Use This Online Calculator to Make Your Personalised Sports Drink

By Jiri Kaloc

Proper hydration is key if you want to perform well and have fun on the bike, especially when riding in the summer heat. There’s a way to estimate how much water, sugar, and electrolytes you will need for your next ride. Let’s take a closer look.

You need to hydrate and replenish electrolytes

The two main functions a sports drink should fulfil are hydration and electrolyte replenishment. You can also use it to give you some sugars for energy but the sugars included are typically there mainly to speed up the absorption of the fluids.

When it comes to understanding how much water and electrolytes you should consume, the best starting point is your sweat rate. You can read our previous article where we describe a simple process to get a pretty good estimate of your sweat rate without any sophisticated equipment.

There are 6 electrolytes you lose through sweat – sodium and chloride being the most important ones as you can see in the list below. Keep that in mind for later. This is how much of each electrolyte you lose with 1 litre of sweat.

  • Sodium (460-1,840 mg)
  • Chloride (700-1,200 mg)
  • Potassium (160-320 mg)
  • Calcium (0-40 mg)
  • Magnesium (4-15 mg)
  • Phosphorus (3-6 mg)

It can get pretty scientific if you want to get precise about how many millilitres of fluids and how much of each electrolyte to take in but most of us cycling enthusiasts don’t need this level of precision. That’s why a simple online calculator can be a really good compromise between precision and practicality.

An online calculator to make things easy for you

If you don’t really feel like working out your sweat rate or trying to guess how the temperature will influence your fluid requirements, this online calculator is for you. You only have to fill out a few things about your ride and yourself to get a pretty decent recommendation.

  • How long will your ride be
  • Whether the environment will be cold or hot
  • How intense you’re planning your ride to be
  • How much do you weigh
  • What’s your sex
  • Whether you sweat very little, normal or a lot more than average

The interesting part of this calculator is that it also allows you to choose the ingredients you prefer in your ideal sports drink. Here are some of the choices you can make.

Carbohydrate source – Do you prefer sugar, dates, honey or bananas?

Sodium source – Are you going to use regular salt or try pickle juice, olives or soy sauce?

Potassium source – Lemon juice, beetroot, bananas or milk, there are many options here.

Calcium source – You will be offered milk, spinach, almonds or cocoa powder here.

Magnesium source – Walnuts, oats or chia seeds are listed as sources of magnesium.

As you can see, the calculator goes into a lot of detail listing many of the electrolytes lost through sweat. Arguably, potassium, calcium, and magnesium are needed in very small quantities and would be more practical to be replenished by solid foods. But having the option to experiment with different carbs and sodium sources is pretty neat.

Check out the calculator and see how much water and what other ingredients it prescribes for you for different types of rides. Then you can test it out and see whether your hydration and energy levels are better.

Here is an example of what a homemade sports drink like this could look like. Not bad, right?