Why drinking more water isn't solving your hydration problem — and what actually does.

Last week we established that hydration is not about how much water goes in, it's about whether water reaches the places in your body that need it. This week: the reason most people can't make that happen, and how to fix it.

If you read last week's article, you now know that drinking water and being hydrated are two completely different things. You know that your body can be in hose mode where your intake looks impressive but your output tells a different story. And your body’s signals confirm suboptimal hydration.

The most common question I get when I explain this is: so what do I do about it?

The answer starts with understanding that hydration is not a single action. It is a process. Guidelines and product pitches are only promoting one part of it.

Hydration Is a Three-Part Process

Step one is water intake — getting water into your body. This is the part everyone focuses on - except the electrolyte supplement companies. The ounces, the glasses, a daily total as the target.

Step two is electrolyte intake and absorption. The minerals that escort water from your digestive tract into your cells, tissues, joints, and organs. Without this step, water circulates and exits without doing its job. This is a total nutrition conversation that’s often usurped into an electrolyte supplement recommendation.

Step three is balance. Ensuring your internal scale tips the ratio in favor of hydrators over dehydrators. Because there are things in your daily life actively working against steps one and two. Stress (workouts and woes), caffeine, alcohol, sugar, digestive challenges and electrolyte imbalances are all dehydrators. They throw off where, when and how your body gets water as a resource thereby rendering you suboptimally or frankly dehydrated regardless of how much you drink.

Most hydration advice addresses step one and stops. This month we're addressing all three. This week is step two: electrolytes. The dehydrators get their own week. That's next.

What Are Electrolytes, Actually

Electrolytes are minerals that act as electrically charged particles in the body. The name comes from the electrical current they carry. There are five: sodium, potassium, chloride, magnesium, and calcium.

Here is the essential thing to understand: water is not an electrolyte. Water is the passenger. Electrolytes are the escort system that decides where the passenger goes. Electrolytes play a key role in determining whether water moves into cells or stays out, whether it's retained or excreted.

These minerals work as pairs in opposition to each other. That dynamic tension is what regulates fluid balance throughout your entire body. When the balance is right, water reaches your cells, your gut lining, your joints, your brain. When it's off, water circulates without being absorbed or pools where it shouldn't, or gets excreted before it does its job.

This is why you can drink eight glasses of water or half your body weight in water and still wake up with dry skin, foggy thinking, and constipation. The bus showed up. The roads weren't there.

Can't You Just Get Electrolytes From Food?

Yes. And no. Food is a primary source, but food may not be what your body needs when it needs electrolytes or you may have to consume more than you can or should to optimize electrolytes. And sometimes the food you choose or have access to is the culprit for your dehydration. So total nutrition- food plus supplements- is likely a better game plan for hydration.

One problem is that the modern food processing has stripped electrolytes out of many foods that used to contain them. When wheat is refined to white flour, magnesium content drops by as much as 60 to 70 percent. Poor soil health, is another factor that reduces the mineral content of what most people eat every day. So even if you're eating well, your food may be delivering far fewer electrolytes than it appears.

Here’s a look at a list of foods that can help you build an optimal potassium intake: chickpeas, cauliflower, banana, potato, beet greens, beans (kidney, white), dried apricots and coconut water. Not getting servings in of all of these most days? It can be hard to consume enough potassium even while avoiding highly processed foods.

And, even when you're getting optimal electrolytes from food, the dehydrators in your day can reduce or seriously challenge them from doing their job. Some dehydrators that will or may occur include: stress, elevated blood sugar, loose stools, caffeine, alcohol, sugar, and high-intensity exercise.

This is the point at which a well-chosen supplement becomes worth considering. Not to replace food. To fill the gap when food can't keep up with demand.

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How to Choose an Electrolyte Supplement for YOUR Body

Like everything in better nutrition, this needs to be personalized. The goal is a supplement that gives your body what it needs to run better, while avoiding anything that can overwhelm, irritate, or disrupt your hydration. Here is how I evaluate them and personalize recommendations.

Which minerals.

There are five electrolytes — sodium, potassium, chloride, magnesium, and calcium. But most people need a supplement that focuses on optimizing potassium and magnesium, and at times sodium. Very few people need a supplement that's high in chloride or provides additional calcium — you're likely already getting adequate amounts of those from food. Start with what your body is most likely missing, not with a product that tries to cover everything at maximum doses. Let me explain.

The amount.

You are not trying to meet your full daily electrolyte needs in one supplement. You're looking for meaningful replenishment in that moment — enough to help your body retain and move water where it needs to be. Check the milligrams. A product with 10 milligrams of magnesium is not doing the job when you likely need closer to 600mg daily. But a product with very high doses of any single mineral like 1000mg+ of sodium can create excess especially with other daily dietary sources of sodium. The goal is targeted replenishment, not maximizing a number.

The form of the mineral.

The form affects how well your body absorbs it. For magnesium and potassium, citrate is a good form for most. Noting that if it contributes to or if you have looser stools a different magnesium like glycinate, threonate, or malate are well-absorbed forms. Magnesium oxide is not.

The delivery format also matters: powder is the most immediate for absorption then likely a chew compared to a tablet or capsule. But powders and chews likely need more binders and ingredients to make them palatable. Which leads me to the next point.

What else is in it.

This is where most products undermine themselves. If you see artificial ingredients or others that you avoid in your other food and supplements, move on to another choice. Like b vitamins in forms your body doesn’t absorb well or stimulants that increase versus turn off the stress response. Non-nutritive artificial sweeteners disrupt your gut microbiome and impact your glycemic response; natural ones can also alter sweet taste buds and microbiome. Added sugar actively blocks water absorption in the intestines. Caffeine is a mild diuretic; mild becomes not so with significant intake. On the flip side some added ingredients can be big wins. A product that reduces your need for another supplement by including creatine, glutamine or collagen as examples. Natural flavor from lemon or lime juice actually supports gut health. Likewise with key strains of probiotics.

Electrolytes are in everything so your total intake matters

Look at everything together, not just the electrolyte supplement in isolation. If your diet regularly includes restaurant meals and ready to eat or heat up packaged foods, sodium is likely already well covered; you probably don't need more from a supplement unless you're sweating heavily through exercise or heat. If you're already taking calcium or potassium in other supplements, make sure adding an electrolyte product doesn't push you past what's appropriate. Electrolyte balance is about ratios, not maximums. Too much of any one mineral relative to the others creates a different kind of imbalance.

 How to Know If Your Electrolyte Strategy Is Working

Your body will tell you. Signs you're moving in the right direction: energy is more consistent across the day, you're not going to the bathroom within an hour or two after drinking water, digestion is moving smoothly, late-afternoon salt and sugar cravings have quieted down, and hunger feels more connected to actual food needs rather than thirst signals.

Yes we can do an actual assessment — it’s what I have my patients do and what I do when I’m concerned my hydration is off. The full protocol — and how to act on your result based on your specific body — is in my book Your Best Shot, or my team can share it with you and how to get a plan to address your results when you meet (we offer 15-minute jumpstart sessions at The Better Nutrition Program that are free).

Next week: the dehydrators. The things in your daily life that are working against everything we just built. Some of them will surprise you. Some may depress you. Don’t worry, we will sort out a deliciously doable hydration plan for your body. Make sure you get it 👇🏽

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Hydration — better not perfect.

Ashley Koff, RD

The “backwards DR”