I switched from Ironman Perform to Osmo..question

Hi All,

Last few years I used only Ironman Perform to hydrate on the bike. I would put three scoops in a 24 oz bottle which provided 210 calories. I would then supplement on long
rides with an additional 100/150 calories of solid food or gels(solids where either Z Bars by Cliff or Honey Stinger Waffles).

I did my first IM last year and nutrition wise it was a bust. I got pretty nauseous during the run. I also noticed that with IM Perform on longer
training rides, after three hours I would become terrible parched just drinking the IM perform and need water desperately.

So I switched over to OSMO to give it a try. My plan is one bottle per hour on long rides and if I finish that bottle to supplement with water per hour. My question is, it would seem if I need/like around 300/350 calories per hour and Osmo is only around 70 calories what would people recommend for calories that will not mess up long runs. I feel as if all of a sudden I will be eating more now that I am not getting those calories from the bottle.

I am not doing an IM this year but am doing a half.

Thanks in advance!

The primary ingredient in OSmo is sucrose, which is table sugar. It tastes sweeter when exercising, hence the low calories per bottle - if they put more in your drink would taste too sweet for you.

You might want to consider a maltodextrine based product for your longer rides. Maltodextrine is not as sweet, so you can have more of it per bottle, essentially.

I use Osmo as well and the key thing with the science behind Osmo is similar to Skratch so you keep hydration in the bottle then eat calories. I have been using different bars but they also allow you to eat chews/blocks. But make sure you do not over concentrate the bottle or else it will mess up the osmolality of the drink and the food calories and make it hard to digest the calories and use them. Check out there site for some insight on how to use it to race. I am still experimenting with what to eat and calories per hour but in my 3 hour rides/30 minute run bricks I have used a bottle an hour and a cliff bar an hour and have never felt full during the run. That is what I was worried about. https://osmonutrition.com/science/ Check out there blog too https://osmonutrition.com/how-to-implement-osmo-products-into-triathlon-racing-and-training/

Why on earth wouldn’t you have at least 1 bottle of water on the bike as well? Supplement those lost calories with a couple gels/bar/blocks…anything. I’ve also read that if you’re taking in gels you need water with them in order to properly digest the sugar.

Holy crap, if anything I need water just to rinse all the ‘sugar taste’ out of my mouth every so often.

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is there any real difference between scratch and osmo?

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Not sure but I don’t thnk much if any. Stacy and Lim had a “falling out” and Stacey left to create Osmo. The big thing that Osmo has is a women’s only product that they designed which is pretty cool. I am not a woman so I do not know if it’s good but one of the pro women on my tri team swears by it. And for the person above asking about a bottle of water and using gels that defeats the purpose of the science behind this stuff. I was skeptical at first as well and I still have to test it at an HIM race simulation but at IM watts my body has been able to digest cliff bars and not feel full or bloated after the bike. I will test out tomorrow on a 4 hour ride/30 minute run. If you have any more questions shoot me over a PM or ask on here and I will try to help you out! I have done a decent amount of research on Osmo.

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I had some left over of each and mixed them so save storage space in my pantry. Horrible idea. Next two weeks of workouts tasted like something died in my mouth.

I never recognized the definite added sweetness until the poster mentioned it above though…

Try infinit, no need to mess around with additional food on the bike and it tastes great. It’s malto based like another poster suggested

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called infinit…they include Whey. I can’t digest whey.

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so bot Osmo and Scratch are not Malo?

I was referring to using water with the Perform, gels, blocks. I would wager that the lack of any plain water had something to do with the problems he had.

My wife was one of the testers for Osmo a couple years ago, so by default I got schooled on its science. Not my cup of tea for racing, but it was fantastic when I had food poisoning and couldn’t keep anything else down (even water).

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Not my cup of tea for racing, but it was fantastic when I had food poisoning and couldn’t keep anything else down (even water).

Since you know the science, etc… what do you race with?

I’ve been trying to make a Skratch program work and I’m not really feeling it.

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You can make your own mix and not add whey.

Ahh got ya! Sorry for the mix up. I am a bit worried about it in hard efforts and running. But I haven’t had issues yet. And it tastes good. Still experimenting but so far so good!

I’ve been trying to make a Skratch program work and I’m not really feeling it.

It’s great for training where you can carry your own snacks and food/portables.

Agreed, challenging for actual triathlon HIM/IM racing. For olympic or shorter, not anyone of us really need more than 1 bottle of hydration anyways on the bike.

For HIM, I’ve set it up so I have three bottles with skratch on the bike ready to go and eat gels/chews to get approx 1gm carb/1kg body weight which is relatively easy for me to do given I’m 65-66kg racing weight so not a ton to carry on bike.

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I’m more concerned with full distance and not wanting to stop at special needs.

I’m trying to KQ at IMWI and the logistics of all those bottles is crazy. I just don’t see it working.

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For sure. Do what you gotta do. Sounds like concentrated Infinite and water along the course with salt tabs your way to go bro.

called infinit…they include Whey. I can’t digest whey.

They include whey only if you want whey. It’s “infinit” because they will formulate any of the infinite combinations that you want.

I used Osmo exclusively on the bike at Kona. Three bottles to start and then reload at special needs. I ate bars, chews and bananas.

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Logella,

Did you need to supliment with water?
Where you aiming for around 300 calories
Per hour?

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