To the vitamin gurus. or any input will help.

Ok I finally got my calcium citrate and they are huge pills but almost every bottle I come across have a seving size of 2 at maybe 630mg 3x a day.So that means I have to take 6 of those large pills a day.So correct me if im wrong one is just 315mg and If I take two thats 630 mg.So how much calcium can we absorb 500 or 600 mg at one time.And also if our vitamin has calcium in it dont that count also?

I do not claim to be a vitamin guru in any sense.   I beleive we can absorb about 500mg each time we take it, so I take my calcium in 4 increments a day to try to get in 2000mg.    Its screwy because the pills come in different amounts.   The chewy ones I like only have 250mg, though I've ready they are now making 500mg  ones, but I've yet to find a place to buy them.  I also have the larger cal citrate pills that are huge, I used to cut them in half so I could swallow them.

As for the calcium in your multi -- I would count it ONLY if there is no iron in your multi too.   Since the iron and calcium don't absorb well together,  I use a multi with NO iron and get my iron separately so I can count the calcium in my multi.

Thanks and yes I take a multi without iron and I take my iron with vit c at bedtime.

Yes, we absorb 500 mg at a time. So you would have to take six a day spaced out at least every two hours.

You can't count the calcium in your multi because it is most likely calcium carbonate, which we can't absorb.

Also, you can't take calcium and iron together because the calcium would block the absorption of the iron. It also has to be taken at least two hours away from your calcium.

 

• These are the supplements I take daily:
•  
• Breakfast: 1 Multi Vitamin/Mineral, 2-300mg Calcium Citrate, 1 Spring Valley 500mcg B12 Sublingual Dot, 1 mg prescription Folic Acid, 1 Vita Lady Tender Dry 5000 IU Vitamin D3 capsule, 1-100mg B1 tablet, 1-200mcg Selenium tablet
• Lunch: 1-300mg Calcium Citrate, 1 packet Orange Coromega Omega 3 Squeeze
• Non-Calcium Snack: 1-500mg Vitamin C, 2 Sundown 25mg Carbonyl Perfect Iron ***take 2 hours from Calcium/Dairy Products***
• Dinner: 1 Multi Vitamin/Mineral, 2-300mg Calcium Citrate

I had this same kinda issue...I could not take the volume of tablets to take...I found Vitalady Calcium Capsules 500mg ea

and I only have to take 3 daily....they are not very expensive and I love the convenience....

I use vitalady's calcium also. The cost isn't too bad and like you can take 3-4 a day instead of 6 and being capsule it's easier to swallow.

Which vita lady capsules are you taking? The only ones I see are 500 mg but only 145 of elemental calcium. Since you can only count the elemental, you'd need to take a lot of them. I might have missed what you are taking though.

I used to take those same capsules, until I found out a couple of months ago, that it wasn't 500mg but 145mg a capsule. I had been taking those over a year!  

I take the Citracal Petites. They're smaller and easier to swallow. I buy mine at Rite Aid.

http://citracal.com/en/about-citracal/citracal-petites/