Bariatric vitamins which brand the best?

 I am looking to get vitamins for my upcoming surgery on April 6th ....need pointers...and sorry if this question is asked A Lot !!

Any adult multi vitamin with 100% of the RDA of most stuff in it is fine, according to the ASMBS.  If you want a bariatric vitamin, Celebrate or Bariatric Advantage are good choices.  Some other brands marketed to bariatric patients really don't have all the stuff we need in them.

As far as other vitamins, what you need depends on which surgery you are having.

 Bariatric vitamins are way overpriced.  With a VSG, you have no malabsorption, so a Centrum and extra calcium citrate should suit you just fine.

I thought we did have some malabsorption?

The VSG is simply a stomach size reduction. Albeit smaller, your stomach is in working order the way that nature intended, and your intestines aren't touched, so you absorb normally everything you eat.

That being said, you won't be able to eat enough to sustain optimal nutritional health for a long time, which is why vitamins are important, however, normal vitamins and normal dosage is all you need.

Hi, I have an advanced degree in Food Science as well as having the surgery myself. I work very closely with bariatric physicians and an RD though am not a doctor myself. You actually do have some absorption issues with a GS. The reduced stomach size means that you don't produce quite the volume of stomach acid and enzymes required to efficiently process protein (hence the increased requirements) and B12 (lacking intrinsic factor).  For this reason, vitamin B12 must be taken sublingually daily or weekly shots. RD's also recommend vitamin D3 (5000 IU/day taken 2500 at a time)  Calcium in citrate form because we don't have the stomach acid to efficiently digest the carbonate form about 1200 mg per day in two doses separately from the multivitamin because iron and other minerals can interfere with absorption. It also doesn't hurt to take iron if you are child bearing age and a good Omega3 supplement. Bariatric formulated vitamins have the specific amounts and chemical structure for bariatric patients and are probably worth the extra money, but in a crunch OTC stuff will work.  :)

I like Bariatric Advantage and Celebrate. Just got some Wellese though, so will be trying that as well.

Are you talking about the Wellesse liquid multi?  It has no minerals at all in it, so it's not a good choice, unless you plan to take zinc, copper, selenium, mangenese, etc all separately.

Thanks for the heads up on that Kelly!

I used Centrum for the first couple of years post-op. They are a very good vitamin. Plus, there are plenty of Store Brand versions of it so you can save money. Costco has a good multi too. It's very similar in stats to Centrum.

For  VSG, most surgeons want you to take 2x the adult dose of a regular multi (or the equivalent in a bariatric one) and at lesat 1500 mg of calcium citrate (so 3 doses of 500 mg a day) at a minimum. Some VSGers do have issues with B12 and/or Iron so some surgeons put you on that too. Since it's only a small minority, my surgeon waits to see if you actually have a problem rather than putting everyone on those vitamins too. 

Also, most people in North America are low on Vitamin D, whether they've had surgery or not. So taking 2000 IU of Vitamin D a day is a good idea. According to the Vitamin D council.