Electrolytes: when water alone isn’t enough
Sweat carries more than water out of your body. It also contains sodium and smaller amounts of other electrolytes. This guide explains what electrolytes are, what happens when you sweat and when water may be enough — and when it may not be.
What is an electrolyte?
An electrolyte is a mineral that carries an electric charge when dissolved in water. Sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium and chloride are some of the main electrolytes in the body.
The name sounds technical, but the principle is simple. Nerves communicate through electrical signals, muscles contract and relax, and water moves between different parts of the body. Charged minerals are involved in all of these processes.
The concentrations of sodium, potassium and other dissolved particles help determine how water is distributed between blood, tissues and cells.
The sodium-potassium pump
Every nerve signal and muscle contraction depends on charged particles moving across cell membranes.
Cells maintain different concentrations of sodium and potassium on either side of their membranes: more potassium inside and more sodium outside. A microscopic molecular machine called the sodium-potassium pump works continuously to maintain this difference.
When a nerve cell is activated, channels in its membrane open. Ions move across the membrane and create an electrical signal that travels along the nerve. The pump then helps restore the original balance, preparing the cell for the next signal.
In working muscles, variations of this electrical cycle are repeated again and again. It is cell biology happening in real time with every step, pedal stroke and lift.
What do you lose when you sweat?
Sweat is not pure water. Its main electrolyte is sodium, together with chloride and smaller amounts of potassium, magnesium and calcium.
How much fluid and sodium a person loses varies considerably. Exercise intensity, temperature, humidity, acclimatisation, body size, clothing, session length and individual biology can all affect sweat rate and composition.
That is why one athlete may finish a summer run with white salt marks across her kit while another never does. Two women can complete the same session and lose very different amounts of fluid and sodium.
When is water enough?
For many shorter sessions at moderate intensity and in mild conditions, water together with a normal diet may be sufficient. There is no universal point at which everyone suddenly needs an electrolyte product.
The question becomes more relevant during long sessions, hot or humid conditions, heavy sweating, repeated training sessions or events where substantial fluid and sodium losses occur.
Your session, environment and sweat rate matter more than a generic rule printed on the side of a bottle.
The thirst trap
Drinking too little during a long, hot effort can leave you with a significant fluid deficit. But drinking excessive amounts of plain water can create a different problem.
During prolonged exercise, consuming more fluid than the body loses can dilute the sodium concentration in the blood and contribute to exercise-associated hyponatraemia. This is a potentially serious condition. Taking sodium does not make overdrinking safe.
The aim is not to drink as much as physically possible. It is to use a fluid strategy suited to the duration, conditions and your individual losses.
Authorised health claims
The following health claims are authorised under Regulation (EU) No 432/2012 for foods that contain the required amounts of these minerals:
- Magnesium contributes to electrolyte balance.
- Magnesium contributes to normal muscle function.
- Potassium contributes to normal muscle function.
- Potassium contributes to the normal functioning of the nervous system.
The Daily Performance provides 500 mg potassium (25% NRV) and 193 mg magnesium (51% NRV) per daily serving. These amounts meet the conditions for the authorised health claims above. The formula also contains 500 mg Himalayan pink salt, which contributes sodium and chloride.
Do I need an electrolyte product on rest days?
Your body needs electrolytes every day, but replacement needs vary with training, temperature, sweat losses and the rest of your diet.
The Daily Performance contains a considered combination of electrolytes for active women: potassium, magnesium, sodium and chloride. This makes it well suited as a daily electrolyte supplement around training — including when the routine needs to work over time, not only during individual hard sessions.
Aren’t sports drinks the same thing?
Not necessarily. Traditional sports drinks usually provide carbohydrates alongside fluid and sodium. The carbohydrates supply fuel, while the drink also contributes to fluid and electrolyte intake.
Dedicated electrolyte products may contain little or no carbohydrate. Which option fits depends on whether your session requires fluid and electrolytes alone or additional carbohydrate as fuel.
Why Himalayan pink salt?
Himalayan pink salt is primarily sodium chloride. The pink colour comes from small amounts of minerals, including iron, but these trace amounts are nutritionally negligible in a normal serving.
It is not magic salt, and we will not pretend that it is. Its role in The Daily Performance is practical: it contributes sodium and chloride to the formula.
The electrolytes in The Daily Performance
We selected well-documented mineral forms in meaningful amounts: 500 mg potassium from potassium citrate, 193 mg magnesium from magnesium bisglycinate and 500 mg Himalayan pink salt per daily serving.
Magnesium bisglycinate and potassium citrate are soluble forms that work well in a daily formula. The amounts of magnesium and potassium meet the conditions for the authorised EU claims relating to electrolyte balance, muscle function and the normal functioning of the nervous system.
Together, they make The Daily Performance a strong daily electrolyte foundation for active women. During very long sessions, intense heat or heavy sweat losses, individual fluid and sodium requirements may be higher.
- Commission Regulation (EU) No 432/2012, authorised health claims made on foods. eur-lex.europa.eu
- Baker LB. Sweating Rate and Sweat Sodium Concentration in Athletes. Sports Medicine 2017;47(Suppl 1):111–128
- Barnes KA et al. Normative data for sweating rate, sweat sodium concentration, and sweat sodium loss in athletes. Journal of Sports Sciences 2019;37(20):2356–2366
- Hew-Butler T et al. Statement of the Third International Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia Consensus Development Conference. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine 2015;25(4):303–320
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