found this while doing bit of research myself on drugs on doses for women so thought id share maybe a sticky as good info


Females and Drugs

OTC Fat Burners

There are lots of ?fat burners? out there. Depending on how recently you?ve done a walk through a GNC, you may be more or less familiar with the different brands. It?s been a long time since I walked through a GNC so I am not up on the latest. You may need to experiment with different products to see which works best with your own body chemistry, and also keeping in mind things like can you take it on an empty stomach (e.g. if you?re thinking AM fasted cardio). Generally IMO it?s more important to find the one that allows you to function during your day and sleep at night, as opposed to worrying about getting tweaked out enough to ?lose weight?.


Ephedrine

If you want to go back to basics, you can build your own ECA stack with individual components like NoDoze (classic college-finals week caffeine supplement), Ephedrine and aspirin (cheap off-brand is fine if you want to keep things cost-efficient).

Ephedrine Profile

Here are a couple articles on use of Ephedrine:

· ?Efficacy and Safety of Ephedra and Ephedrine for Weight Loss and Athletic Performance?
· Efficacy of herbal ephedra-containing dietary supplements and ephedrine on weightloss
· Ephedra Side-effects
· Difference between Ephedra and Ephedrine (re: when Ephendrine was banned in the US)


To build your own stack:

· E/C: 1:10 ratio of ephedrine to caffeine. Typical is 25 mg ephedrine + 200-250 mg caffeine

· E/C/A: 1:10:10 ? 1:10:15 ratios. Adding in aspirin thins your blood a little to extend the effect of the E/C. Recommendations for aspirin range from a baby aspirin (80 mg) to a regular aspirin (325 mg)

Another variation is ephedrine / caffeine / yohimbine HCl (ECY). Yohimbine is great as an appetite suppressant, but too much of it can leave you feeling sick to your stomach.
· E/C/Y: 25 mg ephedrine + 200-250 mg caffeine + 5 mg yohimbine..

You can take any of these combinations at 2-3 times / day, but it is generally recommended to not take anything after 3 pm, or determine how late into the day the last dose affects you, and make that the latest time of your last dose so you can sleep. Anything that affects your sleep will reduce your quality recovery time and begin to negate any progress you make from the compound you?re taking.


Non-OTC Fat Burners

Women are often more interested in ?fat loss? before they are interested in muscle growth, particularly for competition prep. The following compounds are explicitly not steroids, but they are generally controlled substances or by prescription only. These are the first line of supplements that women start to hear about to ?lose fat? or ?lean up?.

Clenbuterol

Clenbuterol is prescribed as a bronchodilator for asthma, but also has the additional effect of increasing metabolism. The claim is a 10% increase in metabolism over ECA, which claims a 3% increase in metabolism. (I have seen this often quoted but never found an original study to back this up.) Clenbuterol has a 36-39 hour half-life ? meaning if you take it, or worse, too much, you have to ride it out for about a day and a half. Some people panic if they take too much, and head to the Emergency Room, where the doctors will still just tell you that you need to ride it out until it wears off. There is nothing you can take to ?make it stop? before then.

Clenbuterol Profile:
· Clenbuterol
· Clen FAQ

Clenbuterol has also been called ?anti-catabolic? ? meaning it does not promote muscle loss as part of the increase in metabolism to reduce bodyfat. Here are a couple studies that imply that clenbuterol, interestingly on a restricted diet, does promote some amount of muscle growth (or preservation) in research animals:

· Effect of clenbuterol on growth, nitrogen and energy balances and endocrine status in food-restricted sheep.
· Effects of clenbuterol on the metabolism of nitrogen and IGF-I level in isolated perfused rat liver.

Some additional considerations when using clenbuterol:

· Supplement with (3-5g/day) l-taurine ? clenbuterol tends to inhibit l-taurine in your system, producing cramps

o The effects of the beta 2-agonist drug clenbuterol... [Amino Acids. 1998] - PubMed result
· Using Ketotifen with clenbuterol (2-3mg ED)
o Ketotifen Profile
o Note Ketotifen is prescribed as an anti-histamine. It can make you sleepy so better to take it at night.
o Effects of ketotifen and clenbuterolon beta-adrenergic receptor functions of lymphocytes and on plasma TXB-2 levels of asthmatic patients:


· Using Benedryl with clenbuterol
o ?Bro-telligence? has often recommended using Benedryl to allow you to run clenbuterol longer without an ?off? cycle to reduce down regulation of receptors. This is NOT true. Benedryl will only help you sleep if you?re overstimulated by a clen cycle. Ketotifen is the better choice for longer clen cycles.

With regard to cycling clenbuterol, I suppose this falls under bro-telligence. Following are two common cycles:
· 2 weeks ?on? / 2 weeks ?off? for 8-12 weeks
o Starting at 20 mcg, increasing by 20 mcg units as you can handle, until what you can handle or a maximum of100 mcg per day, and then stay at that amount for the duration of the two weeks. Then stop and go off for 2 weeks, substituting your favorite OTC thermo, and then repeating the 2 weeks ?on?, again starting at 20 mcg.
· Continued ?on? for 8-12 weeks, include ketotifen
o Starting at 20 mcg for a week, increase by 20 mcg per week until what you can handle or a maximum of100 mcg per day, and then stay at that amount for the duration of

Thyroid Medication: T3 and T4

The thyroid hormones thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3), are tyrosine-based hormones produced by the thyroid gland primarily responsible for regulation of metabolism. T4 converts to T3, with T3 being 3-4 times stronger than T4. Synthetic T4 (Synthroid) is often prescribed for people diagnosed with hypothyroidism (?sluggish thyroid?).

T3 Profile:
· T3 Profile

On a side note, thyroid disease is not uncommon in women. I would hesitate to blame ?can?t lose weight? on the thyroid, as people often look for pills-based solutions or some excuse before they?ll spend the time revisiting their diet & training programs. But that said, if you feel there is an issue, by all means, talk to your doctor about it and get a thyroid panel done. Here is some starting information about this subject: Metabolic Mysteries: Undiagnosed Thyroid Disease and Women.

An overview of these thyroid hormones may be found here: Thyroid hormone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

T3 is frequently suggested as part of a fat-loss protocol. It is important to be conservative with use of T3 if you choose to go that route. You are manipulating your thyroid via self-medication. Too much and you will immediately feel lethargic. General guidance also suggests to be slow in your dosing ? taper off when you are coming off instead of just dropping it cold. The body generally can adapt to small changes but tends to rebound with large, sudden changes.

Another very important consideration with T3 is that bumps up metabolism? but that means metabolism of everything ? both lean muscle mass and bodyfat. Women tend to be so focused on ?fat loss? that they forget about the importance of muscle mass. Building and preserving muscle mass has nothing to do with ?looking like a man? or ?getting huge?, but rather about the keeping the body component that helps you burn bodyfat more efficiently, and it also goes into what makes up a bodyfat percentage. ?What?s your bodyfat?? means what is the ratio of lean muscle mass to bodyfat in your body? It is great to drop bodyfat, but if you are sacrificing muscle mass, your overall bodyfat percentage will not drop the way you want it to. The lack of muscle mass can contribute to a higher bodyfat percentage (what we often call ?skinny-fat?0 just as higher bodyfat percentage.

To this end it is not generally recommended to cycle T3 without an anabolic support. Either an AAS or, a very common stack is with clenbuterol, which has been shown to be anabolic, or at least anti-catabolic.