The Truth About LMNT: Science Explained
The Truth About LMNT: Science Explained
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In this video I break down LMNT, an electrolyte supplement that has become extremely popular in recent months. As a performance nutritionist, in this video, I use my skills and experience to help you understand the potential benefits and drawbacks of using electrolyte supplements. In the video, we look at the scientific evidence behind using electrolyte supplements and get advice from researchers in the area.
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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:16 Who am I?
00:46 What is LMNT?
00:57 Why are electrolytes important
01:20 LMNT’s first problem
02:30 What about performance?
05:08 What about potassium and magnesium?
05:26 Why are electrolytes being promoted?
If you have any questions or want any general advice/tips I’ll be more than happy to help. Send me a DM on Instagram or drop a comment down below.
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For the Algo:
LMNT review
Is LMNT worth it?
LMNT electrolyte review
Is LMNT legit
Disclaimers: Adam McDonald is not a doctor or a medical professional. Always consult a physician before starting any exercise program. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. This video is intended for educational reasons only. Adam McDonald will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of information contained in this video including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness or death.
Salt isn’t all you eat, and Keto dumps electrolytes.
It’s so damned expensive for what it is. Mix your own NaCl, potassium and magnesium. Carefully.
I would like to hear your recommendation on cramping. I’m a leukemia patient who’s been in remission for 3 years. I now have chronic GVHD, which wreaks havoc on my body. I used to play ice hockey and work out. The treatments of chemo and other meds F’d up my body quite a bit. So now I golf and do my little bitch workouts. If I do a lot of walking in a round (usually 10k steps, which for most isn’t a lot), I get pretty bad cramping in my hands and legs. Any suggestions that I can try. My oncologist won’t have a clue.
I found this review interesting, but I think it misses an important part of the conversation. I live in a tropical country with high humidity, and sweating, often to the point of mild dehydration, is pretty much a daily reality. Without some form of electrolyte support, I notice a clear dip in focus and physical performance.
Just adding more sodium to my diet or assuming I get "enough" through food doesn’t really cut it, at least not for me. I think it’s important to recognise that the need for electrolytes can really depend on the environment you’re in and your individual metabolic rate. The video seems to frame the question as “are electrolytes even necessary?” but I’d argue the better question is: for who, and under what conditions?
For people in hotter climates or with high activity levels, products like LMNT can make a noticeable difference.
The fact that the cite research from the company founder is a huge red flag.
I play golf in the heat after having heat exhaustion my body doesn’t do very well anymore on super hot days. I added electrolytes among other things is it seems to help me a lot. I don’t know the science but I do know I will keep using them on hot days. It’s most likely the sodium helping to retain some water as I sweat a ton naturally.
Lmnt works perfectly for fasting or calorie restrictions and cardio training. . Obviously you’re not going to combine this with your standard diet…. When I fasted before this I would get dizzy afterwards. Body needs salts and sodium
I tried lmnt years ago but quit due to stomach upsets. Turns out it has maltodextrin to which I am very sensitive yet was not listed in ingredients. Is this legal?
It’s really easy to make your own. Plenty of vids on YT showing how, and it’s so much more cost effective.
There are way to many podcasters being uncritical about their sponsorships, like AG1 and LMNT, which is a way to make money for them and nothing else, it does not improve peoples health as they claim in the commercials!!
So Peter Attia is online quackery now??
I don’t think this guy has all the data. I know a lot of people that eat healthy clean plant based diet, or do long fast, or keto that have had extreme pain from cramps and other issues from the loss of electrolytes. I have never used LMNT but I had to used something similar because of long fast.
Ive been using LMNT for 4 years now and it literally is the best value for helping performance IMO. Ive tried other electrolytes drinks and they dont work as well.
Is this the follow on product from the overly endorsed AG1 greens drink????
thank you, you have just saved me allot of money
Don;t eat bananas that are non organic. Dole and Chikita has been proven to have a coating on it that causes infertility, check it out. It made people severely sick and it’s not regulated.
Table salt?????
Thsts a mined salt!!!!
probably because the carnivore diet.
I used it in 1/3 strength for runs. 😊
Im trying to fast and was talking to ChatGPT and they recommended LMNT to help with fasting
It depends on your diet, how long you exercise, how much you sweat. During exercise its mostly the water you need to replace and not much of it. After you are done, the electrolyte replacement is more important. There has been a lot of research on it all going back decades, a lot done with the University of FL.
You don’t really need something like LMT if you are exercising for 30 -60 min and not sweating much. Also, if you eat a diet high in sodium, you likely don’t need it. The issue is people that don’t exercise much and eat the typical crappy American diet are also drinking these drinks which, in some cases, can lead to hypernatremia. Most likely, it just won’t be absorbed though.
We do need Sodium just as long we take potassium as well
lmnt (and now my own DIY electrolyte concoction) are the only things that keep me from getting terrible muscle cramps. I sweat a lot and eating a banana and some nuts throughout the day never really helped much.
What about going on a multi day hike or camping trip?
Thank You !
What do you think of electrolytes for prolonged stress induced adrenal fatigue? I noticed a noticeable energy boost after just one glass. Can you also review Sodii electrolytes please?
I use light salt.
This one gives me Horrible headaches it has to have some kind of preservatives
I appreciate your thorough research! Well done. A few points that may or may not be important. 1) the type of salt. I use Redmond Real Salt b/c it is mined underground, has a natural mineral content vs. Table salt which has the mineral content removed and a form of Aluminum added to prevent clumping. 2) natural flavors can be Maltodextrin which I understand may elevate blood sugar levels. Doesn’t bother me but the term natural flavors is deceptive and some people may be harmed. 3) I have enjoyed LMNT hot in the AM with butter and Oregano oil. Going forward I prefer to make homemade bone broth adding butter & Oregano oil. Adding something acidic like lemon or vinegar during the cooking process pulls minerals from the bones into the broth. 4) Primary water vs. Recycled surface water. Big difference. Explore the rabbit hole if you will. Again, thanks for your videos. Cheers.
