Microdosing GLP-1 Peptides: A Detailed Guide
Microdosing GLP-1 peptides is a new trend in weight loss circles. It’s growing in popularity thanks to perceived benefits like a lower risk of side effects and preserving muscle mass.
But is microdosing worth it? And what kind of doses should you use? Short answer: yes, microdosing can help you lose weight while minimizing side effects. But it’s not without its downsides.
Here’s what you need to know, including people’s experiences and example protocols.
Quick Summary:
- Microdosing GLP-1 means taking smaller-than-prescribed doses of peptides like semaglutide and tirzepatide
- Most people microdose to minimize the side effects of GLP-1 peptides
- Microdosing is not currently supported by mainstream healthcare
- You can find many successful microdosing reports on Reddit, where people successfully lost weight with minimal side effects
Table Of Contents
What is Microdosing GLP-1s?
Microdosing is exactly what it sounds like: taking smaller-than-conventional doses of semaglutide, tirzepatide, or other GLP-1 peptides to promote steady weight loss with a lower risk of side effects.
For example, whereas a standard dose of tirzepatide is between 2.5 mg and 15 mg, a microdose might be 1 mg. Like regular doses, microdoses are typically taken once per week, although some people dose more frequently.
Benefits of Microdosing
- Fewer or no side effects
- Preserving lean body mass
- Lower costs
- Easier to adjust to the medication
- Getting other benefits (like lowering inflammation) without side effects
Microdosing GLP-1s has many potential benefits:
- Completely avoid the side effects or only experience mild ones.
- Standard doses of GLP-1s can often lead to massive weight loss. While this might sound good on paper, it can also mean that you’re losing muscle mass, which is detrimental to overall health. This is one of the reasons doctor Craig Koniver, a peptide specialist who recently appeared on the Huberman Lab podcast, likes to start his patients on microdoses and keep the weight loss below 2 lb/week.
- You save money since you’re using less of the peptide (at least initially, as you may decide to continue raising to a standard dose).
- Work up to standard doses more safely since it gives your body time to adjust to the medication.
- Another lesser-known use of microdosing is for non-weight-related benefits, like reducing inflammation or pain.
Some people also choose to microdose GLP-1s to help maintain their weight after undergoing significant weight loss with regular doses, although the usefulness of this approach is debatable.
Downsides of Microdosing
- Reduced effectiveness
- Takes longer to see initial weight loss
- May be harder to dose
The biggest downside of microdosing GLP-1s is the reduced effectiveness. You’ll experience less and slower weight loss.
Another overlooked downside of microdosing is that it makes it more difficult to measure and administer the dose:
- If you get your peptides in a pen, it’s harder to microdose since they come with pre-filled amounts.
- If you’re injecting peptides with a vial and syringes, you’ll have to measure carefully to get the right amount. Also, there’s a higher risk of contamination & infection since you’ll be breaking the vial seal and using the syringe more often.
Did you know? The idea of microdosing originally referred to taking small amounts of psychedelic drugs, like LSD. The idea was that you’d take a small amount to experience some beneficial effects but not have to deal with the potential downsides. Since then, the practice of microdosing has spread to many other medications and supplements.
Microdosing Semaglutide
Semaglutide (brand name Ozempic/Wegovy) is the most popular GLP-1 peptide. Microdosing semaglutide means starting with amounts below 0.25 mg, the standard starting dose.
Some people who use semaglutide as Ozempic do what’s called “counting clicks” because it comes in a pre-dosed pen. The basic idea is that a certain number of clicks corresponds to a lower dosage, like 9 clicks for 0.125 mg. You can check out this handy click-counting sheet by BC Children’s Hospital for more info.
Example Protocol
Reddit user Nmcoyote1 reported that he wanted to avoid vomiting from semaglutide, so he started with a 0.05 mg weekly microdose, moving up to 1 mg after 4 months. He reportedly lost 17 pounds with few side effects.
Did you know? GLP-1 peptides work by mimicking the natural GLP-1 hormone, which regulates blood sugar levels, appetite, and digestion.
Microdosing Tirzepatide
Tirzepatide (brand name Mounjaro/Zepbound) is a newer-generation weight loss peptide. It’s dual-action, so it works not just on GLP-1 but another mechanism (glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide or simply GIP). It’s #2 in popularity behind semaglutide.
Tirzepatide is typically started at 2.5 mg and gradually raised to a maximum dose of 15 mg.
Meanwhile, typical microdoses are usually somewhere between 0.25 mg and 2 mg.
