Calcium woes...help!

Hi Wendy!
The bottle is WALMART Brand Calcium Citrate + D and they are 630 MG With a dosage of 2 pills... My dad calculated it for me and It's exactly what you said, which would be me taking 2 pills 3 x a day exactly 2000 MG.... THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!  My labs were not going to be pretty in 2 months if I didn't catch that in time.... Glad I did!!!

As far as the Flinstones, I think they are so YUCKY!!! As soon asd I finish my current bottle, Im going to look around for some more vitamins... We don't have a  Drug Emporium here =( Or a Farmers market... I wish we did...I really want some of the high tech supplies you guys have.... And some Greek Yougurt....

Has anyone tried or have any thoughts about Bariatric Advantage Calcium Citrate (400mg) Chocolate Flavored Lozenges with Vit. D (100IU) 90 tabs/btl?

I tried a chewable vitamin yesterday & it didn't sit well at all. So after that I didn't even want to look at the bottle of chewable calcium. Not the fruit flavored ones anyway. I guess I'm going to miss my chocolate chews.

My prenatal vitamin went down much better today. I'm cutting a tricore pill in half & it still seems big going down so even the Citrucal Petites (that I also already had) seem big now.

I've always had to have a drink or hard candy (sf) or I seem to have a cough (I hate getting into Church or somewhere & not have that candy in my purse). So calcium in lozenge form sounds tempting.

Good news... PCP took me off 2 of my 3 blood-sugar pills today!   :-)
I'm to follow-up in a week with numbers so maybe I'll get rid of the other 1 then.

Hi Libby,

Those BA calcium lozenges aren't what you think they are. They're NOT hard candy, SF or otherwise. They are more like giant Rolaids or Tums. I got some of the cinnamon ones, thinking anything cinnamon is good in my book, well, not this stuff. It's Okay, and just Okay in my book. Good in a pinch, but not something I woule use to quell a tickle in my throat. Very dry!

contrats on getting rid of medication!   That's what this is all about, isn't it?

My internet has been down since Monday afternoon so I'm just now catching up on all of your suggestions...THANKS EVERYONE!!!

Wendy #2 & Tiny Big Chief, ya'll were right.  My calcium petites are only 400 each. Dingbat! But I did buy try one of the chewable s/f chocolate thingies last night and it didn't make me gag or get "stuck" like I feared, so I'll try those.  Now...How many of THOSE little buggers should I we try to get down every day?!?!

Are they the ones like you brought me from Wal-Mart?  Those are only good for the D &K in them, as they are calcium carbonate. I munch on them "just 'cause".


Thanks for the well wishes. Glad your computer is feeling better too!

Sorry I don't have time to read all the responses, so someone may have said all this already.

RNYers need 1700 - 2000 mg of calcium citrate per day (1500 mg per day for lapbanders).  This needs to be split into 500 - 600 mg doses throughout the day.  Be sure to note not only the dose on the bottle, but how many pills make up that dose.  (Do not assume one pill = one dose.  Many times two pills = one dose.)

If memory serves (and this has been a while folks),
Citracal Plus = 2 pills for a total dose of 500 mg
Citracal Petites = 2 pills for a total dose of 600 mg
Wal-Mart Calcium Citrate + D = 2 pills for a total dose of 630 mg
(But I may have those last 2 reversed.  I don't take those so I don't really remember.)

So if you are taking Citracal Petites, you need to take 2 pills 3 x per day (for a total of 1800 mg per day).  I'd also make sure you get some calcium via food throughout the day to try to get you up to that 2000 mg per day. 

Lethargy is not associated with calcium supplementation unless you are ingesting toxic levels (> 2000 mg per day for normies, but it would have to be a lot more than that for us because of our impaired absorption).  So the calcium shouldn't be your problem.  I'd say that's just a coincidence.

The more likely culprit with lethargy is vitamin deficiency - not vitamin supplementation.  (Well, unless it's iron, and actually iron supplmentation CAN make people sleepy.  But that's a different post for a different time.)

Are you taking a good B-complex?  What about enough B-12?  Deficiencies in almost ANY of the B vitamins can cause lethargy as a side effect.

Vitamin C and folic acid are also culprits sometimes with lethargy. 

You're not taking any vitamin A supplements are you?  Over-supplementing on vitamin A can cause extreme lethargy.  Now granted, that would be rare for us.  But who knows.  What would be MORE likely is a vitamin A deficiency (which can cause fatique).  (While we're on fat soluble vitamins, how is your E? K? D?)

Let me think...

You're not taking Flagyl (or some such) for gas are you?  That can cause extreme fatigue.

Another BIG culprit... how is your PROTEIN and FLUID intake?  Getting enough of both?

Hope you're feeling *****ier by now! 

Wen

You need to make a signature for yourself that includes the title:

Vitamin Queen, Keeper of all Nutritional Knowledge

I feel more like vitamin DORK most of the time.  I sometimes feel like a dork when people ask what I'm reading if I have to answer something like "the National Institute of Health's recommendations for vitamin supplementation".  They look at me like I suddenly sprouted a 3rd eye on my forehead or something.  LOL

But it really is interesting stuff. 

Some nice eyeshadow and mascara will make that third eye look sooooo pretty!

Love ya!

isn't that the truth????

We're so lucky to have her