I decreased in the beginning when I couldn't deal with the side effects. I cut the pills in half (they weren't the timed release kind) until I got used to them. When my Dr. upped my dose from 1000 mg a day to 2000 mg a day, I started having the same side effects. Again, I cut the pills in half until I got used to the dosage and then went back to taking the right dosage. No more side effects since. Weight loss, in my case, had nothing to do with side effects.

The Metformin aids in weight loss so I don't want to stop taking it and my Dr. is fine with that. I am nervous about going off it, though. Since I have been on it, I have been "regular". You can only eat so much fiber and I don't want to have to rely on laxatives when I go off it.

First , I couldn't handle the side affects of the regular metformin so I went to the time released and that helped.

I decreased after my last A1C but I have seen slightly higher numbers so Im not sure if I will have to go back to my original dose. Will have to wait till the next A1C.

Best of luck to u !

My dosage of metformin has been cut from 3,000 mg a day to 2,000; so far the side effects have been positive ones - I don't have to stay within sprinting distance of the bathroom. As I'm a teacher that's pretty useful as abandoning a class in mid sentence, dashing along a corridor, leaping up a flight of stairs and struggling with an ill- fitting key in order to acess the staff 'restroom' desperately crossing my fingers and tightly clenching my nether cheeks isn't a good way for a mature and respected (I wish) female to behave. Bathroom sprinting, or toilet dashing should be on the list of recognised exercises; sprinting or walking just doesn't cover the complexity of the task!
Seriously I am feeling much better, my daily readings are generally around 6.5 so that's fine. This morning even though I forgot to take my evening tablets 2 x 500 mg my bg meter was still only registering 8.4 so I was happy with that. I even had three biscuits yesterday, I went shopping before dinner and got tired and cranky and fell for the 'I need something sweet' myth. I just need to get my act back together, I've lost about a third of what I need to lose and have hit a brick wall in terms of motivation. Most of the MFP friends I started out with have hit their goals, are dropping out or don't log in on a regular basis anymore. I tend to get side tracked! I want to get my dosage down even further as 2,000mg is still one hell of a dose for anyone's system to have to cope with. So I need to lose more of this subcutaneous blubber that I'm still hanging on to.

I'm probably not the best example of what to do, but I stopped taking mine completely. Cold turkey. Without talking to my doctor. I was only on the 500mg extended release, and my diabetes has mostly been fairly well managed with a low carb diet, so I didn't have any of the noted side effects. I don't recommend anyone doing this without talking to their doctor, but I felt OK making this decision because over the past 15 years my A1C has remained mostly steady at 6.4/6.5 when I stick to a traditional low carb diet. In the past year I had gotten way off track with my eating, stress and lack of exercise, however, and my A1C jumped up to 7.4. Needless to say my doctor wasn't pleased and let me know. Lol. I figured a few months off the Metformin would be fine in the big scheme of things since my readings weren't extremely high. If they didn't come down enough, I could always start taking it again.

At the time I stopped taking it, I had decided to start following a Ketogenic diet to control my blood sugar and I wanted my lab readings to be all mine and not what I can achieve from taking meds. I wanted to know what this way of eating would truly do for me and how I would manage my diabetes (and cholesterol, etc.) with it. I did let my doctor know after my first labwork in March and she was fine with my decision although she said I could continue to take them if I chose to since they should help with the weight loss. I haven't noticed any help with them in that regard in the years I've taken them, so I didn't start taking them again. My A1C went from 7.4 in December to to 6.7 in March (2 weeks into the Ketogenic diet) and 6.1 last month (4 months later). As I continue to get healthy and drop this weight, I hope to bring it down even lower.

Glad to hear that lowering your dose has helped with your side effects and I wish you luck in being able to continue to lower your dose until you don't need it any longer, too!

I started on 500 mg twice a day in May 2012......am still on 500 mg twice a day now.
My A1C dropped from 6.9 to 5.7 & thankfully have never had any adverse effects from taking it.