natural progesterone cream and vitex

What is PCOS?

Hey all, I have PCOS and despite my healthy diet and regular exercise, I was not able to drop a pound.

I have started taking vitex today from GNC as I heard that it can help balance my hormones which can in turn help in the weight loss process. Anyone has luck with that?

Also, I am contemplating on whether or not to try natural progesterone cream (Emerita ). Is it true that it can help in the weight loss, BUT YOU WILL GAIN INITIALLY ?? I am really worried about that as just a few more pounds and I will be overweight!

Please give me advice!!

Everyone is different but the cream never worked for me. I have all my hormones checked on a regular basis with a Natureopathic MD. My progesterone is low and she gives me a bioidentical prescription for progesterone and thyroid and I also needed adrenal supplements for adrenal fatigue. It's funny because once I got these health issues under control I realized it was not a magic pill that would help me lose weight. I know it helped my health but for me it came down to the fact that I had to eat less calories to lose weight. It was hard. No way around it. But it's good to get these health issues resolved none the less.

For me it's all about a calorie budget. I had less of a budget available when I was losing weight, more to spend now that I'm maintaining and all the tools I used for weight loss come into play for the rest of my life maintaining.

When you have accumulated excess fat, you have accumulated a debt. It is hard to pay off the debt (you have less calories to spend). If you are sitting next to someone your same gender and height and they are not overweight and you are, they get to eat more than you (have more calories to spend) because they are debt free. You have less calories to spend because you are paying off your debt.

Being on a calorie deficit is hard. You can't do this journey on will power alone. You must set up your environment for success. Have a team around you in your real life, not just online. Get trigger foods out of the house. It will take some sacrifice and it's not easy. You might have to say no to some social events sometimes.

Too many changes at once can be hard on some people. I've always eaten healthy so it easy for me to simply eat less. Eating at a calorie deficit is hard on people; even a small deficit puts your body in a state of flux with hormones and such. Everyone is different. Some people can handle a deeper calorie deficit than others, this is not right or wrong, it just is. Stress in your life affects your hunger hormones; lack of sleep, fatigue, job stress, family stress, financial stress, etc. Add in emotional eating issues and it gets even more complicated. Most people can only handle so much change/stress at once, they try to do too much and fail. Sometimes it might be a better strategy to eat at maintenance and make some small changes first, it really depends on how much stress you are taking in at the moment.

I don't have PCOS but have had a bunch of other reproductive issues over the years and am now peri-menopausal. I've used vitex and progesterone in the past and use progesterone creams now and weight gain/loss haven't been impacted at all. I actually felt great on vitex when I was using it. Weight-related issues have always been more about my eating/exercise habits than anything else other than heavy duty fertility drugs, which impacted my weight no matter what I did.

I don't have PCOS but low levels of progesterone. I have to take Provera for 10 days if I don't have a normal cycle which is every month. I have been reading a lot about the creams on line and it's a mixed bag of information. Not sure how to help.

Provera is not bio-identical progesterone. It's a progestin, which is a ''fake'' hormone and is very dangerous because it can cause breast, ovarian and/or cervix cancer. You should switch to something safer ASAP.
Read Dr. John Lee's books and articles about hormones: http://www.johnleemd.com/