Home made electrolyte solution

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The fat commuter
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Home made electrolyte solution

Post by The fat commuter »

Anyone on here made their own electrolyte solution?

My commute means that I cycle for over five hours a week, plus whatever cycling I do for leisure at other times. Riding home from work I arrive home soaked through and keep on sweating for a good twenty minutes. I've noticed that I've been getting cramp more and more. I did get some 'High5 ZERO' tablets from PlanetX the other week and have been taking those, and they do help. However, they don't last long and before long I'm going to be able to open my own market stall with the free water bottles that come with the tablets.

Looking online, it seems that you can make your own solution using table salt, sugar and the juice of a lemon or orange. Looking at the ingredients in the 'High5 Zero', it also contains magnesium and potassium. Contains sweetener too but I'd prefer sugar over sweetener - but that's another story.

Anyhow, does anyone know whether the magnesium and potassium does any good and whether it's possible to add that to a home made solution somehow? Failing that, will a simple salt/sugar solution do? Has anyone else used that or does anyone have their own recipe?

Cheers
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chris_suffolk
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Re: Home made electrolyte solution

Post by chris_suffolk »

Been using squash + 1/4 teaspoon of salt in my bottle for past few months - no adverse affects on rides up to 6 hours+ (whilst used to get cramps not that infrequently)
Vorpal
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Re: Home made electrolyte solution

Post by Vorpal »

You can get your magnesium and potassium from a banana and use the home drink mix. Otherwise, you can get electrolyte drops to add to water or juice.
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Norman H
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Re: Home made electrolyte solution

Post by Norman H »

The fat commuter
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Re: Home made electrolyte solution

Post by The fat commuter »

Hmm, will have a look at putting some salt into some fruit juice. I usually eat a banana a day which is meant to contain magnesium and potassium. Coconut milk is also meant to have magnesium and potassium in it - can get that from ALDI.

Sounds like a fairly disgusting drink mind, water, coconut milk, orange juice and salt. Will maybe give it a go - can't wait.
Tangled Metal
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Re: Home made electrolyte solution

Post by Tangled Metal »

You can buy a special spoon with a bowl on each end. One end is for salt, the other is for sugar. You add both to a set volume of water to make a perfect isotonic drink.

Alternatively just half water, half fresh orange juice and a pinch of salt. It is close enough. Then milk for a recovery drink. Well that's my preference although I rarely add salt to the drink I take.for the ride, just water and juice.

Little and often is another bit of good advice. It's easier to take in enough If you drink regularly not when you feel thirsty you should get enough fluids in. Some people reckon drink a bit every 10-15 minutes.
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Re: Home made electrolyte solution

Post by Vorpal »

The fat commuter wrote:Hmm, will have a look at putting some salt into some fruit juice. I usually eat a banana a day which is meant to contain magnesium and potassium. Coconut milk is also meant to have magnesium and potassium in it - can get that from ALDI.

Sounds like a fairly disgusting drink mind, water, coconut milk, orange juice and salt. Will maybe give it a go - can't wait.

Pineapple and coconut, maybe? Or mango?
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The fat commuter
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Re: Home made electrolyte solution

Post by The fat commuter »

^^

Pineapple may work - would that make it taste a bit like a Pina Colada? I tried mine with just Coconut milk, some water and a little salt and had that whilst cycling into work tonight. I have never eaten cardboard before but I imagine that if I got some card, added some water and blended it up it would probably taste better. Still got a little bit of cramp on my journey too!

May just cycle over to PlanetX in Rotherham next week and pick up some more of their High5 tablets. I could collect all the bottles for my daughter's football team.
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Spinners
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Re: Home made electrolyte solution

Post by Spinners »

Fruit juice mixed with Indian Tonic Water (must have quinine in it).
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The fat commuter
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Re: Home made electrolyte solution

Post by The fat commuter »

Quinine does offer relief for cramp but I think that using quinine is more masking the problem rather than sorting the actual cause of cramp. It is very rare that I get cramp - but over the last month or two it's started when riding. I do think that it's related to the fact that I overheat when cycling and am losing too much salt.
old_windbag
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Re: Home made electrolyte solution

Post by old_windbag »

