Provitalize Review

You’ve been searching for a quality probiotic because you want to improve your gut health. Like many of us, you may be a little bewildered when a probiotic like Provitalize starts shouting about weight loss. In this Provitalize review, we take a look at its claims, ingredients, and real results…

It feels like the world is finally waking up to the importance of probiotics in our lives. Gut health, and our digestive system, is at the center of so much – it’s not just about food and energy, it’s about how well we are. How we feel. If we don’t look after our guts, we won’t feel well. It’s that simple.

On the other hand, if we do take care of our gut health, we’ll find that we don’t feel ill as often and we get plenty of nutrients into our system, meaning that we feel good. It’s all about getting the perfect balance of bacteria in our bodies, and a good probiotic can really help with that.

As such, there is plenty of choice when it comes to finding the best probiotic dietary supplements. The market is flooded with different options – to the point that it can feel overwhelming. How do you know which one is the best for you?

That’s where I come in. In this article I will be taking a deep dive into one particular probiotic supplement, Provitalize. I’m going to be looking at what it could do for you, the people behind it, and how it works, before running through the ingredients – looking at each one to see why it has been included.

Finally, I will walk you through what it is like to try Provitalize, before finally giving my verdict.

Quick Verdict: Provitalize Or A Better Alternative?

Provitalize is an okay probiotic supplement. The ingredient stack is pretty good, but to be honest I wanted more from it.

I am always slightly wary of products that emphasize weight loss as a key feature, and I think they have focused too much on that.

A better all-round supplement is YourBiology Gut+. It takes full control over what you’d expect a quality probiotic to do for your gut health.

It comes up top in our testing of the best probiotic supplements and has a far better makeup than we see here with Provitalize.

See Price For Recommended YourBiology Gut+

What is Provitalize?

Provitalize is an all-natural probiotic supplement that is designed to “support the reduction of fat”. It is specifically aimed at women who are going through the menopause, when their natural metabolism begins to dip.

It is made by a company called the Better Body Company. They are a wellness company based in Las Vegas, Nevada, with another office in Singapore. Their products are mainly focused on gut health, which they see as the root cause of many issues we have with our bodies.

The claim from the Better Body Company is that Provitalize will support healthy digestion and give you a calm tummy. This, in turn, will help you burn away the ‘stubborn’ fat, and help you stay in shape.

To be honest, the fact that they push this as the main benefit of Provitalize does concern me a little bit.

Weight loss is something that so many of us are trying to do, so it appeals to a lot of people; but losing weight is about so much more than just taking the right probiotic.

You’ll have noticed that in my introduction to this Provitailze review, I listed some of the benefits to looking after your gut health, and none of them were weight loss.

That’s because, while weight loss can be a nice benefit to having a healthy gut, it’s more of a by-product to the other benefits: feeling well, having more energy, being in a better mood. When we get all these lined up, then we will find that we can eat better and exercise more – consequently remaining on the right path to lose weight.

Also, I don’t like them specifically saying that they will target belly fat. I don’t think that’s possible – fat is fat, wherever it is on your body. If you lose weight, you will lose it all over your body.

It all feels like they are pandering to our more basic appeals – weight loss is hard, so take this pill to make it easier. As someone who really appreciates the benefit of having a healthy gut, I find this a little disingenuous, and I would rather they focused on the other many benefits of taking probiotics.

Anyway, let’s put that to one side for now, and take a look at the science behind Provitalize, to see if they can win back a bit of trust.

How Does Provitalize Work?

The idea behind Provitalize is that it will help to balance out changes in hormone levels, particularly in women who are going through, or close to, the menopause. The Better Body Company emphasizes how they have designed Provitalize to have a thermogenic probiotic impact on your body, which helps with weight loss and provides natural energy.

Before we get into the specifics of how this works, let’s first look at the bottle to see what they believe we can experience. There are two main benefits of taking Provitalize, so they claim. Let’s take a quick look at each one:

Promotes sustained weight management

According to the website, Provitalize contains probiotics that “support healthy abdominal fat management”. They point to their trademarked capsule that delays the release of the probiotics, so that they stay intact until it gets to its destination – your gut.

It’s a widely recognized theory that probiotics can supplement weight loss, so there is plenty of evidence to back up these claims. The extent to which it can help, and which specific probiotics are most beneficial in this regard, is a bit more complex. Which is why I have concerns over it being used as the headline benefit.

Enhances overall immune and gastrointestinal health

See, now I am a bit more comfortable. We know that probiotics play a really important role in boosting our immune system. They fight off microorganisms that can cause us to be sick, and they help our bodies get the nutrients that they need from the food that we eat. This is all down to the role that probiotics play in our digestive system.

