Do you also take iron with that? How much? And an extra calcium? My nutritionist is not terribly helpful and I want to make sure I am taking the correct amounts.

My doc says not to add anything unless your blood work warrants it. 

Yes. I take an iron (18 mg) with a vitamin C tablet (helps with absorption) every night prior to bed. Also, I take Calcium 3 times daily (1500 mg total). The calcium I take with a chewable vitamin D-3 tablet as well. D-3 will aide in the calcium absorption.

You need to take supplements at least four times a day. They must be two hours apart. Two multis, taken together if you like. 500 mg of calcium, times three.

You will almost certainly need extra D3, B12, and iron. But if you do, and how much, will depend on your labs.

Just to clarify - my understanding is that the critical "spacing" of supplements is the calcium. At least 2 hours between doses. The rest can bunch up - multivitamins, B1, B12. 

And my labs yesterday were just dandy, thanks!

The critical spacing is calcium and iron. She can take calcium with her multi, but if she's hoping to absorb any iron from the multi, she'll need to take the calcium 2 hours before or after. And calcium needs to be split up because you can only absorb about 500 mg at a time. The 1500mg should be split into 500mg every two hours.

If you take calcium with your multi, you'll need additional iron. So either way, it's 4 doses a day.

Gotcha! I don't need an extra iron supplement so that hasn't entered into my planning!

No extra iron.

I initially did that when I was MO cuz I would run anemic. then one day the WLS surgeons office called me up after my blood work was in and said..."Stop taking that iron would ya?"

Well they said the more professional version of that!

For what it's worth, I didn't take any extra iron because I was post-menopausal. And I had never been anemic. Fast forward to about a year and a half ago. I would have this issue at night with my arms. It was like I was having restless leg syndrome but in my arms. My Doc didn't really have anything for me when I mentioned it so I let it go for the time being. Then I was reading on here a woman who described what I was having exactly. She had found out she had low iron, upped her dose and it went away.

I started reading up on it and I did find mentions of it in people with low iron. So I started taking iron. I started with a double dose and in 2 weeks I was so much better. Now I don't have the problem at all anymore.

So I guess my point is, it may be for you and it may not. Your labs (which I was behind on...very bad) will tell the story for you most likely. Don't rely on what I or others tell you or whether or not you have gone through menopause. Rely on your labs. Watch your trends.

The ASMBS recommends iron for ALL WLS patients.

Not sure why surgeons go against this research unless the patient has labs that show elevated/too high levels?  It's very hard to get it back up once it drops but easy to keep good levels with supplements