Hydration, explained

Water alone isn't enough. Why more of it can leave you flatter than before.

You drink more of it than you ever have. The 3pm fade, the night cramp, the fourth trip to the bathroom: one number explains all three.

Updated August 13, 2026 · 7 minute read

The advice has been the same for twenty years. Drink more water. Carry the bottle. Watch the color. Set the reminder. Most people reading this have done all four, and a good number of them still get the headache around three in the afternoon, still get the calf that seizes at two in the morning, and still find themselves standing at a urinal wondering where it all went.

LMNT puts the answer in four words at the top of one of the ads it is running right now: water alone isn't enough. It is an unusual thing for a drinks company to say out loud, because it concedes that the problem is not a shortage of liquid. What follows is the reasoning behind that line, taken entirely from what the company has published on its own site, its own science pages and the back of its own packet.

Part 1

What you lose is not water. It is what was dissolved in it.

Sweat is not distilled. Neither is urine. Both carry minerals out of the body, and sodium is the one that leaves in the largest quantity by a wide margin. Put plain water back in and you have replaced the solvent while ignoring everything that was dissolved in it, which is why the second liter often feels less useful than the first.

LMNT's own science write-up on its electrolyte ratio, credited to co-founders Robb Wolf, Luis Villaseñor, Nicki Violetti and James Murphy, puts numbers on the losses. Athletes can lose several grams of sodium in a training session, particularly in hot and humid conditions. The company adds a detail from its own conversations with professional teams: trainers often log up to a 10 gram sodium loss in a hard practice or game.

Part 2

Sodium and potassium are one system, not two supplements

The reason sodium cannot simply be topped up on its own comes down to a piece of machinery sitting in the membrane of every neuron you own. LMNT's science page describes it plainly: the sodium potassium pump is a life sustaining protein pump, and for every three sodium ions it pushes out it takes two potassium ions in. That exchange is what makes a muscle contract and a nerve fire.

Because the pump runs at three to two, LMNT argues that total daily intake of the two minerals should reflect roughly that shape. Its own stick pack, though, is deliberately not three to two. It is five to one: 1,000 mg of sodium against 200 mg of potassium. The company gives two reasons for the difference, and both are about where the deficit actually sits.

First, active people lose more sodium through sweat, and anyone eating low carb or fasting loses more of it through urine. Second, people eating a whole foods diet naturally take in less sodium to begin with. Potassium, by contrast, is easy to eat: meat, avocados, dark leafy greens, fruit and potatoes all carry it. So the packet leans hard on the mineral that is genuinely missing and tops up the other one modestly.

Part 3

The trap: the better you eat, the more likely you are to be short

This is the part of the argument that turns the usual advice inside out, and it is the reason the company exists at all. Sodium in the American diet does not mainly come from the salt shaker. LMNT cites the standard figure: processed foods contribute about 70 percent of sodium intake in the United States. Cut the processed food, which is the single most common piece of health advice there is, and roughly seven tenths of the supply goes with it.

Two other habits push in the same direction. Low carb eating and fasting both minimize insulin, and LMNT points out that low insulin causes the body to shed sodium rapidly through the kidneys, at the same time as those diets are cutting the sodium coming in. The two effects stack. Someone who eats clean, trains, fasts through the morning and drinks two liters of water before noon has arranged, without meaning to, an almost perfect set of conditions for running low.

That is not a hypothetical case. It is the founder's own.

Part 4

The company was started by someone who could not work out why he felt bad

Robb Wolf is a former research biochemist and a New York Times bestselling author, and he is one of four co-founders of LMNT. The company's own description of what happened is short and unusually unglamorous.

I'd been on a low-carb, whole food diet for years, but something was holding me back. While working with my coaches, we unlocked a powerful insight: I needed more salt. Period. Robb Wolf, co-founder, on LMNT's Our Story page

The rest of the account explains the shape of the product. Existing sports drinks were, in his words, too high in sugar and woefully lacking in actual electrolytes, so he and his coaches mixed their own at home, which he describes as messy and time consuming. When the formulation was dialed in he says his fitness, sleep and mental clarity all changed. The stick pack is that home recipe, weighed out and sealed.

Their science page adds the part that matters more than one man's experience: they saw the same pattern across the community they coached, in people who were doing everything else right and were still exhibiting the symptoms of sodium, potassium and magnesium shortfalls.

Part 5

The three numbers, and the one that will surprise you

Everything above is argument. This is the part that is simply printed on the packet, and it is worth reading slowly, because the sodium line is the one that makes people stop.

Nearly half the sodium a label allows for a whole day, in one glass. LMNT does not present that as an accident, and does not soften it. Its formulation page carries the position as a slogan, More Salt, Not Less, and states that a growing body of research shows optimal health outcomes occurring at sodium levels two to three times government recommendations. The company cites a 2011 JAMA paper on sodium and potassium excretion and cardiovascular events in support of it.

