tomm1453
Iron
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so i was researching how to balance electrolytes to debloat and reduce water retention and i found this very good paper https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK234935/ about sodium, potassium and chloride, the most clear and descriptive paper ive found so far
to summarise it:
sodium:
minimum of 115mg assuming literally 0 activity, if we account for activity, sweating etc safe minimum of 500mg, which we all likely get so no need to worry about not getting enough
maximum: safe limit of 2400mg sodium, however theres no benefits of increasing sodium intake so just keep as low as possible without going under 500mg (potentially stay above 1000mg on workout days tho) tbh you wont really have to make any effort to control sodium intake as long as you dont eat processed foods and shower everything in salt, then your probably at 500-2000 anyway
potassium:
minimum: absolute minimum of 1600-2000mg (this keeps the 4:1 ratio assuming you have the 500mg sodium minimum) however potassium has increasing benefits with consumption so a more ideal minimum is 3500mg (which would allow for slight more sodium needed for exercise)
maximum: 18,000mg is the threshold for hyperkalemia for an average adult (literally impossible unless you eat multiple tablespoons of potassium powder) however a more practical maximum is to just stick to the 4:1 ratio with sodium and try not to go over 5:1, which is pretty hard to do anyway (also you excrete potassium in urine so even if you go 5:1 or 6:1 youre not gonna have any problems, bare in mind the 18,000mg maximum would be a ratio of at least 7.5:1 even if youre consuming the maximum sodium amount)
chloride:
minimum: a ratio of 1.5-2:1 of sodium+potassium:chloride is optimal, so if youre ingesting 1000mg sodium + 4000mg potassium then 2500-3600mg chloride would be the optimal range
maximum: only known cause of hyperchloremia is dehydration, so similar to potassium if you stay hydrated you will just excrete any unneccesary amounts, however long-term excessive chloride has similar adverse health effects to sodium, so try to keep under the chloride RDA of 3100mg
conclusion:
a realistic ideal plan would be 1000mg sodium, 4000mg potassium, and 2500mg chloride. the sodium can be obtained from 1g salt (giving 500mg of sodium and 500mg of chloride) and the remaining 500mg coming from food eg 80g cheese would give 500mg more (ideally you dont have any processed food or added salt so nothing else to account for). the potassium can be obtained from 4000mg potassium chloride powder (giving 2000mg of potassium and 2000mg of chloride), and the remaining 2000mg can be from 2 medium bananas (800mg) and 2 avocados (1200mg) these foods together only give approximately 25mg of sodium so they wont disrupt the ratio. and for chloride the adequate amount has already been obtained from the salt and the potassium cloride powder
thats pretty much the whole paper summarised, if anyone has any other research or advice about electrolytes/debloating put them in the comments
thanks bros
to summarise it:
sodium:
minimum of 115mg assuming literally 0 activity, if we account for activity, sweating etc safe minimum of 500mg, which we all likely get so no need to worry about not getting enough
maximum: safe limit of 2400mg sodium, however theres no benefits of increasing sodium intake so just keep as low as possible without going under 500mg (potentially stay above 1000mg on workout days tho) tbh you wont really have to make any effort to control sodium intake as long as you dont eat processed foods and shower everything in salt, then your probably at 500-2000 anyway
potassium:
minimum: absolute minimum of 1600-2000mg (this keeps the 4:1 ratio assuming you have the 500mg sodium minimum) however potassium has increasing benefits with consumption so a more ideal minimum is 3500mg (which would allow for slight more sodium needed for exercise)
maximum: 18,000mg is the threshold for hyperkalemia for an average adult (literally impossible unless you eat multiple tablespoons of potassium powder) however a more practical maximum is to just stick to the 4:1 ratio with sodium and try not to go over 5:1, which is pretty hard to do anyway (also you excrete potassium in urine so even if you go 5:1 or 6:1 youre not gonna have any problems, bare in mind the 18,000mg maximum would be a ratio of at least 7.5:1 even if youre consuming the maximum sodium amount)
chloride:
minimum: a ratio of 1.5-2:1 of sodium+potassium:chloride is optimal, so if youre ingesting 1000mg sodium + 4000mg potassium then 2500-3600mg chloride would be the optimal range
maximum: only known cause of hyperchloremia is dehydration, so similar to potassium if you stay hydrated you will just excrete any unneccesary amounts, however long-term excessive chloride has similar adverse health effects to sodium, so try to keep under the chloride RDA of 3100mg
conclusion:
a realistic ideal plan would be 1000mg sodium, 4000mg potassium, and 2500mg chloride. the sodium can be obtained from 1g salt (giving 500mg of sodium and 500mg of chloride) and the remaining 500mg coming from food eg 80g cheese would give 500mg more (ideally you dont have any processed food or added salt so nothing else to account for). the potassium can be obtained from 4000mg potassium chloride powder (giving 2000mg of potassium and 2000mg of chloride), and the remaining 2000mg can be from 2 medium bananas (800mg) and 2 avocados (1200mg) these foods together only give approximately 25mg of sodium so they wont disrupt the ratio. and for chloride the adequate amount has already been obtained from the salt and the potassium cloride powder
thats pretty much the whole paper summarised, if anyone has any other research or advice about electrolytes/debloating put them in the comments
thanks bros
