Use cases
Electrolytes & daily hydration
Electrolyte loss does not require exercise. You lose sodium, potassium, and magnesium through urine, through low-level baseline sweating, through breathing — all day, regardless of whether you move. Modern Western diets leave many adults short on potassium and magnesium. The all-day formula exists for this case: one full scoop (two servings) in 24 fl oz of water, sipped through the day.
You lose electrolytes without moving
Exercise is the dramatic version of electrolyte loss. Baseline physiology is the quiet, continuous one.
Electrolytes are regulated solutes. The body maintains tight concentration ranges for sodium, potassium, magnesium, and other ions in blood and intracellular fluid — and it maintains them through constant active adjustment. The kidneys filter electrolytes continuously, reabsorbing what is needed and excreting the rest in urine. Sweat glands produce a trickle of fluid even at rest. The gastrointestinal tract moves enormous volumes of fluid and electrolytes in the course of a day, most of it recycled but some lost through normal excretion.
These are not dramatic losses. At steady state the body excretes roughly as much sodium as it takes in, so a sedentary adult on a temperate day turns over about three grams of sodium daily at the U.S. average intake through normal excretion — varying significantly by diet, kidney function, and individual physiology. Potassium losses through urine can be substantial, particularly with diets low in fruits and vegetables. Magnesium losses are modest in absolute terms but land on an already thin baseline: national dietary surveys consistently find a large share of Americans — on the order of half — consuming less magnesium than the Estimated Average Requirement.
The argument for a daily electrolyte drink does not rest on dramatic deficiency. It rests on the quieter observation that baseline losses are real and steady, dietary coverage is often incomplete, and a small daily addition costs little.
~48%
of Americans estimated to consume less magnesium than the Estimated Average Requirement (NHANES 2013–2016, as reported by the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements)
2,600–3,400
mg/day, the potassium Adequate Intake for adult women and men (National Academies, 2019) — a level most adults fall short of
12 fl oz
one serving of Everyday: sodium 180 mg, potassium 170 mg
Modern diets are short on potassium and magnesium
The typical Western diet delivers more sodium than the body needs and less potassium and magnesium than it benefits from. This asymmetry has practical implications for daily electrolyte choices.
Sodium is abundant in processed food — so much so that the major dietary concern for the general population is excess, not deficit. Potassium is the opposite: its richest dietary sources are fruits, vegetables, legumes, and nuts. Diets built heavily around packaged foods, fast food, and refined carbohydrates tend to deliver a fraction of the potassium Adequate Intake. The 2019 National Academies Dietary Reference Intakes for Sodium and Potassium identified adequate potassium intake as a consistent challenge for most American adults.
Magnesium occupies a similar position. Whole grains, nuts, seeds, and leafy greens are the primary sources. Refining grains removes a substantial portion of their magnesium content. The result, documented repeatedly in NHANES dietary surveys, is that close to half of Americans consume less than the estimated Average Requirement for magnesium — not a clinical deficiency in most cases, but a chronic background shortfall.
None of this suggests replacing food. A daily formula should be modest. Each serving of Just Electrolyte Everyday carries 170 mg of potassium (4% of the Daily Value) and 15 mg of magnesium (4%). That is a contribution, not a fix for the dietary gap.
Sports / exercise formula
- Higher sodium: matches elevated sweat sodium losses
- Consumed with or immediately around exercise
- Volume may be large over a session
- Possibly with dextrose for accelerated uptake
Daily / normal formula
- Lower, steadier sodium: suitable for non-exercise periods
- Potassium is a larger share of the dose than in the sports formula
- Distributed across the day with drinking water
- No added sugar needed — the goal is not rapid uptake
The Just Electrolyte Everyday formula is calibrated for this use case. See the electrolyte ratios for the label amounts.
Desk work, travel, heat, recovery, and older adults
A daily electrolyte drink is not exclusively an athlete’s tool. Several non-exercise circumstances create conditions where it is useful.
Desk work and sedentary days
A person sitting at a desk all day may drink a gallon of plain water over the course of it — a habit that works against electrolyte balance in a quiet way. A gallon of Everyday, a little under eleven servings, adds roughly 1,900 mg of sodium. Count it with your food.
Travel, particularly air travel
Airplane cabin air is exceptionally dry — relative humidity is typically 10–20%, far below the 30–60% of most indoor environments. Insensible losses (from skin and breathing) increase in dry air. Cabin air is dry, and people tend to drink less on flights. An electrolyte-supplemented water bottle is a straightforward countermeasure.
Hot climates and outdoor environments
Even without formal exercise, sustained exposure to heat increases baseline sweat rate. A person doing light yard work for three hours in 90°F heat may lose more electrolytes than a person doing 45 minutes of moderate gym work. The “it’s not really exercise” framing misses the physiology: the body sweats in response to thermal load, not cardiovascular intensity.
Recovery after hard training
The 12 to 24 hours after a long or intense workout involve continued rehydration and electrolyte repletion. Drinking plain water to recover volume without accompanying sodium can prolong the repletion process — the body excretes the hypotonic load rather than retaining it.
Older adults
Thirst blunts with age, and kidney regulation of sodium and fluid becomes less precise. Older adults should ask a clinician before adding sodium or fixing a drinking schedule.
If you have kidney disease, heart disease or high blood pressure, or take medication that affects sodium or potassium (such as a diuretic, an ACE inhibitor or an ARB), ask your clinician before adding a daily electrolyte drink.
A little, steadily, not a spike
The physiology of daily electrolyte needs does not call for a concentrated hit. It calls for a steady background.
One serving of Everyday, half a scoop in 12 fl oz of water, delivers a concentration so low that it is essentially invisible osmotically. The body does not need to compensate. Every sip moves a small amount of sodium, potassium, and magnesium into the system, continuously, matching the pace of continuous baseline loss. The kidney does not need to excrete a bolus because there is no bolus to excrete.
This is not a complicated protocol. Fill a bottle with 24 fl oz of water. Add one scoop, which is two servings. Drink it through the day, then repeat only if you want more.
Sources
- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Dietary Reference Intakes for Sodium and Potassium. National Academies Press, 2019 — Adequate Intakes, Estimated Average Requirements, and documented population shortfalls for potassium.
- National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. Magnesium: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. Updated 2 June 2022 — NHANES-based estimates of magnesium intake inadequacy (roughly 48% of Americans below the Estimated Average Requirement) and the common dietary sources and gaps.
- Baker LB. Sweating rate and sweat sodium concentrations in athletes: a review of methodology and intra/interindividual variability. Sports Medicine 47(Suppl 1):111–128, 2017 — the magnitude and variability of thermoregulatory sweat losses, illustrating that sweat carries meaningful sodium whenever the body sweats in response to thermal load.
A little added. All day.
Everyday is formulated for daily use. The science hub explains the reasoning behind each number.