Vitamins required or not?

[sweetsmith78 55]

I'm about 2 years out from gastric sleeve. I have done my routine blood work. "Maybe not as much as I should have." From day one I never took supplements I pretty much eat a clean diet. But not really strict. My blood work for Vitamins have been perfect. I'm not sure why the drs push vitamins ?

Everyone is different!

[liveaboard15 1,292]

its exactly that. Everyone is different. i slack on my Vitamins mainly because i just forget lol. My blood work comes back fine except for a little low Iron. I actually have another round of blood test coming up in 2 weeks for my 6 month follow up. shall see.

[ms.sss 14,637]

14 minutes ago, sweetsmith78 said:

I'm about 2 years out from gastric sleeve. I have done my routine blood work. "Maybe not as much as I should have." From day one I never took supplements I pretty much eat a clean diet. But not really strict. My blood work for Vitamins have been perfect. I'm not sure why the drs push Vitamins ?

Everyone is different!

Not sure either, but my default reply to your post (and other posts like it) would be: follow the advice of your doctor. Until, of course, you have valid information not to.

Have u asked your doc for his reasoning?

My own, individual experience : I’m 4 years post op. I stopped taking my vitamins just a little over one year post op. I’ve had several labs done since then and they have all come back satisfactorily.

My next checkup/lab is at the end of the month..if the results indicate i need supplements, then I’ll take them, otherwise, i’m good.

[SpartanMaker 676]

The way I look at it is that the Vitamins are cheap insurance. Even though I just had surgery, I've taken a Multivitamin for years. Not because I was trying to make up for a diet deficiency, but because there are some really nasty diseases/conditions that can occur if you did end up having a significant deficiency of certain vitamins or minerals. Even with just lower levels of some things, you can be left feeling not so hot.

So the question in my mind isn't why take a multivitamin, but rather why not?

[Tomo 1,135]

I think it depends on your diet. If you track, are you meeting 100% of your Vitamins and minerals from your diet alone? I always come up short on certain vitamins through my diet so even after years of having VSG (Before RNY revision), I took a multivitamin, sometimes calcium chews.

[Arabesque 6,446]

Yes, everyone is different & they have different requirements around needing Vitamins or not. And our requirements do change.

I would ask your doctor why too especially as your blood tests show you aren’t lacking in anything & have for a while. Though are your blood tests showing everything is okay because you take vitamins? Maybe some comparison testing is needed.

I stopped taking vitamins at about 8 months with my surgeon’s approval. They were making me nauseous & I was still losing. I said you want me to stop losing than I need not to feel nauseous (it want all that bad more felt off than nauseous). My blood tests were good as well. He said ok but would keep reviewing my three monthly blood tests to ensure everything stayed stable.The only thing I take is Vitamin D in winter as we realised it dropped every year then.

Edited October 16, 2022 by Arabesque

[Recidivist 1,141]

Very interesting thread. I'm still taking Vitamins at 3.5 years out, and my surgeon said I would need to take them for the rest of my life. My labs are also great, and it never occurred to me to stop taking vitamins.

[SleeverSk 617]

I don't take them either all my bloods Vitamin wise are great.

[pintsizedmallrat 470]

The only thing I am deficient in is Iron and calcium--I supplement both of those. Keep in mind if you menstruate, you may always need iron supplementation due to the reduced intake, but everyone will be different. I was anemic before my surgery so YMMV.

[catwoman7 10,845]

7 hours ago, Recidivist said:

Very interesting thread. I'm still taking Vitamins at 3.5 years out, and my surgeon said I would need to take them for the rest of my life. My labs are also great, and it never occurred to me to stop taking Vitamins.

I think you pretty much have to with bypass because of the malabsorption component. Sleevers don't have malabsorption, so it may be different for them (depending on the person and their labs, of course...)

Edited October 16, 2022 by catwoman7