The first week after bariatric surgery is the toughest one that you need to push through. After that, you’ll slowly regain your strength and soon enough, you’ll be back on your feet continuing your weight loss journey. Let’s see what vitamins should you take after bariatric surgery.
In the first week, you’ll probably not be able to take any solid food, nor vitamins, or supplements in a pill form. This is where deficiencies may occur. As soon as you get the approval of your doctor you should invest in some quality post-bariatric vitamins, like the ones from Barimelts. They are made to make your life easier after the surgery while providing the complete nutrients and vitamins your body needs to remain optimally healthy and functional. They also taste great and they don’t cause irritations, nor stomach pain. So let’s take a look at what types of vitamins you should take after a weight-loss surgery!
What vitamins should you take?
Your doctor will probably recommend a list of vitamins you should take. For example, BMCC offers bariatric surgery procedures and consultation on how you can move forward in your weight-loss journey whether that be through exercise, health, and post-surgery nutrition. We’ll list off the most important vitamins and explain their purpose in your body post-op.We’ll list them and explain their purpose in your body post-opy.
Complete multivitamin
This is one of the first things that you’re going to have on the list. A complete multivitamin can be a small pill, or it can be a tablet that you can dissolve in water, and drink as such. If you’re lucky, they might be chewable tablets, so they’ll be fun to consume. Multivitamins are great after weight loss surgery because they have up to 20 key ingredients for your well-being.
Usually, multivitamins are taken daily, one pill at a time. You prepare the pill as directed and as the day pass you finish the whole pack. It is important to take the multivitamin because it will pack you with enough vitamins and it will prevent any possible deficiencies and diseases from developing.
Calcium
As we know, calcium is important for your bones and it is found mostly in dairy products. As long as you’re in the hospital, you’ll have enough supplements and vitamins through your IV line. Once you’re out, you’ll need to be consistent in taking them.
After surgery, there are changes in the structure in your stomach lining, and Ca deficiency may occur. To prevent this, you need to take at least 1200mg of Ca daily. You can take them all at once, or you can divide them three times a day into smaller doses. Either way will work just fine, but the second method offers bigger resorption.
Vitamin D3
Just like with Calcium, Vitamin D3 deficiency is most likely to occur, because of the same reason mentioned above. The stomach suffered some major trauma from the surgery and it will need some time to heal before functioning properly.
When it comes to Vitamin D3, a personalized dosage will work best for every patient. This includes taking into consideration your age, the type of weight loss surgery, and your overall state to begin with. Personalized dosage prevents under or overtreatment of any patient that comes on this road.
Vitamin C
From what you know, vitamin C is taken when winter comes, to prevent colds and other viruses from happening to us. While vitamin C is indeed great for the immune system, it has some other benefits as well. It is partially responsible for the production of collagen.
Collagen is a compound found in our bodies that acts as a binding agent. When we get hurt, the wound gets sealed up, filled with collagen and it forms what we know as a scar. The same will happen to any trauma that you’re stomach went through. If you don’t have enough vitamin C in your body, this process may take longer, and this will extend the whole recovery period.
Iron
Iron is important in our bodies because it has so many functions. It is found in our blood and different organs where it operates under different names. In the blood it is found in the red blood cells, where it helps carry oxygen and nutrients to every cell while taking away the unnecessary ones.
With every surgery, you lose a certain amount of blood. With it, you lose a significant amount of iron. This can lead to anemia or deficiency. Luckily, this is easily preventable by taking iron supplements once a day.
Vitamin B12
The last on the list is vitamin B12. it is found in meat and other products. After weight loss surgery, once you get back to eating solid foods, your stomach will produce far less stomach acid than before. This will affect B12 absorption since stomach acid is the one that releases this particular vitamin from foods.
Luckily, deficiency is most likely to avoid, by simply taking vitamins once a day. B12 can also be found in multivitamin tablets and gummy vitamins form. You’ll need around 500g of it daily. Taking it in the morning would be great, but as with any supplement, if you forget it in the morning just take it until night. Taking it later is better than skipping the whole day.