Its own answer to "how much then" is published in its FAQ: the latest science, it says, indicates that consuming 4 to 6 grams of sodium, 3.5 to 5 grams of potassium and 400 to 600 milligrams of magnesium per day leads to optimal health outcomes. Those minerals, it adds, are best consumed from whole foods, and the packet is there to fill in the gaps rather than replace them.

A note the company makes itself and that is worth repeating: sodium needs are individual. Anyone managing blood pressure, kidney function or heart failure, or on a sodium restricted diet for any reason, should be having this conversation with a doctor rather than with a landing page.

See the full panel and flavorsdrinklmnt.com, free shipping on US orders Part 6

What they left out, and why that is the more interesting list

There are seven electrolytes in total: sodium, chloride, potassium, magnesium, calcium, phosphate and bicarbonate. LMNT contains three of them plus chloride, which arrives bound to the sodium and potassium. The company's explanation of the four it omitted is the clearest signal on the page of how the formula was arrived at.

Reasons as published by LMNT in LMNT's electrolyte ratio explained. Reproduced here in summary.

The same restraint shows up in the ingredient line. For Citrus Salt, the full list is six items long, and the first one is salt.

Part 7

How much water to put it in, and when

This is where most people get their first impression wrong, and it is fixable in one sentence: the amount of water decides how salty it tastes, and the company publishes the scale. More water, milder. Less water, stronger.

On timing, the company's answer in its FAQ is consistent and slightly counterintuitive. The two most common moments are first thing in the morning and about thirty minutes before a workout or anything demanding. The reasoning is worth keeping: when it comes to replacing lost electrolytes, preparing ahead of time works better than chasing them afterwards. On quantity, LMNT reports that many people settle at one to two stick packs a day depending on how active they are, and that some use more.

Part 8

The honest warning: the first one tastes like the sea

A page that only quoted the five star reviews would be doing the reader a disservice, because the single most common first reaction to LMNT is not delight. It is surprise at how salty it is. Here is that reaction in a customer's own words, published on the product page.

That is the usual arc, and it is why the dilution scale above matters more than any flavor recommendation. The second complaint is unrelated to salt and is not going to suit everyone: the sweetener is stevia leaf extract, and some people can taste it.

Both of those are real reviews sitting on LMNT's own product page today, which tells you something in itself. The full distribution is public, and it is a more useful object than any average.

Roughly one buyer in thirty gives it a single star. That is a real number and it belongs on this page. It is also the reason the refund policy below is worth reading before the price.

Part 9

They publish the recipe so you can skip buying it

The most persuasive thing on LMNT's website is not a claim. It is a set of instructions for not being a customer. On the formulation page, under a question about making your own, the company writes: if you prefer to source your own electrolytes instead of buying LMNT, jot this down and grab a kitchen scale. Then it gives the formula.

So the honest framing of the purchase is narrow. Three bulk powders and a jeweler's scale will get you to the same place for less money. What the packet buys is that nobody weighs anything at six in the morning, and that the version in your bag on a hot Tuesday is the same as the version in your kitchen. Robb Wolf's own description of the home mixing years was messy and time consuming, and he was motivated.

Part 10

What it costs

Prices as published on drinklmnt.com on 13 August 2026, for the drink mix.

• Free standard shipping on all US orders. Free to Canada over $100 USD.
• A No Questions Asked refund policy, stated on the product page.
• Subscribe and save is offered, and can be modified or canceled at any time.
• Twelve drink mix flavors, including one, Lemonade Iced Tea, that carries 50 mg of naturally occurring caffeine from organic black tea.

Start with the variety pack, $22Twelve flavors are a lot to commit to blind

What people actually use it for

All of the following are published, verified reviews on LMNT's product page. They are quoted as written.

Questions people ask before the first box

The short version

Water is the solvent. Sodium, potassium and magnesium are what was dissolved in it, and they leave through sweat and urine faster than plain water replaces them. Eating well removes the biggest source of sodium in the modern diet, and low carb eating and fasting accelerate the loss. LMNT's answer is one gram of sodium, 200 mg of potassium and 60 mg of magnesium in six grams of powder, no sugar, six ingredients, published targets, a published home recipe for anyone who would rather weigh it themselves, and a refund policy for the one in thirty who cannot stand the taste.

If the 3pm fade, the night cramp and the constant bathroom trips have survived every increase in water, the variable that has not been tested yet is the one that costs a dollar and a half.

See LMNT Citrus Salt on drinklmnt.com$45 for 30 sticks, free US shipping, no questions asked refunds