calcuim question

calcuim question how much do you take? and are you lab levals of it ok? I am taking 3000 mg a day and my levals are dropping I am taking citracal - I take 2000 mg during the day and 1000 at bedtime b/c I was told it is best absorbed over night. the rest of my labs are great - does calcuim do anything other than build bone? could I be using it up building muscles? I do a lot of weight lifting and am hauling close to 300 pounds around a LOT of places and working out a LOT I no longer drink milk - it taste horrible to me way to sweet and thick - I do eat yogurt or cottage chese 4 or 5 times a week and do whey protien powder 4 shakes a day - eat a couple of peices of chese a week too - some times more sometimes less but I would say 5 servings a week HELP!! do I just up it some more and see what happens (and pray it does not stop me up)? danni 372/295/170

Hi Danni - I just got my lab work back for my 3 month check up and every single area was perfect - smack in the middle on everything and they told me at the doctor's office regarding calcium the lab work indicated I was not pulling calcium from my bones. I take 1200 mg a day - 2 of the citracal chewys and 1 mini citracal which is only 200 mg. - the chewys are 500 each. One thing my doc said was not to take the calcium at the same time as your multi vitamin because they cancel each other out and can't both be absorbed at the same time - you must wait at least an hour they say between multi vitamin and calcium. Also your body can only absorb so much calcium at any given time - so I actually spread my calcium out over the day. I take a chewy at breakfast, one at lunch and during the morning sometime or maybe afternoon I take the mini - so I never take more than 500 mg at a time. Don't know how you are taking yours, but hope this helps. I don't do near the exercising you do so don't know if that has anything to do with it or not. Good luck - Barbara

i take one viactive a day and I just had my labs done and my calcium was fine...so I am not much help sorry Mimi