What's the best way to take your vitamins?

Is there a problem with taking most of them at once? Should you space them out during the day? Does anyone know what the recommendation is?

The ones I know you have to separate are Iron and Calcium.  You can't take them within 4 hours of each other.  Also, make sure you are taking your Calcium supplements in stages.  Taking it all at once will cause less absorption.

Iron and calcium should not be taken together, unless it’s a very small amount of calcium.  300 mg of calcium or so will block the absorption of iron.  The reason some multis have both iron and calcium is because they often have only small amounts of calcium, maybe 200 mg.  That amount won’t block the absorption of iron but much more will.  Iron and calcium should be taken at least two hours apart.

If your multi has iron in it and you want to absorb that iron, do not take your multi with your calcium.  If your multi has no iron, it’s fine to take your multi with your calcium.  If you take additional iron at another time and so you don’t care if you don’t absorb the iron in your multi, then you can go ahead and take it with your calcium.

Now, if you use heme iron instead of ferrous sulfate or ferrous fumerate or carbonyl, etc., you CAN take it with your calcium.  Most people don’t use heme iron, though, because it’s so expensive.

Take your iron with vitamin C for best absorption (unless it’s heme iron).  The ratio is 200 mg C to every 30 mg iron.  That’s 30 mg elemental iron, so if you take 325 mg ferrous sulfate, for example, you’re only getting 65 mg elemental iron, so you’d need 400 mg vitamin C (but carbonyl iron is absorbed better than ferrous sulfate).  The point is, you would not need 2000 mg vitamin C with 365 mg ferrous sulfate because ferrous sulfate is really only 65 mg iron.

Keep in mind that people can only absorb about 500 mg calcium at once, so divide your calcium into doses of about 500 mg and take them at least two hour apart.  Keep in mind that the ASMBS recommends 1500-2000 mg calcium citrate per day, so you need three or four separate doses.  And make sure you’re taking calcium citrate, not calcium carbonate.  Understand that if you take a multi with 200 mg calcium and take that with another 500 mg calcium citrate, you will then not absorb the 700 mg total calcium you’re talking.  However, the calcium in you multi may well be calcium carbonate or some other form that is not absorbed so well anyway, in which case it would be fine to take your 500 mg calcium citrate with your multi, just with the understanding that you won’t absorb the calcium carbonate in the multi.

B vitamins work together so it’s good to take your B’s at the same time.  Your multi has lots of B’s in it, so take it with your B12 if you use a sublingual B12.  If you take a B complex and/or biotin, take that at the same time.

If you take vitamin D3 or vitamin A, it does not matter what you take them with.  If you take D2, it does not matter what you take it with either because you won’t absorb it or will absorb very little of it, which you must then convert to D3 in the body and by the time that’s done, if you took 50,000 IU D2, you may really only end up with less than 20,000, maybe as little as 5000.

I'm thinking you need to keep a notepad file saved on your desktop with that so you can just copy and paste it every day lol

LOL   I do have a file with some things I say a lot saved.  It's too much work to have to type it all out again and again.

I JUST WANTED TO SAY THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR INFORMATION! I READ A LOT OF YOUR COMMENTS AND THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HELP KELLY!! :)

Kelly - thanks for all the info. I knew about the Calcium/Iron and I usually take my D3 with milk or yogurt. It sounds like you're giving out a lot of good advice. This is the same stuff my surgeon was saying back when I first had it done. It's really important people know the difference between the calciums.
I guess my biggest question was whether or not it was ok to take the bulk of my vitamins at once -- like, can my body absorb most of it at once.

My new regime has been:
D3/calcium at night, Bs in the morning and multi and fish oil mid day. I'm not taking an iron supplement at this time but I'm still taking prenatals.

Edit- checked my prenatals and the calcium is carbonate. Good thing I take a citrate separately. My surgeon recommended Citracal. Is there a recommended supplement? I don't know what new stuff has come on the market in the last 5 years.
Also, I take Fish Oil caplets. Are those poorly absorbed? I checked Bariatric Advantage last night. That's where I bought my vitamins for the first 2 years after surgery. They have a chewable Omega. Any reviews/thoughts on that?

I really appreciate all the info. I'm trying to make sure I take care of myself. I have been so busy these past few years as a new mom, I've found I tend to ignore myself, and when mom is sick/run down, no one gets taken care of. I appreciate everyone who has taken the time to respond.

Well, your body can only absorb about 500 mg calcium at a time, so you need to take it three or four times a day.

You need two multis a day and some stuff in them you could absorb all at once but some stuff you might not, so it's generally best to split those up.

What if I was to take Citracal tablets, cut them in half and take it several times a day? How does that sound? I could pop one of my D3s with each Citracal, too.
I will start taking my multis twice a day.
Thanks for the encouragement.

That sounds fine if it works for you.  Since you can absorb up to 500 mg calcium at a time, you could take more than half a tablet at a time, though, if you wanted to.