CBD is a great choice for many people who are looking to find relief from anxiety, pain, or low-quality sleep, but using CBD isn’t as simple as just taking random amounts. The amount of CBD you take is important, but there isn’t a standard amount that everyone should take. That’s why our customers ask us “how much CBD do I need” frequently, and we’re here to answer it!
Below, we’ll talk about how to determine your perfect CBD dose, including the best ways to avoid unwanted side-effects.
What Factors Influence My CBD Dose?
There’s a few factors that will influence how much, or how little, CBD you need, like:
- Body weight: Generally, the heavier you are, the more CBD you’ll need to feel the best benefits.
- Metabolism: If you have a fast metabolism, you’ll eliminate CBD from your body quickly. That means you may need to take more CBD compared to others to feel similar benefits.
- Severity of symptoms: If you have severe, chronic pain, then you may need to take more CBD than someone that only needs to manage mild conditions.
These factors are important to keep in mind as you think about what your final dose will be. However, regardless of your symptoms, body chemistry, or weight, the following steps will be a good starting place for anyone who is new to CBD.
Step 1: Start with a Small Dose
While it’s true that CBD can create mild side-effects, those side-effects are largely uncommon, and usually happen when customers new to CBD take too much too quickly. So, the best way to reduce the changes of mild side-effects is to start using CBD at very low doses.
What does low dose look like among different CBD products? Here are a few examples of how that could look:
- Transdermal patches: 1 patch a day
- Ingestible capsules: 1 capsule a day
- Inhalable CBD: 1-2 puffs a day
You may only feel mild, positive effects (or maybe nothing at all) when you first try CBD at a low dose. That’s ok! The goal is to avoid feeling uncomfortable and preparing your body for a dose increase.
Step 2: Slowly Increase Your Dose
Once you start with low doses (and you physically feel comfortable), then it’s time to start slowly increasing your dose. That may look like slowly increasing the puffs you take from inhalable CBD, trying two capsules in a day, or using patches more frequently.
If you’re not sure when to increase your dose, it’s a good rule of thumb to increase it if you’ve been at the same level for 3-4 weeks without seeing results. Some customers may feel comfortable increasing their dosage more quickly, but there’s no reason to go slower than increasing the dose every few weeks.
Your overall goal is to work your way to the standard dose for these products. While the standard dose can vary depending on the concentration of CBD you use, typical standard doses look like:
- Transdermal patches: 1-2 patches a day (one in the morning and one at night)
- Ingestible capsules: 2 capsules a day
- Inhalable CBD: around 10 puffs a day
The standard dose isn’t going to necessarily be your ideal dose. However, it is a nice benchmark to work towards so you can understand the impact of CBD on your body at a typical dose.
Step 3: Take CBD Consistently
There’s more to taking CBD than how big or little your dose is. You’ll never find your ideal dose if you don’t take CBD regularly. In order to feel the full benefits of what CBD may offer you, you need to take it daily. This will increase CBD concentrations in your body, which will make the overall effects more potent.
Consistency is key with CBD. Many customers end up thinking that CBD doesn’t work simply because they didn’t use it long enough. It can take three weeks for you to start feeling the full benefits of CBD, and it could be longer, depending on how quickly you feel comfortable increasing your dose.
Step 4: Increase Your CBD Dose Until You Get the Effects You Want
If you’ve been taking CBD at the standard dose for a few weeks, and you aren’t quite getting the benefits you want, then you may need to continue increasing your dose. The dose you end up at will vary from person to person, though the Food Standards Agency (FSA) recommends not taking more than 70mg a day. If you feel you want to take more than 70mg a day, you should talk with your doctor first.
The daily amount of CBD you can take can end up being much higher than 70mg. Research has shown humans can tolerate CBD at daily doses of up to 1500mg, though it’s worth repeating you should not be doing this without talking to your doctor first.
Need More Help? Ask PhenoLife!
While the amount of CBD you need will vary from person to person, we’ve talked about how you can get a good idea of your ideal dose. To summarize:
- Keep in mind unique, personal factors that may require you to have a higher CBD dose.
- Start with a very small dose of CBD to avoid negative side-effects and slowly increase the dose as you feel comfortable.
- Take CBD daily.
- Continue to increase your dose if you need more potent effects, but make sure to talk to your doctor if you need doses higher than 70mg.
Still have questions about how to find your perfect CBD dose? Contact us! The experts at PhenoLife would be happy to answer any questions you have about how to find your ideal CBD dose, or even what CBD products and formulas you may want to try.
Don’t have questions? Then take a look at our online store to see what we offer, and pick a product that seems like a good fit for your needs!