I do about 9-12 hours of running a week. I take nuun every morning. Before I started taking it I tried to just add salt to my water but it gave me an upset stomach. But now I take nuun and I’ll pick up LMNT or Mortal Hydration if it’s on sale. Hope this doesn’t make me a one of those suckers that fell victim to marketing
LMNT is far from a good choice compared with what is out there.
I appreciate many of the points in this video, especially regarding magnesium and potassium. I can confirm that I found 0 studies on supplementation of magnesium/potassium before, during or after exercise. It’s honestly shocking to me how there is 0 research on either of these, despite it being mechanistically plausible that they might provide some performance benefit.
I do want to point out that I feel you make a major error in assessing the utility of sodium supplementation on exercise performance. You seem to exclusively talk about studies investigating sodium consumption during exercise. This ignores the fact that there are multiple studies showing a significant benefit of sodium intake pre-exercise, with these benefits including improved endurance (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17463297/), cardiovascular function and performance (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23253191/), and reduced physiological strain (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17218894/).
Most importantly, these studies are much higher quality than the ones included in the review on during-exercise sodium consumption. They standardised the pre-exercise breakfast, fluid intake, exercise intensity (using indoor treadmills, stationary bikes, and % of VO2 max), temperature (climate controlled chambers), and used higher quality performance measurements (heart rate, bike wattage). In contrast, two of the studies in the during-exercise review just give triathletes some sodium tablets or placebo before a race and saw if it impacted their finishing time, lacking basically any sort of control. Even the more controlled studies had issues, e.g. they were conducted outdoors (meaning different temperature, wind speeds, humidity, etc.), with one study having wildly different temperatures between trial days (2.6C – 20.6C) which impacted performance/distance (trial order was significant at p < 0.0001).
When considering this evidence, the more correct conclusion seems to be that sodium is likely beneficial for performance, but only when taken before exercise. It’s important to note that all three studies I linked were conducted in hot conditions (30C or so), so it could be that sodium is only beneficial in the heat (need more research to know the true impact of temperature). Whether sodium is beneficial when taking during exercise is inconclusive because existing evidence is low quality (you do say "inconclusive" at one point in the video, but you don’t mention that this is because of methodological issues with the studies in that review).
From an anecdotal perspective, I find it a bit confusing that you fixate entirely on sodium use during exercise. From the marathon and half-marathon race prep videos/articles I’ve read, it seems that the only thing people take during a race are gels, and if they do take electrolytes, they take them before the race. Even brands that sell electrolytes recommend to take them before a marathon, not during (see summary point 6: https://www.precisionhydration.com/performance-advice/nutrition/how-to-fuel-your-marathon/), so I’m not sure why all your research is focused on sodium use during exercise.
Nevertheless, I hope the studies I provided are of some interest/utility to you, and hopefully I interpreted them correctly (feel free to let me know if I made any mistakes)!
Nerozumím Vám, nejsou české titulky…
Brawndo! It has what plants crave. It has electrolytes.
thanks you…i’ve always know that, as an American, it is virtually impossible to be sodium deficient unless your diet consists of exactly 0% processed food (and you also don’t even cook with salt)
Evil company … hid Maltodextrin from ingredients … which has a much HIGHER glycemic index than even SUGAR. BOYCOTT.
This doesn’t apply to POTS patients, right?
Ultras, stay away from this video! 😂
I know 1 thing about it. The price is ridiculous. You can make your own electrolyte drink for 20% the cost.
If LMNT has zero sugar therefore it has sugar substitutes 😂😂😂😂 this drink is bs.
Those minerals are definitely in those foods that you mentioned, unfortunately we do not absorb all of them. This is just the kind of misleading information that is rampant on YouTube and other sites.
Do your own research folks! (YouTube is not research.)
As someone who has POTS, I find LMNT to be a life savor when I’m in a pinch and start feeling dizzy from a lack of salt in my system. I don’t like carrying around a baggie of salt with me so having it in this portable form is nice. But I do always question the average person carrying around LMNT with them. I feel like unless you need the salt throughout exercise or are like me and have a medical condition, it’s not needed everyday.
"So why is it being promoted?"
In one word… "MONEY!" If you have a great marketing campaign, you can make millions. I can remember when the tobacco industry promoted SMOKING cigarettes as HEALTHY! WTF!
If I cycle in summer heat for several hours without taking in salt (electrolytes are mostly just salt, ultimately), I’m much much much more likely to get a headache. I sweat a lot. I don’t think athletes need studies to show that salt is important for cardio in the heat.
Now beyond that, lmnt is just another huberman type scam, like athletic greens. It works because people love the idea of a magic pill to absolve them from all their bad life decisions.
Interesting in working directly with me? Click the link: https://bit.ly/Builttolast1
Just because there’s no current studies doesn’t make it false.
Sorry, but this is bullshit
Eating carbohydrates can lead to issues with salt. The issues with salt disappear when eating grass-fed beef, pasture-raised eggs, hard cheeses, and wild-caught salmon. Insulin and salt are not a good combo for the kineyes.
All i need is SALT and Water.
I’m someone who experiences debilitating muscle spasms in my legs after playing intense tennis for an hour or more in hot and humid conditions. You think I’d be better off with just a banana or apricot? I need something to help with it