Electrolytes vs Water: When Plain Water Is Enough (and When It Isn't)

By Sebastian Madlangbayan, founder of Cleonse: the world's cleanest 3-ingredient organic electrolyte.

Short answer: Plain water is enough most of the time. If you're going about a normal day or doing a workout under about an hour, water and regular meals cover you. Electrolytes earn their place during long, hot or very sweaty sessions, when you lose a lot of sodium. And overdrinking water during endurance events carries real risk.

I sell an electrolyte drink, so you might expect me to tell you to drink it all day. I won't. Most of the time, water is the right call. The goal of this article is to help you tell when it isn't, so you can use electrolytes where they actually help and skip them where they don't.

What water does, and what electrolytes add

Water replaces fluid. That's most of hydration for most people. Harvard's Nutrition Source calls water the best choice for most people who have access to safe drinking water. It has zero calories, and it does the job.

Electrolytes are minerals that carry an electrical charge in your body: sodium, chloride, potassium, magnesium and calcium. When you sweat, you lose mostly water plus sodium and chloride. According to GSSI, sweat sodium and chloride typically run 10 to 90 mmol/L, while the other minerals show up in much smaller amounts.

An electrolyte drink adds sodium (and sometimes other minerals and some carbohydrate) to that water. Sodium helps your body hold onto fluid instead of passing it straight through, and it keeps your thirst going so you keep drinking. That matters when you've lost a lot. When you haven't, your regular food already supplies more than enough sodium.

Electrolytes vs water at a glance

Situation	Best choice	Why
Normal day, desk work, errands	Water	Food covers sodium; most people already eat plenty
Workout under ~60 minutes, cool conditions	Water	Losses are small; drinking to thirst works
Training over ~90 minutes	Electrolytes + water	Sodium losses add up; planned drinking helps
Hot or humid conditions, heavy sweating	Electrolytes + water	Higher sweat rates mean more sodium out
Salty sweater (white marks on clothes)	Electrolytes + water	Your sweat runs at the high end for sodium
Endurance events (marathon, triathlon, long hikes)	Electrolytes, drink to thirst	Replace sodium, and don't overdrink
Vomiting or diarrhea	Oral rehydration solution; see a doctor	Medical situation, different formula needed

When plain water is enough

Kenefick's review for the Gatorade Sports Science Institute lays out where simply drinking when you're thirsty works well: shorter exercise of less than about 60 to 90 minutes, cooler conditions and lower intensity. In those cases, your fluid losses don't build up enough to hurt you before you're done and can eat and drink normally.

That covers a lot of real life: a 45-minute lift, a morning jog, a yoga class in a normal room, a bike commute. Water is perfect for all of it. If you want something to look forward to in the morning, I put together a simple morning hydration routine, and it starts with plain water.

As for how much: Harvard's Nutrition Source points to an adequate total fluid intake of about 13 cups a day for healthy men and 9 cups for women, while stressing that needs vary from person to person and day to day. That total includes fluid from food and other drinks, not just glasses of water. Pale yellow urine and not feeling thirsty are good everyday signs you're on track.

When electrolytes earn their place

The same GSSI review says a more planned approach to drinking makes sense for longer activities over about 90 minutes, especially in the heat, plus higher intensity exercise and high sweat rates. It also points out that losing 2% or more of your body weight to dehydration is the point where endurance performance usually starts to suffer.

Those are the situations where sodium matters, because sodium is what you're losing in bulk. A few examples where I'd reach for electrolytes:

• Long training sessions. Two-hour rides, long runs, tennis tournaments, double sessions.
• Heat and humidity. Summer practices, hot yoga, outdoor work, a sauna session.
• Heavy or salty sweaters. If your shirt dries with white streaks, you're losing more sodium than average.
• Back-to-back days of hard training. Especially if you're not eating much salt.

In these cases, an electrolyte drink with real sodium does something plain water can't. A drink like Cleonse, with 500mg of sodium per stick, puts back the mineral your sweat takes most of.

The hyponatremia caveat: you can overdo plain water

This part gets left out of a lot of hydration marketing, and it's important. Exercise-associated hyponatremia happens when your blood sodium drops too low. The 2015 international consensus statement on the condition (Hew-Butler and colleagues) identified the main cause as drinking more fluid than your body can get rid of through sweat and urine. The extra fluid dilutes the sodium in your blood.

Harvard's Nutrition Source notes that very active people like triathletes and marathon runners are at risk, especially when they drink a lot of water quickly while also losing sodium in sweat. Symptoms can include headache, nausea or vomiting, confusion and, in severe cases, seizures. It's a medical emergency.

