What Happened When a Dietitian Took Electrolytes Every Day

As a dietitian, I’ll let you in on a slightly awkward secret: I don’t drink enough water. I know better—after all, I’m the one telling my clients how much water to drink in a day. And yet, I still get to 3 p.m. having barely touched my glass.

So when I was tasked with drinking electrolytes every day for a week to see what happened to my body, I saw a great opportunity to improve my hydration habits.

I know electrolyte products can be high in sodium and often also contain added sugars, so I made a conscious effort to cut back on sodium and added sugars in my meals to balance things out. Beyond that, I didn’t tweak my lifestyle during my weeklong hydration challenge.

Here’s what happened when I took electrolytes every day for a week.

My body didn’t undergo any dramatic transformations as far as how I looked or felt after a week of downing electrolytes every day. The electrolytes worked mostly as a hydration nudge—having a flavored drink to sip made me reach for water far more often than plain water ever did.

By day three, I was finishing my morning glass before I’d normally have taken my first real sip. That alone felt like a win.

I did notice a few small adjustments, though I want to be careful not to overstate them. My afternoon energy dips felt slightly less dramatic on a couple of days, but I also slept a bit better those nights, so I can’t pin that entirely on electrolytes (although, staying well-hydrated supports good sleep, so maybe!).

I didn’t feel a sudden burst of energy or obvious change in how my workouts felt. But I did generally feel good, which I suspect had something to do with being a little better hydrated than usual, because proper hydration allows our bodies and all of their internal workings to function optimally.

I also didn’t experience signs of dehydration, which tells me that I was definitely doing a better job of hydrating during challenge week.

What surprised me most was behavioral, not physical. The simple act of prepping a drink each morning made hydration feel intentional instead of forgotten. That’s a subtle shift, but for someone who chronically under-drinks, it mattered more than any single physiological effect.

The nutritional profile of electrolyte supplements can vary quite a bit from one product to the next (as with many supplement products). Most contain electrolytes like sodium, potassium, and magnesium, but not all provide the same combination or amounts.

Some products include a source of glucose to support absorption, while others are sugar-free. Certain formulas also add ingredients like vitamin B12 or fiber, often to position the product as offering benefits beyond hydration alone.

When buying, look for a quality brand that is third-party tested; you’ll find a stamp of approval from testers like USP, NSF, Informed Choice, or Consumer Lab. Also, always talk to your doctor or a dietitian before adding any new supplement to your regimen.

To give you a sense of what that can look like in practice, here’s the nutrient profile for one example: a 4.2-oz packet of Plexus Hydrate in lemon-lime flavor provides:

• Calories: 10
• Total fat: 0 g
• Sodium: 170 mg
• Total carbohydrates: 1 g
• Total sugars: 0 g
• Protein: 0 g
• Potassium: 200 mg
• Vitamin C: 170 mg
• Calcium: 70 mg
• Magnesium: 50 mg
• Chlorine: 70 mg

Hydration Support

Electrolytes support optimal hydration by prompting cells to pull in and hang onto more water. Plus, those fruity powders may promote better hydration by making plain ol’ H2O more exciting and palatable, leading to you drinking more water overall so that you end up hitting your daily hydration goals.

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Electrolytes can also be helpful in helping you heal faster when you’re sick with a stomach bug or fever (vomiting, diarrhea, and fever can dehydrate you). Still, getting your electrolytes through whole food sources, such as melon or coconut water, as often as possible is always ideal since you also enjoy bonus nutrients like fiber and other beneficial vitamins and minerals.

Exercise Recovery

When you sweat heavily, like during a great workout or long, hot walk, you lose fluids as well as electrolytes such as sodium and potassium; it’s important to replace them as electrolytes support muscle and nerve function. Relying on electrolyte powders can be a two-for-one win when it comes to refilling your fluid and electrolyte stores all at once.

That said, for most people who do moderate exercise that lasts an hour or less (which is more my speed; I’m much more of a Pilates girl than a marathoner), plain water and a balanced diet are usually enough to replenish electrolyte and fluid levels. However, if you do endurance exercise, like running or high-intensity interval training (HIIT), electrolyte products can be useful because you likely sweat more, and they allow you to replenish faster.

Electrolyte products aren’t right for everyone. Anyone advised to watch their sodium or potassium intake for any medical reason shouldn’t start electrolyte products without checking with a healthcare professional first.

Because many of these products are high in sodium, people with heart conditions such as high blood pressure may need to be careful, considering excess sodium can raise blood pressure. If you’re actively managing hypertension, it’s worth talking to your provider before adding a daily electrolyte drink.

People with kidney disease should also be especially cautious. The kidneys help regulate electrolytes like sodium and potassium, and with impaired kidney function, extra electrolytes can build up and stress the kidneys.

After a week, my takeaway is a measured one: Electrolytes didn’t overhaul my health, and I didn’t expect them to. But what they did do was give me a reason to drink more fluids, which, as a self-admitted under-drinker, was genuinely helpful as proper hydration is so crucial to good overall health.

So if a flavored electrolyte drink is what finally gets you to hydrate, that’s a reasonable use!

But I’d be doing my job poorly if I called them a must-have for everyone. For most healthy people eating a normal diet, electrolytes are situational—they are useful during heavy sweating, hot weather, endurance exercise, or illness, and less necessary the rest of the time. They can also tack on excess sodium and added sugars that some people are better off skipping.