session lasts forty minutes, this product is working against you.

Cyclic dextrin or maltodextrin, which should you choose?

Both are carbohydrates derived from starch, both serve the same purpose, and there is a real difference between them — a more modest one, however, than the market would have you believe.

Maltodextrin is markedly cheaper per kilo and perfectly effective at rebuilding stores after exercise. If your use is recovery, or if you are adding carbohydrate to a mass gainer, it does the job and there is no reason to pay more.

Cyclic dextrin stands out during exercise, thanks to its low osmolality: it leaves the stomach faster and sits more lightly. It is the better choice if you have already experienced heaviness or digestive discomfort with a carbohydrate drink, and on efforts lasting several hours where you have to drink regularly.

There is a third route, waxy maize, halfway between the two in price as in behaviour. And for a short session, the most honest answer is that none of the three is necessary: a decent meal two hours beforehand is enough.

One last criterion often settles the matter between them, and it has nothing technical about it: taste. Pure maltodextrin is slightly sweet and neutral; this cyclic dextrin, sweetened, goes down better for many people over the course of a long ride. Over three hours on the bike, drinking something you can stomach counts for more than the finer points of the molecule.

Frequently asked questions

How much carbohydrate is in a serving?

24 g of carbohydrate for 95 kcal, in a 25 g serving. What makes it distinctive is the “of which sugars” line, which reads 0 g: the energy comes from a complex carbohydrate rather than from simple sugars, which changes how the drink is tolerated during exercise.

Why mix it into 400 to 500 ml?

Because that is the volume that gives the drink a concentration close to that of the body's own fluids, the condition for it to leave the stomach quickly. One serving in 250 ml cancels out that advantage and brings the product back down to the level of an ordinary sugary drink.

Does it contain sweeteners?

Yes. The ingredient list declares sucralose and acesulfame K, even though other parts of the manufacturer's documentation present the powder as a single-ingredient product. We go by the ingredient list. Neither of these two sweeteners provides calories or appears in the sugars line.

Can you take it after training?

Yes, within the 30 minutes that follow, as the manufacturer allows. For that particular use, however, a far cheaper maltodextrin will do the same job: the advantage of cyclic dextrin plays out during exercise, not after it.

Is it suitable for weight training sessions?

On long, intense sessions, yes, drunk during the session. On an hour-long session for someone who ate two hours beforehand, the intake is superfluous and simply adds 95 kcal. The criterion is how long the effort actually lasts, not the discipline.

Is it suitable for vegans?

No ingredient of animal origin appears in the list: the dextrin comes from maize starch and both sweeteners are synthetic. The manufacturer does not, however, claim vegan status, and the product may contain traces of milk and eggs from the production facility.

Can it be mixed with other powders?

Without difficulty, with electrolytes or amino acids in the same bottle. Just avoid adding a protein to it if you intend to drink it during exercise: the mixture becomes thick and loses the whole digestive tolerance advantage that justifies the purchase.

Where can you buy IO Genix Cyclic Dextrin?

The powder can be ordered from this page, and we ship throughout France and Europe. At the Vendargues shop, about ten minutes from Montpellier, we always ask the same question before recommending it: how long does your session last? Under an hour, we point the customer back towards their plate rather than towards this tub. The rest of the aisle can be browsed in our sports nutrition section.