I started making my own drink mix about two years ago. It was supposed to be isotonic from what I read, it seems to work for me as well as the expensive high-5, SIS drinks etc. I used Aldi double concentrate orange juice in water to give a nice orange+pineapple taste, then add about 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt, then about 1/2-1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. This gives it some fizz but may also enhance its transport to the necessary areas of your muscles. I find for me it's very palatable and the ingredients sourced from aldi and lidl for small cost, 500g sea salt about 80p, bicarb about 60p and the concentrate was about £1 for a litre. Two years on and I've still loads of both the salt and bicarb so I think a good move away from expensive sports drinks. The other thing with this is I could make say a 500ml bottle of pure concentrate+salt+bicarb in the right proportion and take it on a longer trip to simply add to water bottles topped up on route with mineral water bought at local shops.
The fat commuter
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Re: Home made electrolyte solution

Post by The fat commuter »

^^

Hmmm, I may try that. I have all the ingredients in to make it. I've deemed that the coconut milk solution wasn't a success as it tasted so awful. Not sure how it worked on cost either - but the coconut milk was from ALDI so I can't see it being overly expensive. High5 tablets are £2.99 for ten so, a double tablet drink costs 60p.

I do have to be careful with fruit juice mind as I unfortunately damaged my stomach many years ago by taking ibuprofen whilst ill.
old_windbag
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Re: Home made electrolyte solution

Post by old_windbag »

Yes the Aldi juice I have is called double strength squash ( mines orange+pineapple flavour ) with no added sugar. I didn't want that I'd prefer to add if I felt it necessary which I don't, but at the time I bought it I also bought some honey as an alternative sweetener but have never required it. It takes very little of the concentrate to give plenty of flavour. Using Aldis mix strength( which I don't, mines weaker ) the 1.5 litre bottle makes 13.5 litres of drink, about 5p per 500ml bike bottle plus 1/2p worth of salt and 1/2 p of bicarb so 6p per 500ml serving.... most definitely cheaper than energy tabs etc. Carbs wise this wouldn't have many so you'd still need to eat but I simply need an electrolyte replacement as I sweat like a burst pipe. I know energy drinks have other super ingredients that turn us into pro peleton athletes but I can't say I've noticed any difference using SIS drink or home made as I'm not a top level athlete.
Flite
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Re: Home made electrolyte solution

Post by Flite »

Almost all the commercial products have either artificial sweeteners or preservatives - both upset my stomach
For rides over about 2 hours,I use this electrolyte powder.
http://www.myprotein.com/sports-nutriti ... 29892.html
Its just 4 mineral salts, sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium
Looks expensive, but lasts ages - you buy a teeny weeny measuring scoop for it. And it doesn't go off in storage.
For every scoop of minerals, I add 3 scoops of caster sugar (could use honey for flavour). Works out really cheap.
It doesn't dissolve all that well, but I just give it a good shake before drinking...
I don't need to drink as much as when using plain water, and I retain it better - so I don't need as many pit stops, and don't get cramp as often as I used to.
Ordinary table salt is not quite as effective in my experience
I like it plain - you can add pure fruit juice instead of the sugar, but I wouldn't personally use squash because of the additives
On long rides, I take first bottle ready mixed, second bottle with just the powder so I can add water, or as o-w says, make up a concentrated solution to dilute.
I see they now offer a tablet form, but I haven't tried them
I like this firm's website because they list all the ingredients, so you can spot the ones you need to avoid
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Jimstar79
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Re: Home made electrolyte solution

Post by Jimstar79 »

old_windbag wrote:I started making my own drink mix about two years ago. It was supposed to be isotonic from what I read, it seems to work for me as well as the expensive high-5, SIS drinks etc. I used Aldi double concentrate orange juice in water to give a nice orange+pineapple taste, then add about 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt, then about 1/2-1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. This gives it some fizz but may also enhance its transport to the necessary areas of your muscles. I find for me it's very palatable and the ingredients sourced from aldi and lidl for small cost, 500g sea salt about 80p, bicarb about 60p and the concentrate was about £1 for a litre. Two years on and I've still loads of both the salt and bicarb so I think a good move away from expensive sports drinks. The other thing with this is I could make say a 500ml bottle of pure concentrate+salt+bicarb in the right proportion and take it on a longer trip to simply add to water bottles topped up on route with mineral water bought at local shops.


This sounds very good - am definitely going to give something like this a try. Thanks for the tip!

Recently in Scotland I was adding lemon juice to my water bottles and it really seemed to alleviate pains I was getting in my kidneys, plus I had started drinking a lot more after this as I had been wild camping for a series of days in a row!
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