Tjoelker recommends these tablets to the athletes she works with, many of whom play tennis. Plus, Adelson uses them to help cure hangovers. Former Strategist senior writer and marathoner Karen Iorio Adelson likes that they aren’t loaded with sugar, unlike overly sweet sports drinks.

Unlike the powders here, which dissolve readily with a little stirring or shaking, the tablet takes a few minutes to fully dissolve, and it turns water effervescent. One tablet has four grams of carbs and 330 milligrams of sodium. I’ve written about these nifty hydration tablets before, noting how I’ll pop one in my water bottle on a hike, or just sip throughout the workday when I’m feeling sluggish. If you’re not doing intense exercise and don’t need those extra carbohydrates that you’d find in the Skratch Labs mix above, consider these flavored tablets from Nuun. I also combed our archives to find the electrolyte powders that we’ve tested and reviewed and included them in this list. I spoke to five experts - a mix of dietitians, nutritionists, and coaches - about the various mixes, powders, and tablets that they use themselves and recommend for exercises and daily hydration. ) You may also want to pay attention to nutrition labeling on sports drinks if you’re not exercising so intensely, since you may not need or want the added sugars or carbohydrates that many of them have.įor those times when you do need more electrolytes, we’ve got you covered. (It depends on each person, Myers says, but the general goal for endurance athletes is 60 to 100 grams of carbs per hour during exercise. “In general, if your workout is longer than an hour and 15 minutes - depending on duration and intensity - you need to take carbs in,” says Andrea Myers, a doctor of physical therapy and avid runner and cyclist. Once we use up those stores, we hit the wall. “Bonking” - a term athletes often use - “is when you use up all of your carbohydrate stores in your muscles,” says Tjoelker. If you’re doing long, intense workouts, you’ll want to look for electrolyte supplements with carbohydrates. “Somebody running outside in the heat and humidity for less than an hour could definitely benefit from an electrolyte drink during their run,” says Baumann. It’s the days when we do find ourselves sweating more that we may need a little extra help.

“I’m always going to encourage people just to have a variety of foods in their diet and a balanced diet because that’s the primary source of where we will be getting our electrolytes,” says registered dietitian Kaleigh Tjoelker. Not everyone needs to be tearing open packets of electrolyte powders all day, however. These electrolytes and others are essential to keeping our bodies working properly, and an imbalance can not only make us feel terrible but can sometimes have serious consequences for our health. “The main types of electrolytes that we lose through sweat are sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium,” says registered dietitian Kristy Baumann, and of those, sodium is the most prevalent. Photo-Illustration: The Strategist Photos: Retailersįor anyone exercising and sweating a lot, it’s important to not just hydrate by drinking water regularly but to replenish your electrolytes, too.

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