You have heard of the miracle effects of CBD, and now you want to try the compound for yourself. Fortunately, you can find CBD products almost anywhere and in almost any form. Unfortunately, it isn’t exactly clear how much you should take in one dose.
The good news is that CBD, unlike THC, doesn’t generate intensely negative effects when taken in high dosage; while some users have reported symptoms like extreme drowsiness and nausea, there is no danger of succumbing to serious illness or death as a result of taking the wrong dose of CBD. Still, you should strive to hit a dosing sweet spot that allows you to experience the effects you need without wasting a drop of CBD. To that end, here’s a simple and straightforward guide to getting CBD dosing right.
Dosing Based on Weight
Just as larger people can consume more alcohol before they feel a buzz, body size tends to play a role in how much CBD a person must consume to experience beneficial effects. Though weight isn’t the only predictor of how your body will react to CBD, it can be a good jumping-off point from which you can experiment with dosage to find the right amount of CBD for you.
The baseline formula for calculating CBD dose per day based on weight is: .25 milligrams of CBD x your bodyweight in pounds. Thus, a 120-pound person needs about 30 milligrams of CBD per day, while a 200-pound person needs about 50 milligrams of CBD per day.
We will be using this formula to help determine how much of different CBD products you should take to start enjoying effects.
Dosing With Tinctures
A tincture is any medical solution with an alcohol base. Because CBD tinctures are relatively easy and inexpensive to produce, you can find CBD tinctures at affordable price points. Even better, tinctures are easy to administer under the tongue or to mix into food and drinks, so they make excellent beginner-friendly CBD products.
The only downside to tinctures is that they can be confusing when it comes to dosing. Tinctures tend to come in one of two strengths: 500 milligrams or 1000 milligrams. In a 500-milligram tincture, each drop contains about .8 milligrams of CBD. Therefore, using our calculation from above, a 120-pound person would need about 35 drops of CBD tincture per day, and a 200-pound person needs about 60 drops per day to feel effects appropriately.
Dosing With Sprays
Oral sprays are like tinctures in that they are CBD extract infused into an alcohol solution. However, unlike tinctures, sprays are packaged for easy dispensing directly into the mouth, where CBD can seep into the bloodstream through capillaries under the tongue and in the cheek.
Oral sprays tend to contain 250 milligrams of CBD, so each spray has about 1.65 milligrams. You can administer multiple sprays at once, but you should be cognizant of your daily dosage and avoid taking too many sprays during the day.
Dosing With Capsules
Many CBD beginners are drawn to capsules and pills, which look and feel more like medication than other forms of CBD. There are certainly advantages to capsules, which provide a known dose of CBD in a convenient and inconspicuous package, but there are downsides too — particularly that consuming CBD and absorbing it through the digestive tract isn’t the most efficient way to get CBD into your bloodstream.
Still, if capsules are your method of choice, you should be happy to learn that dosing with them is exceedingly easy. Each capsule has a high CBD concentration, usually between 20 and 30 milligrams per pill. Thus, you probably only need one or two capsules per day, depending on the product you buy and your weight.
Dosing With Topicals
Topicals are products that are applied externally, to the skin, rather than ingested or inhaled. As such, CBD in topicals does not reach the bloodstream but instead provides targeted relief to the skin and tissues surrounding where it was applied.
You don’t need to worry much about dosage when it comes to topicals because there is no risk of overdose with these products. You can apply topicals quite liberally to the areas needing relief, and if you aren’t feeling any effects, you can apply more of the product until you do.
Overdosing on CBD isn’t a significant health concern; the worst you could feel is a bit nauseated with a dry mouth. However, you don’t want to waste your precious CBD by taking too much. By getting your dosage right, you can benefit from the effects and get the most CBD for your money, regardless of your product of choice.