The Truth About Sweat & Electrolytes

We recently shared some of the science behind how we created WakeWater Electrolytes, highlighting the importance and functions of our key electrolytes: sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and chloride.

Understanding the importance of these electrolytes, and how they work together to keep us functioning and feeling our best was crucial when it came to creating our own. Yet the more we learned about electrolytes and their benefits, the more we started to wonder, how often do we really need to replenish them?

To answer this question, we needed to start with another: When do we lose the most electrolytes?

Unsurprisingly, we found that most electrolytes were lost during physical activity and exercise through our sweat. But why? For decades, electrolyte drink manufacturers have worked relentlessly to associate their products with sports and exercise, proclaiming to be the best solution for hydration. But when’s the last time you remember a big company explaining how that actually works and the science behind electrolyte loss from sweat? Probably never.

The truth is everyone is different, we might sweat a little or we might sweat a lot, but regardless of the amount, we are losing electrolytes. Sweat is our bodies natural way of cooling down, and though it’s mainly water, it also contains key electrolytes like sodium, chloride, magnesium, potassium, and calcium. Generally speaking, the more intense our exercise is, the higher our sweat electrolyte content is. The same is also true for how hot our environment is, in a hotter, more humid environment our bodies need to cool down more, resulting in more sweat and more lost electrolytes.  

Though it varies from individual to individual, it’s generally accepted that on average we lose about 1.5 liters of sweat after 1 hour of moderate to intense physical activity. This amount can be doubled in hotter temperatures, and in some cases even quadrupled for professional athletes and in other instances of extreme physical exertion.

In each liter of sweat, we lose the most sodium and chloride, followed by potassium, calcium, and magnesium in smaller amounts. In one liter of sweat we can lose anywhere between:

•        460-1840mg of Sodium
•        710-2840mg of Chloride
•        160-390mg of Potassium
•        0-36mg of Magnesium
•        0-120mg of Calcium
  

It doesn’t take more than a couple seconds of looking at the nutritional facts to realize most “electrolyte” drinks don’t even come close to these amounts. With WakeWater Electrolytes we wanted to change this, providing an electrolyte drink that can actually keep up with your electrolyte loss, not just say that it could. With 800mg of sodium, 800mg of chloride, 400mg of potassium, 50mg of magnesium, and 50mg of calcium in each serving of WakeWater Electrolytes, we give you plenty of electrolytes without overdoing anything so that hydrating still makes sense even for your shorter, less intense exercise.

To learn more about WakeWater Electrolytes, visit the page below or send us an email to have any of your own questions answered. 

WakeWater Electrolytes - WakeWater Beverage Co