Example Protocol
A standard microdose schedule for tirzepatide might look something like this:
- Start at 0.25 mg once a week for 1 month
- Raise by 0.25 mg every month, so that you’re up to 1.5 mg after half a year and 3 mg after one year
For example, reddit user /r/KeyAd3961 started with 1 mg of tirzepatide weekly and raised to 1.5 mg after 10 weeks. She said she’s been steadily losing about 1.5 lbs of weight weekly.
Meanwhile, reddit user antwan_benjamin started with 0.25 mg of tirzepatide taken every 3 days, increasing to 2-2.5 mg every 2-3 days after several weeks. He reported avoiding serious side effects while losing ~2lb/week with this approach.
Microdosing Retatrutide
Retatrutide is the latest generation of weight loss peptides. It’s currently undergoing phase 3 clinical trials, which means it’s not yet publicly available. Retatrutide is a triple-agonist, which means it works in three ways: GLP-1 (like Sema and Tirz), GIP (like Tirz), plus the glucagon receptor.
Thanks to this, research has shown that retatrutide leads to greater weight loss than semaglutide and tirzepatide (24% after 48 weeks, according to the latest findings). There’s no official dosage for retatrutide yet, but studies typically start at 1 mg and go up as high as 12 mg.
Typical microdoses for retatrutide are less than 1 mg. One interesting thing about microdosing retatrutide is that it’s often stacked with tirzepatide because some people find that their effects on appetite control and other aspects of weight loss are complementary.
For example, many reddit users say that tirzepatide has greater appetite suppression than retatrutide, which is why they like to combine them.
Example Protocol
Reddit user chef_prima started microdosing with 0.25 mg of retatrutide twice weekly (Monday and Thursday), moving up to 0.5 mg 2x the next week, and after a few months, up to 1.9 mg twice weekly. He noted increased energy and strength in workouts and lost 54 lbs after ~5 months.
Meanwhile, an example combination protocol with tirzepatide would be: take a regular tirz dose (e.g. 5 mg) once a week and add a microdose of retatrutide (like 0.25-0.5 mg) once a week on a different day.
The Right Way to Microdose
As we can see, there are multiple ways to microdose GLP-1s. For example, you could start with a small amount once a week, and just stay at that amount for many months. Or, you could do 2-3 microdoses per week.
Or, you could start with microdoses, and slowly raise to normal doses, and then perhaps a maximum possible dose after many months. The bottom line is that there isn’t really any one best strategy. You have to see what works best for you and experiment and adjust along the way.
Also, remember that microdosing is not approved by the FDA. While some doctors may be open to recommending it to patients, most will prefer to stick to established dosing protocols.
Split-Dosing GLP-1s
Some folks also do what’s called “split-dosing,” which is similar but different from microdosing. This is taking a standard GLP-1 dose and splitting it up into two or more doses per week. For example, you might split up a single 2.5 mg dose of tirzepatide into two 1.25 mg doses.
Reddit user Weird_Tumbleweed_720 used a similar protocol to avoid significant tirzepatide side effects, like a strong aversion to food, that he experienced with a 2.5 mg dose. Meanwhile, one popular strategy for retatrutide is splitting a standard dose into 7 daily injections.
Much like microdosing, though, split-dosing hasn’t really been tested by researchers and isn’t recommended by doctors.
So, Should You Microdose?
At the end of the day, it’s up to you. There’s basically no research looking at microdosing GLP-1s and the vast majority of the studies back standard, once-a-week doses.
Having said that, the benefits of microdosing are clear-cut. In particular, microdosing is a great way to ease yourself into taking GLP-1s by helping the body gradually get used to the medication, greatly reducing the severity of the side effects.
At the end of the day, deciding whether or not to microdose will depend a lot on how you want to deal with the side effects of GLP-1s. We hope that we made you aware of the pros and cons so you can make the right decision for yourself.
-
- Wharton, Sean, et al. “Managing the gastrointestinal side effects of GLP-1 receptor agonists in obesity: recommendations for clinical practice.” Postgraduate medicine 134.1 (2022): 14-19.
- Murphy, Robin J., et al. “Acute mood-elevating properties of microdosed LSD in healthy volunteers: a home-administered randomised controlled trial.” Biol Psychiatry 94.6 (2023): 511-521.
- Demidowich, Andrew P., Kristine Batty, and Mihail Zilbermint. “Instituting a successful discharge plan for patients with type 2 diabetes: challenges and solutions.” Diabetes Spectrum 35.4 (2022): 440-451.
- Jastreboff, Ania M., et al. “Triple–hormone-receptor agonist retatrutide for obesity—a phase 2 trial.” New England Journal of Medicine 389.6 (2023): 514-526.