The knock-on effects from this are huge. We’ll feel less gaseous, with more energy – which in turn helps us get better sleep.

On top of this, there are a few menopause-specific benefits – it hopes to reduce hot flushes throughout the day, as well as sweating at night. These are very common symptoms of the menopause, as well as anyone on their period. Basically, if you are having any hormonal imbalance, this is designed to help with some of the more common symptoms.

If we set aside the weight loss aspect for a second, there is a lot of good in here, generally backed up by science. There are loads of studies that the Better Body Company could highlight to back up some of these claims – these are things that we know to be true about probiotics and gut health in general.

It’s all very well listing a load of benefits, and talking generally about probiotics, though. That will only ever get us so far. I think it’s time now to go a little deeper and take a look at the specific ingredients that make up Provitalize, to see a bit more of the theory behind it.

Provitalize Ingredients

The ingredients that make up Provitalize can be split into two main groups – there are the probiotics, and then there are the supplementary ingredients that are there to help bring out the best of these probiotics, as well as offering their own benefits.

So we will take each group separately, and look at the ingredients that make up each one.

Probiotic Blend

Before I fully get into this blend, I just want to spend a moment to fully explain what probiotics are. This might help us grasp exactly why the various types have been used in Provitalize, or any other supplement of this nature.

Basically, probiotics are the ‘good’ bacteria and yeasts that live in our bodies.  They are living microorganisms, which help our bodies to fight off the ‘bad’ bacteria, which can make us ill. Our bodies need a healthy balance of bacteria to keep functioning, so by taking probiotic supplements, we can ensure that the balance is healthy.

We normally get probiotics from certain types of food – fermented foods like yogurt are a great source of the most common probiotic (lactobacillus) while we’ll find others in dairy foods.

For the probiotic blend in Provitalize, there are 68.2 billion CFU (colony forming units) of bacteria, made up of three different types:

Bifidobacterium Breve

Bifidobacterium breve is an intestinal microbiota that has been linked to a whole host of health benefits. It’s the first ‘good bacteria’ we ever get into our bodies, as we pick it up in the birth canal and it is also found in breast milk.

Over the course of the last 20 years, more and more tests have been done to validate the various health claims, and as such, we can be fairly confident in the results.

For a start, it has an important role to play in our digestive systems and has been used as a treatment for diarrhea and constipation, the latter in particular can be a symptom of the menopause.

It helps our bodies break down important minerals (like zinc, iron and calcium) that we can then absorb into our systems. It has even been shown in tests to reduce the risk of colon cancer in animals, but a lot more research is needed on that front.

Some studies found that when people took B. breve supplements they experienced more reduction in fat than control groups, so there is a decent theory behind its inclusion in Provitalize from that point of view as well.

Bifidobacterium Lactis

Another probiotic that lives in the intestines, and helps us to produce acetic and lactic acid. You’ll usually find it in dairy products like soft cheese and buttermilk.

One of its main uses from a health point of view is its role in reducing cholesterol. It has also been thought to have a role in reducing weight in overweight and obese patients, but again more research is required on this front.

One thing we can be sure of is that B. lactis can help us feel less bloated, which is a common symptom with the menopause, as well as strengthening the general performance of our immune system by removing toxins.

Lactobacillus Gasseri

Finally we have lactobacillus gasseri, which was only discovered in the 1980s. Like the other probiotics that we have covered so far, L. Gasseri is associated with helping our body break down food to absorb nutrients, and fighting off the bacteria that could make us sick.

In particular, this is a good probiotic to fight the bacteria that cause urinary tract infections (UTIs), which are another unpleasant side effect of going through the menopause.

It’s another probiotic with links to weight loss. But, and you’ll notice a pattern here, more research is required to fully determine how helpful it is, and who it can help the most.

Finally, L. Gasseri is part of the vaginal flora, and is essential for maintaining good genital health. It is sometimes prescribed to aid the reproductive system.

All in all, this is a pretty decent combination of probiotics. There is solid science behind all of their inclusions. There is a theme flowing through them all – they work to improve your immunity, as well as your digestive system and they work to get more nutrients into your body.

They all have some kind of hint towards aiding weight loss, but none of them are clinically proven to do so. B. breve has had the most research, and the signs are good, but I would hesitate before I considered it to be 100% proven. Certainly not enough to make it a headline benefit.

We’ve only scratched the surface of the ingredients for Provitalize though – there are many other ingredients that they have included that are not probiotics, so it’s time to look through them one by one.

Turmeric Root Extract – 350 mg

Part of the ginger family, turmeric has been used for a wide variety of reasons in India for centuries, and is now available all over the world. It’s been used as a dye, in cuisine (especially curries), for tea and for medicinal purposes. Traditionally, it was used to treat digestive problems, such as feeling bloated.

