Sorry, not sure on this one. Sodium Chloride is all I’ve ever really used since it’s just so readily available in my house.
I have been curious about this as well. I will add an input section for cost and quantity of each ingredient and do a breakdown in the sheet 
Standby for updates!
Speaking from a chemistry degree perspective.
Sodium citrate would be able to provide three times the sodium ions per molecule but the sodium citrate molecule weighs significantly more so I would need to do a few calculations to figure out that ratio.
It will not be one to one.
Update to the share folder. There is now a v2 version for those interested in downloading.
There are now 3 more tables in the sheet. The bottom left table allows inputs into the green boxes to calculate the cost in $/g of ingredient. It is rounded to 4 decimal places since the cost is so low. I suppose I could change it to be cost in cents/g but these numbers aren’t overly important anyways. The bottom right tables can be used to convert your values from lbs and oz to kg, since I know that many people buy their nutrition (gatorade and salt specifically) in lbs and oz instead of kg. Tables in top right have been updated to include cost per ingredient and sum of cost.
If these changes aren’t something you’re interested in feel free to stay on the V1 version. These changes do busy up the sheet significantly. I’m not sure I love the appearance of it but it’s an option for those who are curious on how cost compares.
Beta Fuel 2.0 is currently selling for $45 for a box of 15 with 80g carbs per packet. According to the sheet, this homemade stuff costs about $1 per serving for a comparable ratio. Not bad at all imho
Cheers!
For regular kitchen salt, you need about 2.5 times the weight that you want of Sodium.
For trisodium citrate that figure is about 11 times.
So you need about 4.5 times more weight of the sodium citrate as from sodium chloride.
What works for me is filling up a jar with table sugar and add 1% of citric acid. That way I can just scoop that into my drinking bottles depending on how many carbs I want. And the mixture of citric acid always guarantees a palatable drink.
Then I will separately weigh 1 to 3 grams of kitchen salt and add that depending on the temperature and how much I will be sweating.
Compared to Skratch, assuming similar composition, it is about 1/5 the price.
I’ve used the lemon and lime crystals here. They also have tangerine. I’ve used these for years. I mix them in with everything else in a Cuisinart Food Processor.
I use a Cuisinart Food Processor to make big batches, and then use an old Scratch scoop when I’m mixing my bottles. I’ve been making a similar mix for years, and I haven’t had any issues with consistency as long as you let the Food Processor run for a few minutes.
Is the salt element correct, i.e., salt is not just sodium, but a combination of sodium and chloride. Therefore, surely you need to add more table salt to hit your sodium goal?
This is a good point and something I realized last night as I was reading the comments from folks discussing the different sodium content of different salts. To be honest, I don’t know what amount of sodium I consume on rides. I only know that I add 750 up to 1500mg of sodium chloride (which appears to be 295-590mg of actual sodium).
Do you folks who are more analytical about your sodium intake measure your values in terms of mg of table salt or in mg of actual sodium? The sheet can absolutely be updated to reflect actual desired sodium amounts and then back-calculate to the amount of sodium chloride required to reach those numbers. Or the sheet could just be updated to read “g table salt” or something similar. Interested to hear feedback.
Excellent tool!
Any plans to update it with sucrose (sugar) instead of fructose… It’s cheaper and easier to find
I’m under the assumption that sugar (sucrose) is a 1:1 ratio of glucose and fructose. If you were gonna run at a 1:1 instead of a 1:0.8 couldn’t you just scoop as many g of sugar as you wanted g of carbs per bottle? Or are you thinking you still want to maintain the 1:0.8 ratio so you’d add 60g of table sugar and then an additional 15g of glucose in order to reach a 75g bottle at the “ideal” ratio (with the ability to alter the final quantity per bottle using the sheet)?
I aim for about 1500 mg of sodium per L. So the equivalent of just under 4g of table salt per L.
I lose a lot of salt when I sweat though and have a history of cramping, so I expect that’s on the higher side.
I use the precision hydration products, that is sodium and not salt content.
It is a great tool. Thanks @jpbessey! I tweaked it to use sugar as a base with a little Gatorade for flavor and it calculates how much maltodextrin to add to get to 1:.08.
This google sheet has been great to mix bottles. I do have a question. I bought fructose but now looking at it don’t really Understand its purpose. Just a sweetener? There’s basically no calories or carbs.
Also the malto seems a little light at 16 grams. Mine is 30 grams for 28 grams of carbs. Do they differ that much between brands?
My understanding is that there are two pathways:
Did you buy a fructose substitute? It and pure malto should be 4 cal per gram.
I checked my malto and it’s roughly the same. I’d never noticed. I wouldn’t worry about it.
Nvm my bad. Jeez. I had the wrong starting amount. Sorry guys. I was
First post. Looking to make my own mix and searching brought me to this thread. Skratch High Carb is getting expensive even with a discount, $29 per bag, getting 10 servings of of a bag, mixing 80carbs per bottle, roughly $3per bottle. Where are most of you sourcing your bulk maltodextrin and fructose?
