All in One Bariatric Vitamins

There are several different companies that make all-in-one bariatric vitamins.  Most of them say you only need four tablets a day. 

Most post ops take vitamins four or five times a day.  I have a shoe box full of vitamin bottles and once a week I set up my pill container.  You know, those things that have little spaces for pills for each day of the week?  Otherwise opening all those pill bottles and getting out my vitamins several time a day would be a huge hassle.  And most people would love to be able to only take four pills a day, all out of the same bottle.  It would make life a lot easier and it would save money.

So how come most of us aren’t taking those all-in-one deals?

Because they don’t meet our needs.  It would be great if they did, but they don’t.  Just because they print “bariatric" on the label and say you only need four a day, that just doesn’t make it true.  Even though some surgeons sell these in their offices (which makes me cringe), that doesn’t mean they meet our needs.

The American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery says we need 200% of the RDA of most things.  But most of those brands that say you only have to take four a day, do not give you 200% in just four.  With most of those, you’d need EIGHT a day.

The ASMBS also says we need 1500-2000 mg calcium CITRATE a day.  It needs to be citrate because we no longer have enough stomach acid to absorb calcium carbonate.  But those all-in-one brands usually have calcium carbonate.

We also must take a B12 supplement.  We can’t absorb B12 from a chewable multi, or any multi we swallow.  We do not have enough intrinsic factor in our pouches.  So we have to take a sublingual B12, or the nasal spray, or the shots.

In addition, many of the all-in-one brands contain forms of some vitamins or minerals that we do not absorb well because of our RNY.  If you want to take one of these, you can, but if you want to get the nutrients you need, you will need to take a LOT of other vitamins in addition to the EIGHT all-in-one tablets you’d need.  Personally, I find a good multi I can take just twice a day more convenient and more affordable.

thank you kelly for all of the info!
i'd give you a gold star for helpfulness if i could

Thank You Kelly for the info. I take I take calcium in malate chelate 1200 mcg in a serving of 4 capsules, multivitamins in multi-standard formula and 1 vitamin b12 sublingual in the form of methylcobalamin with 1000mcg.

Hi Kelly,

I am taking the Opurity Bypass Optimized Multi - have you ever looked at these?  I take one a day...I still take the calcium and B12 separate but the label looks like it had 200% of everything else we need....at least I hope.  I don't know if I could choke down more than one a day.  :-)  Curious what you think of them.

Thanks,

Kim

Well, one does not give you enough vitamin A.  One has 150% of the RDA of vitamin A BUT half of it is from beta carotene which we won't absorb.  So one really gives you less than half the vitamin A you need.

But there are a number of things they are missing altogether.  They have no vitamin K, Phosphorous.   Iodine.  Manganese.  Molybdenum.  Chloride.  Potassium.

I would not use them.

Cool..I've been looking for more vitamin options that have less A,K+, and phosphorous. That is helpful for me with my renal diease (NOT regular Rny folks)
Right now I buy this crazy expensive "natural" multi that doesn't have any A. It's really hard to find muliples that don't have A in them.
so thanks!
Deb T.

Thank you so much for the info... I had no idea they were missing so much...I will go shopping.  :-)

I'm glad you posted this.  I was wondering about that when I read some other posts the other day and thought it was too good to be true.  You should change your name to "vitamin Kelly!"

You know what they say.  If it sounds too good to be true, it's probably not true.

Hey Kelly, how about Bariatric Advantage chewables? It appears as though they have 200% of most of what we need and I take 2 a day. What kind do you take?