DIY Electrolyte Mix?

[Ferrulewax]

Anyone making your own electrolyte mix? (Lmnt, tailwind, liquid IV, drip drop…) the ingredient lists are pretty simple and it seems like you can buy pretty much all of the raw ingredients online.

I was thinking about doing:
Salt (any difference between himalayan vs sea vs iodized?)
potassium chloride
magnesium (malate, oxide, citrate?)
sugar
either citric acid or powdered lime

Here’s LMNT’s and Tailwind’s ingredient list for reference:



Anyone tried it?

 

[swavescatter]

In for recipes. I’d add powdered caffeine too.

 

[180ls1]

If you are going to go through with that you may want to get a sweat test to see what you specifically are losing then calibrate it to that.

 

[LongWayAround]

I have never gone diy with the basic ingredients, but a cocktail of Optimum Nutrition BCAA "amino energy" and emergen-c. Is often my go to.

You can get the BCAA with or without caffeine and emergen-c makes a hydration formula, if you can find it.

 

[BBob]

My copy of LMNT. They tell you how to do it on their website.

For 32oz water (~3/4 tsp ttl) (you can add more or less depending on your needs or taste):

* 1/2 tsp sea salt (1000mg sodium by weight)
* 1/16 tsp NoSalt (200mg potassium chloride by weight)
* 1/4 tsp magnesium malate (60mg magnesium malate by weight)

My scaled up weights for a mid sized script bottle:

* 50gm sea salt
* 7.8gm No Salt
* 15.2gm magnesium malate

From another thread:

Fasting

I typically intermediate fast for 16 hours a day and give myself an 8 hour period to eat in.

rokslide.com

Scratch Labs says the easiest way to figure out how much you need is to simply mix a bottle and drink it while exercising hard. If while working/exercising hard it's too salty and you feel like you don't want to drink it add less next time, if not enough add more. Basically find your sweet spot tolerance level. They based that simple test on years of feeding and hydrating pro cyclists. That simple test has worked for me.

Salt (any difference between himalayan vs sea vs iodized?)

Most recipes call out for sea salt. You definitely don't need or likely won't want as much iodide as you would get by mixing with iodized salt. The cleanest but fairly expensive might be the tasty Fleur de Sel, a French sea salt collected from evaporative pools. I just use regular sea salt in my drink mix but do use Fleur de Sel at home

Are some types of salt better than others?

Learn about how to choose a salt and what to watch out for, including heavy metals, microplastics, and sourcing methods.

science.drinklmnt.com

 

[Ferrulewax]

My copy of LMNT. They tell you how to do it on their website.

For 32oz water (~3/4 tsp ttl) (you can add more or less depending on your needs or taste):

* 1/2 tsp sea salt (1000mg sodium by weight)
* 1/16 tsp NoSalt (200mg potassium chloride by weight)
* 1/4 tsp magnesium malate (60mg magnesium malate by weight)

My scaled up weights for a mid sized script bottle:

* 50gm sea salt
* 7.8gm No Salt
* 15.2gm magnesium malate

From another thread:

Fasting

I typically intermediate fast for 16 hours a day and give myself an 8 hour period to eat in.

rokslide.com

Scratch Labs says the easiest way to figure out how much you need is to simply mix a bottle and drink it while exercising hard. If while working/exercising hard and it's too salty and you feel like you don't want to drink it add less next time, if not enough add more. Basically find your sweet spot tolerance level. They based that simple test on years of feeding and hydrating pro cyclists. That simple test has worked for me.


Most recipes call out for sea salt. You definitely don't need or likely won't want as much iodide as you would get by mixing with iodized salt. The cleanest but fairly expensive might be the tasty Fleur de Sel, a French sea salt collected from evaporative pools. I just use regular sea salt in my drink mix but do use Fleur de Sel at home

Are some types of salt better than others?

Learn about how to choose a salt and what to watch out for, including heavy metals, microplastics, and sourcing methods.

science.drinklmnt.com

just looked at the LMNT website for the recipes you mentioned... WOW! they even tell you how to make different flavors. Thanks for all the detailed information

 

[Ferrulewax]

using LMNTs recipe and sourcing ingredients on amazon, it looks like I'm at about 0.09$ a serving, including freeze dried lime powder... granted that's for almost 600 servings, but most of the supplements are only sold in relatively large quantities.

total price of around 52$ for everything needed for 589 servings (depending on how much lime powder I use). I also didn't include sugar since everyone has that at home.

 

[feanor]

Yeah I was surprised when they sent an email to me showing how to replicate their recipe. Not sure why? But I like it.

