Thirst has never been an ideal marker for anything. You’re already too late by the time you experience it. How many of you have raised a bottle of Gatorade during a workout, felt somewhat okay, but not known whether it’s the right thing to do or if you just wasted 200mg of sodium your body didn’t even need? Yeah, me too.
The advice on proper hydration has always been the same strange mix of “drink when you’re thirsty” and “no wait, by then you’re already dehydrated,” with no exact indication of the amount you actually need. This is pretty much the main idea behind hydration monitors and the Nix Hydration Biosensor is one of the reasons why their sensor is constantly mentioned in the discussion of what’s next in wearables technology. And the collaboration with SOS Hydration proves it again.
What Is the Nix Biosensors Hydration Monitor?
Nix Hydration Biosensor is a sweat analysis tool meant for measuring precisely the amount of fluid and electrolyte loss while exercising. Contrary to using a smartwatch attached to your wrist, this system involves placing a pod on the patch applied to your upper arm during exercise, kinda like a CGM, but instead of your blood glucose, it measures your sweat. Your data will be transmitted in real-time to the app on your smartphone.
The difference with every other piece of advice about hydrating yourself lies in the fact that this device is not intended to give you some universal guidelines. Forget about “you have to drink 8 glasses of water daily”. The system is monitoring your sweat in order to advise you accordingly.
How It Works: Sensors, Sweat and Insights
Here is how it works. The patch is attached to the skin and as you sweat, that sweat runs across a set of electrodes. With this data, the sensor is able to determine not only the amount of fluid and sodium loss but also how fast the process is occurring.
The pod is attached to a new patch before your workout, you open the app, enter your activity (running or cycling, inside or outside) and work out. The pod itself is rather compact, weighing less than 0.5 ounces and within a minute of wearing, you completely forget about its presence. The battery can operate for up to 36 hours, which is quite enough for training days back to back.
The device costs $189 and is shipped with four patches. After that, you will have to buy refills, each pack will contain four patches costing $25, meaning $6 per session. This is rather expensive if you use it all the time, but still cheaper than going to a lab to get a real sweat test done, the way it was done until recently.
One important thing that you should be aware of is the fact that the data will not start showing up until about 20 to 25 minutes into your exercise routine. Furthermore, Nix specifically advises that you do not use this for any routine below 45 minutes. This is not for quick gym session, it’s built for the long haul stuff.
Why It’s Different From Traditional Hydration Advice
The vast majority of hydration advice assumes a consistent sweating pattern among people, which just isn’t true. While sodium losses can vary between 200 mg and more than 2000 mg per liter of sweat. That is a huge variation, meaning what works well for your training partner might do absolutely nothing for you or worse, throw you off.
Unlike most solutions available on the internet, Nix Hydration Biosensor builds a personal sweat profile over time rather than suggesting a number suitable for everyone. In other words, instead of basing your calculations on something you read in an article somewhere, you use your own measurements and your own environment.
What the App Does: Nix Solo & Personalized Guidance
That’s where the worth comes through in the wash. Post-workout, you’ll have an entire analysis of your sweat composition, how much you’re sweating, how much electrolytes you lose per hour and the Nix Index, which is essentially a number between 0 and 100 that reflects where this particular workout sits for you personally.
Afterwards, it will compare your numbers to various commercially available hydration beverages and rank their effectiveness in relation to your actual losses. You can track what you drink and how it affects you. And it will factor in things like temperature and humidity to ensure that your numbers are not floating in thin air.
The application integrates with both Apple Watch and Garmin so, at least theoretically, you shouldn’t need to take out your phone during your workout. Well, in reality some of that pairing can be a little finicky, more on that in a second.
Who This Matters For
It is actually designed for endurance athletes, runners, cyclists, triathletes and all those preparing for an extended event, where failure to hydrate will literally mean a drop in your performance. The Nix Hydration Biosensor will be helpful to people who have physically challenging jobs under hot conditions, like outdoor workers or special forces.
In short, if you have experienced cramps while running a race or suddenly felt a random headache after a long-distance run, then you are the target group for any hydration wearable sensors. And if you only do 20-minute workouts 3 or 4 times a week, it is definitely unnecessary for you.
Real World Impact & Ecosystem Partnerships
SOS Hydration was just named the latest member of Nix’s Preferred Hydration Partner Program. Basically, if your sweat composition matches up with the electrolyte profile of SOS Hydration, the app will identify it as a match and lets you buy it directly, no guessing involved.
This is part of a larger trend within wearables. Instead of merely tracking your data, they now have the ability to recommend what action you should take based on that data. Nix has partnered with Infinit Nutrition prior to this as well, so it makes sense that other brands would come on board this program in the future.
Limitations and Skepticism
Everything about the Nix Hydration Biosensor isn’t exactly smooth either. There have been instances where some people have experienced connectivity problems, particularly in pairing the device with Garmin watches, whereby the connection ends abruptly halfway through and all the data is lost. It’s not exactly an ideal experience when your patch is not reusable and you already burned one.
There’s also been some pushback on accuracy. A number of athletes have raised concerns regarding inconsistent results, while scientists outside the company have highlighted the complexity in getting a sweat rate from a small area on the bicep and extrapolating the same to your overall body sweat rate due to variations in sweat rate and composition in various regions of the body. It’s worth noting that the company admits that their in-house tests don’t yet have independent third party validation.
Pros
- Real sweat data and not just hydration guidelines
- Creates a personalized profile through continued use
- Customizes recommendations for individualized drink brands from your actual readings
- Compatible with Apple Watch and Garmin
- Slim design, barely noticeable during workout sessions
Cons
- Not reusable, expense increases with continued use
- Issues with Bluetooth connectivity, especially with Garmin
- Lacks independent testing for accuracy
- Limited to running and cycling only currently
- It takes 20-25 minutes to get any information
Wrap Up
Nix Hydration Biosensor is among the few wearable devices out there that attempt to offer some insights into your hydration based on your physiological parameters rather than giving you some generic advice. It may not be ideal, but it’s definitely a good move to make for all the people engaged in serious training.
The collaboration with SOS is just a tiny glimpse at how this might evolve in the future. There will be more brands, more personalized product recommendations and no more doubts about whether you’re making things better or worse when choosing something from the drink shelf.
