Hydration is an often-overlooked component of sustainable weight loss. Water is essential to maintaining hydration, but simply drinking water isn’t enough. Electrolytes also play a pivotal role in helping your cells stay properly hydrating and your metabolism functioning efficiently.
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Today, we’ll discuss how you can incorporate electrolytes in your daily diet to lose weight, but before we get there, we need to talk about what electrolytes are, where you can get them, and more.
What Are Electrolytes?
Electrolytes are essential minerals—including sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, chloride, and phosphate—that carry an electric charge and regulate critical bodily functions. They maintain fluid balance, support nerve signaling, facilitate muscle contractions, and help regulate pH levels.
While electrolytes are vital for overall health, their role in weight loss is underappreciated. Proper electrolyte balance can significantly influence weight loss efforts by supporting:
- Natural energy production
- Hydration
- Exercise performance
- Muscle recovery
All of these play a crucial part in achieving and sustaining a healthy weight.
Something to keep in mind, though, is that not all electrolyte sources are the same, by that we mean that different foods (as well as different electrolyte supplements) have different amounts of these key minerals. Striking a balance between adequate water and electrolyte intake is key to hydrating your cells and keeping your metabolism running optimally.
Where Can I Find Electrolytes?
Electrolytes are found in the foods we eat, including fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, nuts, seeds, legumes, and healthy fats. You can also add additional electrolytes to your diet through various types of salt used in cooking (iodized salt, kosher salt, pink Himalayan salt, etc.) and/or dietary supplements (e.g. electrolyte powders and drinks).
Choosing the right hydration supplement can be stressful, especially if you’re new to the world of electrolyte powders and aren’t sure what separates a quality product from a subpar one. For starters, you want to look at the Supplement Facts Panel (SFP) or Nutrition Facts Panel on the back of the bottle. Make sure that the amounts of each electrolyte are clearly labeled so you know how much of each electrolyte you’re getting per serving.
Next, you want to see what form of electrolyte the product contains. Certain forms of electrolytes, such as magnesium oxide, have poor bioavailability, which means your body may not be able to digest it or absorb it efficiently. Generally speaking, look for minerals that are chelated or bound to citrate (citric acid) or malate (malic acid) as these forms offer better bioavailability compared to oxide forms and are gentler on the stomach and GI tract.
We suggest 1UP Hydration Plus, which contains a precise blend of sodium, chloride, potassium, and magnesium, in easily digestible forms to support hydration, performance and weight loss. We’ve also added several essential vitamins (B6, B12 and C) as well as other valuable hydration aids in taurine and coconut water powder.
Do I Need to Drink Electrolytes to Lose Weight?
Proper hydration is important for weight loss, as it supports metabolism, appetite control, and athletic performance. Electrolytes, particularly sodium and potassium, regulate our cells’ water balance by controlling how much fluid is retained or excreted. Dehydration, which can result from inadequate electrolyte replacement, can lead to fatigue, reduced exercise capacity, and increased hunger, all of which undermine your weight loss efforts.
When starting a reduced-calorie diet, especially a low-carb or ketogenic diet, glycogen (carbohydrate) stores in the liver and muscles are depleted.
What does this have to do with electrolytes?
Well, every gram of glycogen (carbohydrate) is stored with approximately 3–4 grams of water, so when glycogen stores start dwindling, you’ll also loss a good amount of water weight. Note: this is one of the reasons individuals adopt low-carb diets ahead of beach season, weddings, etc.
What’s not taken into account is that as your body sheds water weight, it’s also losing valuable electrolytes, particularly sodium and potassium, which can lead to headaches, muscle cramps, fatigue, irritability, and brain fog. Replenishing electrolytes, either through whole foods or electrolyte powders, can maintain hydration levels and help offset the possibility of these symptoms occurring.
When to Drink Electrolytes?
Mainstream advice is to consume electrolytes immediately before, during, and after a workout or competition. While that is great advice, the truth is that maintaining proper hydration is an all-day process.
If you try to mega-dose electrolytes 15-30 minutes before your workout, your body doesn’t have time to absorb and distribute those electrolytes in time. More than likely, you’ll end up with some serious GI distress and spend some (or all) of your workout in the bathroom.
A better approach is to make sure you’re consuming electrolytes throughout the day. This can mean adding a scoop of electrolytes into your morning glass of water, making sure to adequately salt your meals, and drinking enough fluids throughout the day.
As for how many electrolytes you need, that is highly individual as each person’s hydration requirements are different. They are affected by activity levels, height, weight, lean muscle mass, and environment. A quick way to see if you’re hydrated is to check the color of your urine. If it’s dark yellow or brown, you need to drink more fluids. If it’s clear or light yellow, then you are hydrated.
Best Electrolytes for Performance & Weight Loss
Electrolytes play a vital role in weight loss by supporting hydration, exercise performance, appetite regulation, and metabolic efficiency. Imbalances caused by restrictive diets, intense exercise, hot environments, and/or rapid water loss can lead to dehydration which will hinder progress and lead to uncomfortable symptoms.
Eating a nutritious diet full of fruits, veggies, lean proteins, healthy fats, nuts, seeds, and legumes as well as supplementing with electrolytes can help your mind and body maintain fluid balance, support a healthy metabolism, and optimize weight loss.
Hydration Plus is an expert-formulated electrolytes + hydration supplement rooted in science to help you perform better, recover quicker, and lose weight. It can be used by itself and stacked with many of our other best-selling supplements, including pre workouts, post workouts, and greens powders.
