Written by: Lic. Sandra Suárez

B.S. in Nutrition and Dietetics/Master in Human Nutrition

Salt supplementation is essential, especially when it comes to long-duration or not-so-long-duration training but in scorching or humid environments.

How much salt to consume?

Sweat is a filtrate of plasma, which contains water as the first element and electrolytes such as sodium (Na), potassium, and chlorine, among others; of these, sodium is found in the most significant proportion. We see about 1.5 g of salt (NaCl) in each liter of sweat. Thirty-nine percent of a salt molecule is sodium; the remaining 61% is chlorine. To calculate the amount of grams of sodium present in salt, we multiply the grams of salt by 0.39.

Example: In 1 liter of sweat, we have 1.5 g of salt, and therefore,>1.5g salt x 0.39 = 0.585 g Na or 585 mg Na.

Training causes an athlete’s sweat to be greater but more diluted (more water and less electrolytes) because one of the most important adaptations to exercise is the increase of plasma volume by body water.

This allows the heart to pump a good amount of blood with fewer beats to the muscles, to carry nutrients and oxygen, and to eliminate waste products during exercise. It also pumps blood to the skin to promote sweating and body cooling.

Liquid supplements

Sports drinks, such as isotonic drinks, provide 460 mg of sodium per liter. If we were to replace all of our sweat with this drink (which usually does not happen), we would have a sodium deficit of 125 mg per liter of sweat.

The endurance version of Gatorade provides twice as much sodium as the traditional isotonic drink, 800 mg of sodium per Lt, this amount is even above the losses, but it is usually instrumental in long-duration events, or in places with extreme temperatures. 1Lt of Gatorade Endurance replenishes the sodium losses of 1 ½ Lt of sweat. In the case of most gels, the contribution is around 45mg per unit of 25-40g.

In my opinion, we should supplement our drinks with salt in the following cases:

1) During exercise lasting longer than 3 hours and resulting in sweat losses greater than 3-4 Lt, we do not use drinks with high sodium content (Gatorade Endurance) but sports drinks with salts such as Gatorade or Powerade.

2) We do not use sports drinks, only water, during exercises that last more than 2 hours.

3) In the worst-case scenario, when not using salt during exercise, we should consume foods high in salt at the end of exercise (sushi, wakame, pretzels, saltine crackers, foods with soy sauce) or add some additional salt to the immediate post-exercise meal.

The measure of salt I suggest is between “>1-1.5 g/salt (1/5-1/3 teaspoon) per liter of non-energy drink; 0.5-0.7 g/Lt in energy drinks. The amount of drink to take is established according to your losses.

Complement this article by reading:

When to use energy drinks and gels and in what quantity.

Recommendations for selecting and using energy drinks.

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