Make your own. Dosed to you.
Every store-bought electrolyte gives everyone the same dose. But sweat sodium varies tenfold between people — 200 to 2,000 mg per liter. So the right recipe isn't a label; it's yours. Here's how to build it, and how the big brands actually compare.
Get your exact number, free →Store-bought, compared honestly.
A hard hour of hot exercise can cost 1,500–1,900 mg of sodium. Here's what one serving of the popular options actually replaces — every number from the manufacturer's own label — against a typical 1,100 mg session. Your number may be far higher.
| Per serving | Sodium | Potassium | Magnesium | Covers Na |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your typical session | 1,100 | 315 | 300 | target |
| Homemade (this recipe) | 1,100 | 315 | 300 | 100% |
| LMNT Recharge · 1 stick | 1,000 | 200 | 60 | 91% |
| Redmond Re-Lyte · 1 scoop | 810 | 400 | 50 | 74% |
| Liquid I.V. · 1 stick | 500 | 370 | 0 | 45% |
| Skratch Sport · 1 scoop | 400 | 80 | 80 | 36% |
| Nuun Sport · 1 tablet | 300 | 150 | 25 | 27% |
| Gatorade · 12 fl oz | 160 | 50 | 0 | 15% |
Milligrams per serving, from each brand's published label. “Covers Na” = the share of a 1,100 mg sodium session one serving replaces. Full sourcing and the physiology on the science page. Want your real target instead of the 1,100 mg average? Run the calculator →
The recipe — one session.
For a typical 1,100 mg sodium session. Into a flavor base plus 20–34 oz of water, sipped across the effort:
Why the little bit of sugar in the base matters: your gut absorbs sodium and water fastest through the sodium-glucose co-transporter (SGLT1), which only switches on when a little glucose is present — the same principle behind WHO oral-rehydration salts. Skip all-artificial sweetener and you skip the absorption boost. The physiology, plain-language →
Make it once. Scoop it daily.
Mixing a fresh drink every session is fiddly. Blend a month at once — the ratio locks in, so one level scoop is accurate without a scale:
Unrefined salt (Redmond, Celtic, sea) carries 60+ trace minerals that refined table salt is stripped of — use it. And re-run your number after a big fitness or season change; your sweat rate moves.
The cost, plainly.
At bulk, your minerals cost pennies a session; with a real-food base like Skratch it lands around $1.50–2 a session — dosed to your actual number, not an average. Pre-mixed convenience runs far more per session, and most people who switch save $700+ a year while covering potassium and magnesium that most tabs skip entirely.
Your sweat isn't the average.
Neither should your drink be. Start with your free number.
Keep reading
Why salt, not just water
Your brain has a salt sensor (the OVLT). Water alone won't reset it. The primary sources, in plain language.
What it actually misses
Pick what you use now — LMNT, Nuun, Gatorade — and see the exact gap, and the pennies that close it.
Your performance stack
Caffeine, creatine, bicarbonate, beta-alanine, beetroot — the five with real evidence, ranked for your sport.