 

[dirtshooter]

I was using PVL sports BCAAs with electrolytes but now I see they came out with a standalone electrolyte mix. Either way I'm just going to get diy freezie packets on amazon and make my own individual packets of electrolytes. I tried liquid IV and got a massive headache every time. Plus lemon lime is disgusting.

 

[vkngmetal]

using LMNTs recipe and sourcing ingredients on amazon, it looks like I'm at about 0.09$ a serving, including freeze dried lime powder... granted that's for almost 600 servings, but most of the supplements are only sold in relatively large quantities.

total price of around 52$ for everything needed for 589 servings (depending on how much lime powder I use). I also didn't include sugar since everyone has that at home.

What brand lime powder did you use?

 

[Clrems77]

Tag,,,thanks for the info on LMNT

 

[Ferrulewax]

What brand lime powder did you use?

Amazon.com

No idea how good it is, we will see

 

[BeaverHunter]

Amazon.com

No idea how good it is, we will see

I’d love a link to the other ingredients you bought also if that’s not too much of a pain in the ass. Would love to try making my own also. Thanks

 

[Ferrulewax]

I’d love a link to the other ingredients you bought also if that’s not too much of a pain in the ass. Would love to try making my own also. Thanks

Potassium Chloride:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00028M02Q?ref=ppx_pt2_mob_b_prod_image

Mag Malate:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B097J5Q7R3?ref=ppx_pt2_mob_b_prod_image

Sea Salt:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B074J7X1DW?ref=ppx_pt2_mob_b_prod_image

Powdered Lime (they also make powdered lemon and grapefruit. I also debated using just citric acid as it’s cheaper):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0BY8ZNV4L?ref=ppx_pt2_mob_b_prod_image

Then I plan to just add sugar for taste/energy.

I figured I will start with basically the LMNT recipe but with sugar and powdered lime instead of lime juice and stevia. I may adjust the mix depending on taste/needs as recommended above.

 

[Jason Snyder]

I also found a raspberry powder. It seems the flavorings are the most expensive component.

Amazon.com

 

[Ferrulewax]

I also found a raspberry powder. It seems the flavorings are the most expensive component.

Amazon.com

I’ve noticed the same. I honestly wonder if it would be cheaper to just use crystal light, kool aid or gatorade mix for flavor. Granted it does seem like the fruits offer some supplemental benefits

 

[Ferrulewax]

just got my supplies and did some rough calculations tonight and here is what I've come up with: I don't have a crazy accurate scale (not a drug dealer) so I used the suggested servings/nutrition facts on the packages to come up with my numbers for calculations.

For 7(ish) servings of 1tbsp/3tsp(ish) each:

12tsp Sugar- 27 cal per serving
5tsp powdered lime- 7 cal/serving
1/2tsp Potassium- 400mg of K/serving
1/2 + 1/8tsp Mag malate- 375mg mg/serving
3tsp/1tbsp Sea salt- 2430mg/serving

I think it’s important to note that this is total amount of these nutrients, not the numbers you would see on nutrition facts (i assume those are the amount absorbed/bioavailable from the mix)

again, these are rough calculation but it tastes halfway decent and I can make an insane amount for the 40$ or so that I invested- and have plenty of K and Mg for later. I like the sugar for fast energy but you could always do stevia or whatever. One serving is 34 cal, equal to eating about 4.5 gummy bears. Tailwind has 100cal/serving in some mixes, so I may increase my sugar.

I may ditch the lime powder as well unless someone can convince me it has some sort or nutrient benefits…. Seems like powerade mix or coolaid would be cheaper and taste better, not that it’s bad at all now

 

[Jason Snyder]

I’ll order my stuff next week and play with the recipe. Sure beats $1.50 per serving.

 

[5MilesBack]

I don't understand the math on those magnesium containers. It says 300g per container which is 300,000mg. Serving size has 420mg of magnesium, and shows 143 servings per container. That equals 60,060mg leaving the other 239,940mg of "something else" weight. BUT the container also says "Other ingredients: None". So if there is nothing else in the container than magnesium malate, shouldn't there be 714 servings?

 

[BeaverHunter]

I got all my items to make a batch. Went with half the amount of sugar and normal amount of a strawberry powder. Zero strawberry taste and not a hint of sweetness. Tastes salty so probably works well lol. Not sure what to do. Maybe some Gatorade or crystal light type powder but then I feel like it doesn’t make any sense why I’m not just buying and drinking that stuff. Going to mess with this more.