Hi all,

I made my goal weight! Now I have an appt with my dietician and I need to have all my vitamins ready. I am so confused on what I need to take lol Below is what they told me to take but the multivitamin has most of the other components? Help?

• Complete Multivitamin, Multimineral with Iron 
• Vitamin B1
• Vitamin B12
• Iron
• Vitamin D
• Calcium Citrate

3 hours ago, AmberFL said:

Hi all,

I made my goal weight! Now I have an appt with my dietician and I need to have all my Vitamins ready. I am so confused on what I need to take lol Below is what they told me to take but the Multivitamin has most of the other components? Help?

• Complete Multivitamin, Multimineral with Iron 
• Vitamin B1
• Vitamin B12
• Iron
• Vitamin D
• calcium citrate

Hi Amber! My program requires similar vitamins (the only difference is, instead of B-1, they have us do a B-Complex). The explanation they gave me was that we'll need even more of quite a few vitamins after surgery, as we may not absorb certain ones (especially B-12) as well anymore. Vitamin D helps with healing, so it's good to have some extra (and deficiency is really common, especially in bariatric patients). The other reason for seemingly "doubling up" on some is that we're not getting any vitamins from "real food" immediately post-op, so they want to account for missing out on those when we're in the liquid & puree stages. Hope that helps!

Like Sarah, I have to take a B complex with a minimum of 50-100 of B1 in it. Sometimes I interchange them just because of size. B12 has to be sublingual or in shot as we do not absorb them after the surgery.

Even if the multivitamin has the other vitamins, you take extra as we are prone to deficiency. If Iron is in your multivitamin you do not need to take an additional pill, unless your lab work says so.

Calcium I take a chewable and I take it with the vitamin D since it is supposed to help with absorbtion.

yep - agree with the others. We don't absorb vitamins as well as "normies" do, and we need more of certain vitamins than what typically comes in a multivitamin. In addition, I don't think I've ever seen a multi that has calcium citrate in it. They usually have calcium carbonate, which we don't absorb very well. We're supposed to take calcium citrate.

you can ask your surgeon about their requirements, or check this list from the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (I'm guessing a lot of surgeons use this list). You have to scroll down a bit to get to the requirements. They have them for each type of surgery:

ASMBS-Nutritional-Guidelines-2016-Update.pdf

Congratulations on reaching your goal weight. Yay!

I’m going to push a different view. Do you need all of those vitamins (& yes we have different needs)? Do your blood tests show you are lacking in anything? Or do they say you have more than enough of any you are taking? Find out if you need any specific ones & then take those. Remember excessive amounts of some vitamins can have side effects & other we simply pee out what we don’t need.

Yes, some do have issues absorbing certain vitamins & minerals though it isn’t as common with a sleeve as with bypass. I only had to take a multivitamin & briefly vitamin D while I was losing. My surgeon said I could stop them at about 8 months by which time I had passed my goal. My blood work was great & still is 4.5yrs later though we did eventually pick up with my regular blood tests that my vitamin D levels drop in winter so I take a vitamin D mid autumn to mid spring.

I do have a malabsorption issue with protein which began after my gall was removed. Malabsorption after gall removal can happen but with protein is unusual.

First, a bit of confusion - have you hit your goal weight from surgery, as in 190 or so, or just some pre-op weight target and surgery is still in front of you? If you're still pre-op, then that is a fairly typical starting regimen, and yes, you should take extra calcium and iron above whatever the multi has in it - you won't be getting much nutrition from food for a while so you need the extra. If you are months post op and at your ultimate goal weight, then by now your labs will be guiding you and your doc as to what is needed - with a sleeve, a lot on that list will probably not be needed long term and will go away.

My team recently switched me from the handful of vitamins I started with to this one a day vitamin: Bariatric Advantage Ultra Solo Iron.
I also take a Bariatric Advantage calcium chew 3x a day.

On 11/8/2023 at 7:52 PM, Arabesque said:

Congratulations on reaching your goal weight. Yay!

I’m going to push a different view. Do you need all of those Vitamins (& yes we have different needs)? Do your blood tests show you are lacking in anything? Or do they say you have more than enough of any you are taking? Find out if you need any specific ones & then take those. Remember excessive amounts of some vitamins can have side effects & other we simply pee out what we don’t need.

Yes, some do have issues absorbing certain vitamins & minerals though it isn’t as common with a sleeve as with bypass. I only had to take a Multivitamin & briefly Vitamin D while I was losing. My surgeon said I could stop them at about 8 months by which time I had passed my goal. My blood work was great & still is 4.5yrs later though we did eventually pick up with my regular blood tests that my Vitamin D levels drop in winter so I take a vitamin D mid autumn to mid spring.

I do have a malabsorption issue with Protein which began after my gall was removed. Malabsorption after gall removal can happen but with protein is unusual.

So my blood work is great! But for me to go onto the next step I do need to have these pills with me at my appointment. They are requiring so many so Idk what I should I take. I believe I will be in the same boat that after the surgery I will revisit if I really need all of them.

On 11/8/2023 at 10:22 PM, RickM said:

First, a bit of confusion - have you hit your goal weight from surgery, as in 190 or so, or just some pre-op weight target and surgery is still in front of you? If you're still pre-op, then that is a fairly typical starting regimen, and yes, you should take extra Calcium and Iron above whatever the multi has in it - you won't be getting much nutrition from food for a while so you need the extra. If you are months post op and at your ultimate goal weight, then by now your labs will be guiding you and your doc as to what is needed - with a sleeve, a lot on that list will probably not be needed long term and will go away.

Pre-op weight target and surgery still in front of me I had to lose a certain weight before I could continue to the "next step". Okay then as long as the mulitvitamin has it, then I dont need the extra? just calcium citrate and iron?

56 minutes ago, AmberFL said:

Pre-op weight target and surgery still in front of me I had to lose a certain weight before I could continue to the "next step". Okay then as long as the mulitvitamin has it, then I dont need the extra? just calcium citrate and Iron?

You probably don't need to be taking all of that yet, unless your labs indicate a deficiency, but they want to make sure that you have everything ready for post op. However, some programs may want you to start taking all of that ahead of time to get in the habit. Either way, have them with you for your next appointment and if they had wanted you to be already taking them, then you can start then.

10 hours ago, AmberFL said:

So my blood work is great! But for me to go onto the next step I do need to have these pills with me at my appointment. They are requiring so many so Idk what I should I take. I believe I will be in the same boat that after the surgery I will revisit if I really need all of them.

Aah. So you’re pre op. I thought because you said up you reached your goal you were post surgery. In that case, yes, it’s likely they just want to check you will have all you will need from after your surgery.

Let them know you are concerned about doubling up on some of the vitamins & see what the say.