Advise on supplement routine

[RuthD 10]

Hello everyone!

If you care to share I would appreciate!

I am almost 3 weeks out, and it is time to order some supplements, as my surgeon told me I could start taking them after 4 weeks post surgery. Sadly, his list is basic and he advised me to talk to dieticians, which her respons was you need good Multivitamin, Calcium and B,D Vitamins. In my country there are no specifically VSG vitamins, so I will need to make my own kit and order from abroad.

What is your Vitamin routine?Dosage?

What are the brands, formulations to look for? Should I order Bariatric Advantage?

Anyone who lives in europe, could you please share where you order your supplements?

What is the best supplement for hair?

I know that:
calcium citrate is the best form.
B12 needs to be Methocobilyn

Thank you in advance!

[James Marusek 5,244]

Hi RuthD. The Vitamin daily requirement for sleeve surgery is very different than for RNY gastric bypass. So from the context of the post, it seems like you had sleeve surgery. Is that true?

So according to my surgeon, the following Vitamins are required for Sleeve patients:

Three Flintstone complete chewable multivitamins daily.

Additional 65 milligrams elemental Iron daily for menstruating women. [ferrous sulfate]

1200 to 1500 milligrams calcium citrate daily [I use Citrical - this can be tricky because the dosage rate is per 2 capsules.]

500 to 1000 micrograms sublingual B12 once per week. [methylcobalamin]

100 milligrams Thiamine (vitamin B1) once per week.

It is important to put a 2 hour separation between the vitamins that contain iron and those that contain Calcium. So in my case I found that what works best for me is to take the iron supplements just before bedtime.

My surgeon also told me to avoid "time release" vitamins and "gummy vitamins".

After around a few years, I transitioned off from Flintstone vitamins and started to use normal multivitamins. Flintstone chewable vitamins were fairly easy to use and were easy on my stomach. I use to buy them by the large bottles a few years ago, but they have changed primarily to gummy vitamins today. As a result the large economical bottles disappeared from the store shelves.

Now if you had RNY gastric bypass, then the requirements are different.

It might also be desirable to take a probiotic to reestablish the colonies of good gut bacteria after surgery.

[Sweettoothless 100]

I just bought a bariatric multi from this site and it is nice to take 1 capsule of the multi instead of the 3 capsules of the Bariatric Advantage brand. Cheaper too. I bought the bariatric advantage brand chewies Calcium. There are a lot of flavors and they are really a treat. They are too sweet/ candy like for my taste now and are higher in carbs than they should be imo. But I liked them before surgery. This site has a lot of options and information if you go into their online store. I alternate my leftover calcium chewies with Citrical. Those kind of suck because you have to take 2 pills 3 times a day and even though they say petite they are big. The chalky chewable type of most pills taste nasty to me so I steer away from them. Sometimes I use Vitamin b drops. Sometimes I drink a yakult (probiotic drink). I take melt in your mouth Biotin to try and keep my hair.

[Bari_KS 499]

I had gastric sleeve surgery and here us my surgeon's recommendations

[RuthD 10]

Thank you both for the reply. I had RNY. The problem with the store here is that they only ship from USA which to the price of the product would add ankther 21% for duties and taxes 😢

[RuthD 10]

Damn it I made mistake 🤭 I am not the VSG I am RNY

[RuthD 10]

Also Celebrate vs Bariatric Advantage?

[Sweettoothless 100]

Maybe you can research the products on this site and buy them from Amazon? I originally bought directly from Bariatric Advantage because there is a huge upcharge to buy that brand on Amazon. But I am finding some items on this site to be cheaper than Amazon but I am in US.

[RuthD 10]

I’ve looked to Amazon in uk, there are either old packages, old formulations or fakes. Which is sad. Thanks for the advise anyway ☺️

[ummyasmin 1,603]

I'm in Ireland and I use https://www.fitforme.co.uk Vitamins. It's about 90 quid for a three month supply.

Sent from my SM-G930F using BariatricPal mobile app

[ummyasmin 1,603]

I'm in Ireland and I use https://www.fitforme.co.uk Vitamins. It's about 90 quid for a three month supply.

Sent from my SM-G930F using BariatricPal mobile app

Sorry, my bad, 90 quid for a six month supply but that's just for the multivitamin. I buy Iron separately from the chemist.

Sent from my SM-G930F using BariatricPal mobile app

[marly18 23]

9 hours ago, Sweettoothless said:

I just bought a bariatric multi from this site and it is nice to take 1 capsule of the multi instead of the 3 capsules of the Bariatric Advantage brand. Cheaper too.

Which brand was this?

[James Marusek 5,244]

I had RNY gastric bypass and these are the directions I received after surgery:

Three Flintstone complete chewable Multivitamins daily.

Additional 65 milligrams elemental Iron daily for menstruating women.

1500 to 1800 milligrams calcium citrate daily [this can be tricky because the dosage rate is per 2 capsules - therefore this can mean around 5-8 capsules per day depending on the size (petite or regular)].

500 to 1000 micrograms sublingual B12 daily or 1000 microgram injection once monthly.

100 milligrams Thiamine (vitamin B1) daily for the first year and then weekly thereafter.

In the morning I put my Citricals in a small finger bowl. Then I take a couple every couple hours. When I am up and about I put them in a zip lock bag and take them with me. For me this is not difficult. Sometimes I take two at once.

As an RNY gastric bypass patient, it is really important for you to take these Vitamins for the rest of your life. You body no longer manufactures these, so you must supplement. As a result cost is a major consideration. Generally I buy my vitamins in large quantities to keep the cost down. Also my surgeon's office required I have a full blood workup each year for the first five years. This is to detect any problem in Vitamin malabsorption.