Also known as: tri-magnesium dimalate, Mg malate, dimagnesium malate
Magnesium Malate
·By Croix
What is magnesium malate?
Magnesium malate (typically tri-magnesium dimalate, Mg₃(C₄H₄O₅)₂) is the magnesium salt of malic acid — the same organic acid that gives green apples and stone fruits their sour tang. As a powder it's roughly 20% elemental magnesium by mass, so 1 g of malate powder provides ~200 mg of elemental Mg. That's the highest elemental-Mg fraction of any common bulk magnesium form.
Of the major endurance-positioned electrolyte brands, LMNT is the one that specifically chose magnesium malate over citrate for its Recharge formula, citing taste and tolerance. The Scottsdale Magnesium Study (Uysal et al., J Am Coll Nutr 2018) found dimagnesium malate raised red-blood-cell magnesium 30% over 90 days in 91 adults with minimal GI symptoms.
How does it work in a sports drink?
Once dissociated in the gut, magnesium ions are absorbed independently of the counter-anion. The form-vs-form bioavailability question for organic-acid magnesiums (citrate, malate, glycinate, lactate) is closer to 'all roughly equivalent in humans' than the marketing suggests. The clear absorption gap is between organic-acid forms (~25–30%) and magnesium oxide (~4%, per Firoz & Graber 2001) — not between malate and citrate.
Sweat magnesium losses are small — about 12 mg per liter, or roughly 24 mg/hr at a 2 L/hr sweat rate. That's well below daily Mg needs, and no RCT has shown that adding intra-exercise Mg improves performance or prevents cramps (the Cochrane Review found no evidence for cramp prevention specifically). Magnesium in a sports drink is more 'we put some in' than 'we replaced the loss.' At the doses we use (25–50 mg per bottle), it's harmless and matches what every credible commercial brand does.
How do I use it at home?
Target 25–50 mg of magnesium per 500–750 ml bottle — that's roughly 0.13–0.25 g of malate powder. Tri-magnesium dimalate dissolves cleanly in cold water and has a mild sour-apple note from the malic-acid half of the molecule, which works well with citric-acid-based flavor profiles.
If you already have magnesium citrate on the shelf, keep using it — at sports-drink doses, the absorption and tolerance differences are within measurement noise. We default to malate because LMNT does, because the elemental-Mg fraction is higher (less powder per dose), and because the slight sour-apple flavor is a small but real taste win.
Avoid magnesium oxide for sports drinks — it's the form Gatorade Endurance and Tailwind use, and at ~4% absorption it's the only Mg form where the un-absorbed fraction would meaningfully raise osmotic load in the gut. Organic-acid forms (malate, citrate, glycinate, lactate) all clear that bar.
Dose & usage at a glance
- Elemental magnesium
- ≈200 mg Mg per 1 g malate powder
- Typical drink dose
- 0.13–0.25 g per bottle (25–50 mg Mg)
- Sweat Mg loss rate
- ~12 mg/L (~24 mg/hr at 2 L/hr)
- GI tolerance ceiling
- well above sports-drink doses (clinical laxative use starts >400 mg)
Where to buy it in bulk
We primarily recommend Nutricost-brand products (made in GMP-compliant, FDA-registered facilities, third-party tested), with NOW Foods or BulkSupplements as fallbacks for ingredients Nutricost doesn't stock. The list below shows every channel that carries the product — Nutricost direct, iHerb, and Amazon — sorted by unit price. Pack sizes vary across retailers, so the lowest $/g usually means the largest pack — pick whichever store and size fits your usage. Links are affiliate — the site earns a small commission at no extra cost to you. For ingredients none of the three brands carries (HBCD, table salt, sucrose) we describe the typical specialty- or grocery-store option and skip the affiliate link.
Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
- Amazon (Nutricost) — Nutricost Magnesium Malate Powder (300 g) — via Amazon300g pack · $7.32 per 100 g$21.97Buy
- iHerb (Nutricost) — Nutricost Magnesium Malate, Unflavored, 10.6 oz (300 g) — via iHerb300g pack · $7.98 per 100 g$23.95Buy
- Nutricost — Nutricost Magnesium Malate Powder (300 g)300g pack · $8.32 per 100 g$24.97Buy
DIY teardowns that use magnesium malate
- DIY Tailwind Endurance: tune sodium to your own sweat rate
- DIY Tailwind High Carb: 90g of race fuel from grocery-store sugar
- DIY Skratch Sport Hydration: real-fruit flavor without the $1 scoop
3 teardowns— all walk through how magnesium malatefits into the specific commercial product's formulation.