In recent years it has been suggested that turmeric reduces inflammation, and can help prevent DNA damage, as well as helping with fatigue and joint pain. These are all symptoms that women can start to feel when they are going through the menopause – thus its inclusion in Provitalize.

Moringa Leaf – 350 mg

This plant, usually found in South and Southeast Asia, has plenty of potential health benefits. For a start, it is packed full of nutrients and vitamins. The seed extracts have shown antibacterial activity, it is a powerful antioxidant and it is even thought to control blood sugar level. While more research is needed, there is a lot of good in these leaves.

Curry Leaf – 150 mg

Another great all-rounder. Curry leaves are said to help lower cholesterol, aid digestion, improve circulation and promote weight loss. They are high in antioxidants and are even thought to help maintain healthy eyes.

Lecithin from Sunflower – 50 mg

You might have started to notice a pattern by now… Lecithin has been shown in some studies to help reduce cholesterol, lower blood pressure and aid with digestive issues. It’s also been found to help us remove unhealthy fats from our bodies, as well as help absorb some crucial nutrients into the body.

Black Pepper Fruit Extract – 3 mg

Black pepper is really good for us in small doses. It has been proven to help us burn fat, and it is also thought to aid the production of red blood cells, aid digestion and prevent constipation.

It has been used by women to help fight some of the symptoms of menopause, such as problems with digestion and hormonal issues.

Put it all together and it’s a decent stack of ingredients. It feels like the benefits are relatively narrow, but they all complement each other nicely. It is strange that there is no glucomannan in there, which is usually involved in weight loss supplements, as well as magnesium, caffeine and garcinia.

Using Provitalize

At this stage in my review, I would normally try the product myself – but as a man in my 30s, I decided it wouldn’t be a fair test. So I decided to seek out the help of a friend. (Don’t worry, I didn’t just approach random women I thought looked like they might be going through the menopause…!)

A friend of my wife’s had mentioned some issues she was having, including increased weight. So via my wife, I asked if she would consider giving Provitalize a go, while recording her thoughts as she did. She very kindly obliged, but asked to remain anonymous.

For a bit of background, she is in her 40s, and has recently been struggling with the menopause. She had felt low for a while, had struggled to concentrate for long, and had found that she hadn’t been sleeping well – suffering from night sweats. She also said that she often felt bloated. Anyway, I’ll now hand it over to her.

“I started taking Provitalize exactly as instructed on the bottle – two capsules in the morning which I had with my breakfast. I had never taken any kind of dietary supplement before, other than multivitamins, so I didn’t really know what to expect.

I didn’t feel anything to begin with. I was very irritable with my kids one evening, at which point I started to conclude that these pills weren’t for me. But in the second week, I did notice something – I got a really good night’s sleep. What felt like my first one for a long time.

That put a spring in my step, I have to admit. I started the next day in such a good mood, and I think that triggered other things in my body. I had a really good day at work – got lots done, and we had a lovely family meal in the evening. I think the kids were feeding off my good mood – in hindsight, it may have been a while since they had seen me so positive about things.

I was certainly bloated less often in that month. I have a pack of antacids that I keep in my handbag, and I didn’t need to replace it as often – so that is a clear sign that something was working.

I didn’t lose much weight, though. I was probably eating slightly better, purely because I was in a better mood, so I made more effort with what I ate – I didn’t surrender to ordering a take-out a couple of nights a week because I couldn’t be bothered to cook. But other than that, there was nothing on the weight side.

I still don’t quite feel like my old self, but Provitalize has certainly given me something – a little leg-up when I was struggling a bit. So I’m glad I’ve been shown what a probiotic supplement can do.”

Verdict

It seems that Provitalize is a decent probiotic supplement for women who are going to the menopause – there is certainly a clear benefit. All of the ingredients are geared towards promoting a stronger digestive system and building up immunity, as well as other health benefits, all of which can help fight against the many symptoms of the menopause.

However, and you could probably have seen this coming, I have major concerns over the emphasis on weight loss.

While many of the ingredients have been linked to fat burning, I don’t think there is enough evidence that Provitalize will actually help you lose weight. As they, quite rightly, state on their website – you need to change your habits around eating and exercise to see any real difference. That has to be your first move whatever supplement you take.

Plus, if you are interested in a supplement that aids weight loss, there are much better, more weight-loss focused products out there.

So, to just take Provitalize as a probiotic supplement, it’s fine, but there are better ones out there. Try YourBiology Gut+ – it’s got a great stack of ingredients and has a proven track record of helping women through the menopause.