Vitamins and vitamins and vitamins...oh my!

Hey guys! I'm doing a 1200 calorie diet to try and reach my goal weight for surgery.  I was wondering when did you all start taking your vitamins? I'm thinking about starting them now to try and get in the routine. 

I'm looking at the Optisource Post Bariatric Formula Chewable, and my binder says to take 4 a day. I was wondering if pre-surgery its ok to take so many of these. o.O

What surgery are you having?  Four Optisource gives you 100% of the RDA of most things and 1000 mg calcium (as calcium carbonate, which is the wrong kind of calcium after WLS), so it would be fine for a preop to take four of them.

After surgery, if you have lap band or sleeve, you could keep taking four of them, but should add calcium citrate because WLS patients don't absorb calcium carbonate well.

If you have RNY or DS you would need EIGHT of those a day because you'd need 200% of the RDA of things.  You'd also have to add calcium citrate because you would not be able to absorb the calcium carbonate.

If you don't want to take that many pills, you could use something like Centrum.  One of those gives you 100% of the RDA of most things.  You'd need one a day pre op, and two a day if you have RNY or DS.  You would also need calcium citrate.

I am going for the sleeve. I have ordered the Calcium citrate chews from Bariatric Advantage and they are 500mg each, and I believe I'm supposed to take 3 of those a day. I also have a problem swallowing pills, so I'm looking at chewable, and Kaiser told me if I did Centrum, that I would have to add Selenium three times a week because the Centrum chewable lacks that. 

Yes, the regular Centrum chewable lacks selenium.  Centrum Silver does have selenium, but not iron.

You might want to check out the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery guidelines.  They tell you what you need for each surgery.  http://nutrition.otago.ac.nz/__data/assets/file/0005/4784/Ba riatricNutritionReading.pdf

Thank you for that link! Thats awesome XD 

I'll add that a selenium deficiency is pretty rare in the U.S, even in WLS folks that take vitamins without selenium (like gummy vitamins, Flintstones, etc- and yes, some adults that have had WLS do take those).  If you wanted to start out taking Centrum chewables that don't have selenium, I would jus****ch my labs and add selenium if I noticed my getting low.  It's possible you might never need to add it, but possible you might somewhere down the road.  Some docs don't routinely order that lab, so you might need to ask to make sure yours is ordering it when you get labs done.

If you're getting RNY or DS, the vitamin regimen is designed to compensate for malabsorption, so you may be getting too much, which can be harmful with the iron, A, D E and K vitamins.  For right now, take a good multi and some extra calcium and D..

This is what I thought as well. The Kaiser binder has  a list of all of these vitamins to take, and they say to do it if you are getting the sleeve as well (which is what I will be getting). I've read over and over on here about the importance of vitamins in other surgerys, but Kaiser is telling me its the same for both RNY/Sleeve. I'm just worried about harming my body and not getting the right nutrienants. 

Now that scares me, but unfortunately doesn't surprise me at all.  Your body will be absorbing nutrients exactly the same with the sleeve as it is for the DS.  The downside is that for a year or so at least, you will find it physically impossible to consume enough food to properly nourish your body.  The sad part is that the majority of Americans don't do this now anyway with maximum capacity to consume what their body needs.  This is where vitamins are necessary for everyone, but you will by no means need to take the same as a RNY patient, so either they are about to overmedicate you, or they will undernourish a RNY patient.  To the furthest extreme - many give the same recommendations to DSers, and we wind up malnourished if we're not taking control ourselves outside of their lack of knowledge.  

Know that you need a multi - but Centrum will suit you just fine.  Get bloodwork done to see what your baseline nutritional condition is.  Most women need a good multi, some extra calcium and vitamin D...all of which you can get at Walmart.  You don't need designer bariatric vitamins.  Even I don't waste my money on that stuff!  You should be able to swallow pills just fine (I was able to), albeit slowly at first - one at a time, but it gets easier as time goes by.

Good to know designer Bariatric vitamins are not necessary.  I have wasted at least $200 trying to find some I like. I detest the taste of chewables (but have not tried Flinstones yet).