- Default serving300 ml10 fl oz · Soft drink
- Counts toward goal300 mlthe full serving
- Hydration factor1.00same as water
- Calories126 kcal42 kcal per 100 ml
Move the slider to see what a bigger or smaller lemonade does to the numbers. The app uses the same figures.
Work out your daily drinking target with the water intake calculator.
Mostly water and sugar
USDA data for lemonade made from frozen concentrate show 89.4 g of water and 10.0 g of sugar in every 100 g, with 40 kcal. (USDA FoodData Central) A 300 ml glass therefore holds about 30 g of sugar. WaterChamp counts lemonade at 42 kcal per 100 ml, close to the USDA figure.
Pink lemonade is much the same, at 10.3 g of sugar per 100 g. (USDA FoodData Central)
What the trials say about sweet drinks
Lemonade was not one of the 13 drinks in the Beverage Hydration Index trial. Two sweet drinks were, cola and orange juice, and both came out level with still water over four hours. (Maughan et al., 2016)
A follow-up trial added sugar to water in steps. Drinks with 10% or 20% sugar produced less urine than plain water or a 5% drink, likely because the energy slows how fast the water reaches the blood. (Maughan et al., 2019) Lemonade sits near the 10% mark, so it may be kept a little longer than water. Cola, with a similar amount of sugar, was level with water in the first trial, so any gain is small. Lemonade counts at a hydration factor of 1.00, the same as water.
The sugar
The WHO recommends keeping free sugars, the sugar added to food and drinks plus the sugar in honey, syrups and fruit juice, below 10% of daily energy. It suggests going below 5%, about 25 g a day, for extra benefit. (WHO, 2015) One 300 ml glass of lemonade has about 30 g.
When you log lemonade in the app, the No sugar option counts a sugar-free lemonade at 2 kcal per 100 ml.
Questions
Does lemonade count as water intake?
Yes. Every millilitre counts toward your daily goal.
Does lemonade dehydrate you?
No. It has no caffeine or alcohol, and sweet drinks such as cola and orange juice hydrated as well as water in a controlled trial.
Is lemonade good after exercise?
It replaces water and almost no salt: 4 mg of sodium per 100 g in USDA data. For long, sweaty sessions, see sports drinks.
Is lemon water the same as lemonade?
No. Water with a squeeze of lemon and no sugar is water. Lemonade adds about 10 g of sugar per 100 g.
Hydration factors follow the Beverage Hydration Index: Maughan RJ, Watson P, Cordery PA, et al. “A randomized trial to assess the potential of different beverages to affect hydration status: development of a beverage hydration index.” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2016;103(3):717-723. Read the paper on PubMed. In WaterChamp a lemonade counts the same as plain water.
