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Answer for When are electrolyte/sports drinks necessary? It seems to me that you're basically asking 2 questions: Under what circumstances do most people need to drink sports drinks to recharge their electrolytes? When drinking large amount of water (it sounds like you drink up to 3 gallons per day), does a person need to make a special effort to ...

Joshua Carmody's answer is pretty good but I'd like to add an ultrarunner's perspective. Proper hydration and nutrition are one of the keys to completing a race, and completing one fast, so we're fairly knowledgeable about what works. The amount that Haphazard is drinking appears to be enormous to my eyes. However, as long as they are drinking for thirst ...

It really depends but you need other electrolytes beyond just sodium, more specifically potassium and magnesium. A serving or two of a electrolytes beverage like Ultima replenisher should be sufficient. Of course this greatly depends on the specific workout session so use your own judgement and definitely do more specific research. You also may need to ...

The word here is you "probably" don't have to worry about overdosing on electrolytes if you are drinking premade sports drinks. They are of a concentration that you would probably not be able to drink any more long before the electrolytes would become an issue. However, if you are drinking sports drinks and supplementing with salt tabs, or some of the other ...

Water's water. As long as it is water and does not contain known poisons like pathogens or heavy metals then you'll be fine. You don't need much Mg for proper function. The well respected authority on the sceince of running, Dr Tim Noakes, is quoted as saying: Magnesium is another intracellular ion that, like potassium, is lost in sweat and urine ...

Energy Drinks Generally, electrolyte drinks are most helpful for workouts lasting longer than 1.5 hours depending on how much you sweat. The more you sweat, the more electrolytes (sodium/potassium) you flush out and the more likely you are to need replacements. According to this WebMD article: The American College of Sports Medicine says that during ...

Yes, absolutely you can overdo it with electrolytes. It's called hypernatremia. The best resource I know of is the 9-way table by Karl King. This shows the effects of being under-, over- or normally hydrated and being under-, over- or normally salted. It shows what the symptoms are and what the treatment is. This table is really useful. You can tell if ...

Here is an excellent article on electrolytes and bicycling. If you sweat a liter per hour, a reasonable amount, a typical loss per hour is 1,300g for sodium (3.25g of table salt), and 230g for potassium. This is in the neighborhood of Mike's recipe. For an estimate on how much you sweat, you can subtract your post-exercise weight from your pre-exercise ...

This recent post on Science Based Running is relevant. The above answer is exhaustive, but the article covers some of the same ground with information from Tim Noake's The Art of Running. The author of the post also provides a brief analysis of some popular sport drinks.

If you are getting exhausted and fatigued after only 30 minutes, the problem isn't that you need an energy drink. The problem is that you are working out too hard. The fact that you are feeling tired later in the days would support that. The point of working out is to put training stress on your system. After you have done that, when you rest, you ...