The consensus panel's advice is simple: use thirst to guide how much you drink. GSSI's Kenefick puts it even more bluntly: never drink so much that you gain weight during exercise.

One honest note about electrolyte drinks here. They help replace sodium, but they don't make overdrinking safe. Normal blood sodium sits around 135 to 145 mmol/L, and sports drinks are far more dilute than that. Drink way past thirst and you can still dilute your blood. Sodium in your bottle plus drinking to thirst is the safer combination, not sodium as a license to chug.

Sick? That's a different situation

If you're losing fluid from vomiting, diarrhea or a fever, everyday electrolyte drinks aren't the right tool. Medical oral rehydration solutions are formulated specifically for illness, with a different balance of sodium, potassium and glucose. I explain the difference in what oral rehydration solution is.

More importantly, see a doctor if you can't keep fluids down, if symptoms last more than a day or two, or if you notice signs of serious dehydration like dizziness, confusion, very little urine or a racing heart. Babies, young kids, older adults and people with chronic conditions should get medical advice sooner. Cleonse supports hydration for active people. It isn't a treatment for illness.

Do electrolyte drinks need sugar?

Not always, but a little helps in the situations where electrolytes matter most. Glucose and sodium are absorbed together in the gut, and carbohydrate gives you fuel on long sessions. For a long, hot effort, some sugar is useful. For sitting at your desk, you don't need it, which is another reason water wins on ordinary days. I cover this in detail in do electrolytes need sugar?

Where Cleonse fits

I made Cleonse for the sessions where water isn't quite enough. It has three ingredients: organic lemon or strawberry powder, organic cane sugar and French grey sea salt. Each 30g stick has 500mg of sodium, 26g of carbohydrate and 100 calories, plus 85+ trace minerals from the sea salt in trace amounts. You mix one stick into 16 oz of water. No stevia, no artificial sweeteners, flavors, dyes, preservatives, gums or fillers. It's vegan and gluten-free. All of it is on the Cleonse facts page.

How I actually use it: water most of the day, and one stick before or during a long or hot training session or a tennis match. On easy days, it stays in the drawer. If you're curious why I kept the formula to just three ingredients, read what makes an electrolyte clean.

A simple rule of thumb

• Short, cool, easy: water.
• Long, hot, sweaty or salty: electrolytes plus water.
• Endurance event: electrolytes, and drink to thirst. Never drink so much you gain weight.
• Sick: oral rehydration solution and a call to your doctor.

FAQ

Is water or electrolytes better for hydration?

For most people on most days, water is better. It hydrates with zero calories, and food covers your sodium. Electrolytes are better during long, hot or very sweaty exercise, when you lose a meaningful amount of sodium in sweat.

When should I drink electrolytes instead of water?

Consider electrolytes for exercise longer than about 90 minutes, workouts in heat or humidity, heavy or salty sweating, and back-to-back hard training days. For shorter, cooler, easier sessions, drinking water to thirst is usually enough.

Can you drink too much water?

Yes. Drinking far more than you sweat and urinate, especially during endurance events, can dilute your blood sodium and cause hyponatremia, a medical emergency. Use thirst as your guide and never drink so much that you gain weight during exercise.

Is it OK to drink electrolytes every day?

For healthy, active people, one serving on a sweaty training day is reasonable. On sedentary days, you probably don't need one, since most diets already contain plenty of sodium. If you have high blood pressure or kidney issues, ask your doctor first.

Should I drink electrolytes when I'm sick?

For vomiting or diarrhea, an oral rehydration solution is the better choice, and you should see a doctor if you can't keep fluids down or symptoms persist. Everyday electrolyte drinks like Cleonse support hydration for active people and aren't a treatment for illness.

Keep reading

• Do electrolytes need sugar?
• A simple morning hydration routine
• Electrolytes vs sports drinks: what's the difference?

Editor's note: This article is for general education and isn't medical advice. Sources: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, The Nutrition Source, "Water" (water as best choice, daily fluid intake, hyponatremia risk in endurance athletes); Kenefick RW, "Fluid Intake Strategies for Optimal Hydration & Performance: Planned Drinking vs. Drinking to Thirst," GSSI Sports Science Exchange #182, 2018 (when drinking to thirst suffices, 2% body-mass threshold, "never drink so much that weight is gained"); Gatorade Sports Science Institute, "Sweat Biomarkers for Sports Science Applications" (sweat sodium and chloride 10-90 mmol/L); Hew-Butler T et al., "Statement of the Third International Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia Consensus Development Conference, Carlsbad, California, 2015," Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, 2015. Cleonse product facts are from our label.