Spark People
Free weight loss community
BACKGROUND
SparkPeople is a community. SparkPeople is a health site. SparkPeople is a fully-developed free diet plan. It incorporates a lifestyle-change approach to healthy living. It bases its nutritional components upon the food pyramid and its diet plan on the premise that you must take in less calories than you expend, in order to lose weight.
SparkPeople does not simply provide a one-line synopsis of what dieting should or shouldn't look like. Instead, it guides you through a four-stage program that you initiate and sustain through education, group support and motivation. All this is done online via a community that exchanges information through forums, shared recipes and stories of success or failure, from people who are navigating through the same journey as yourself.
SparkPeople began in 2001 as a goal-setting site. When it became apparent that nearly all of the contributors and community members shared the goals of wanting sound nutrition, fitness and healthy lifestyles, they flung themselves full-heartedly into providing the best information about health that they could find. This lead to a full-scale discussion about the kinds of dieting programs that consistently produced results. What they came to believe, after all the study and input was complete, is that there is no magic bullet when it comes to living healthy. Being healthy is about both daily and lifetime choices. The site that exists today is a collaborative effort and attracts nearly two million users. In 2006, SparkPeople was ranked as the 6th most visited site in the "Health and Medical-Wellbeing" category and 3rd amongst diet sites. Spark's mission is about creating support that translates into success and "sparks" the desire to pass "lessons learned" to others.
PRO
- Providing our body with a total fitness regimen, including all the nutrients that a diet rich in variety can provide
- Provides exercise/fitness support
- Emotional support
- Complete four-step plan and educational tools to make each step understandable.
- Forums and support modules on-site to help direct and support each member's efforts.
- Email reminders that help you remain true to goals, or offer alternative methods when life gets in the way.
- Diagnostic tools for determining Base Metabolic Rate (BMR), age, weight, etc., which take into account the time frame you desire to reach your goal and help devise a weight-loss plan, accordingly.
- Thousands of user-suggested recipes and comments from those who tried them
- FREE. The plan, the support and the community remain one of the few free weight loss regimines in the world.
CONS
The SparkPeople are not private weight loss counselors. They provide you with the tools to learn about your body's nutritional needs and about the science of caloric intake versus energy used. The support community and educational articles and discussions, along with groups who meet to enjoy their favorite recreational activity, fill up the crux of the program.
- No pre-prepared meals.
- No magic-bullet pills.
- More information than you can digest at one sitting. (It is best to take in each subject as it pertains to your personal goals).
- Easy to "surf past" forums that might be pertinent to your current situation, since they are so varied.
CONCLUSION
The Internet now affords us neighborhood meetings from the comfort of our own home. For those brave enough to enter even one discussion group, the opportunities for growth are limitless. The SparkPeople have filled an enormous need by bringing some of the best information they can provide to the general site, and then, by offering varied groups of people at differing stages of the journey, who can share, encourage and enjoy one another. Spark is most likely for that person who is willing to take personal responsibility for their progress, while enjoying the obviously well-intentioned input of others who have met and overcome their own hurdles. By sharing what works and doesn't work among one another, no task seems nearly as daunting.
Common Misspellings
Spark People, Spart People, Spark Diet, Sperk People, Spark Peeple
Related Diets: Bite Log, Calorie Balance Diet, Biggest Loser Club, Thinjoy, FitDay, Weight by Date
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User Feedback
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Love it!! Very easy to use and has everything I need instead of using 3,4, or 5 diffrent sites.
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I've been using Sparkpeople for almost 10 months and the community support is incredible! It's like having coaches, personal trainers, nutritionists, etc along with accountability and tracking! I went from size 12/14 to size 4/6 using the site!
Site came highly recommended but I found it hard to use. So many features that the learning curve was more time than I could invest (esp nutrition tracking). They need a simpler more user-friendly option for site newbies.And some usability testing wouldn't hurt.
I am so confused as how you could list things as a con:
* No pre-prepared meals.
This is great...you are not over paying for meals that might not be good for you.
* No magic-bullet pills.
Another great because losing weight is not going to happen magically or by pills. You have to learn how to eat properly and live a healthy lifestyle.
* More information than you can digest at one sitting. (It is best to take in each subject as it pertains to your personal goals).
Yes...there is a lot of info but you don't learn overnight it will take a while no matter what you are learning.
* Easy to "surf past" forums that might be pertinent to your current situation, since they are so varied.
Yes, but as you grow on the site you will learn about other teams that will be beneficial to you.
Love it! Such a postive, healthy and productive way to create a healthy lifestyle change.
I have lost 35 lbs since joining sparkpeople April 14, 2009. This Web Site equips you with all the tools you need to lose the weight and keep it off (the healthy way). If I didn't run into sparkpeople by reading a blog, I would still be almost 200lbs, but thanks to SparkPeople I am 160lbs. and still losing. If you have fortitude and resiliency you will do great.
I like being able to track my foods and fitness with out having to do to much work writing down calories. I lost about 10 lbs and stoped using Sparkpeople just to gain it all back. Restarting again and looking forward to the results.
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sfoster95
I began with SP 1/14/08 and to date have gotten rid of 55.4 lbs and 33 inches overall. I couldn't have done that without SP.
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Sparkpeople is the best there is. if you're serious about losing weight then this is the place to be. It teaches you how to eat healthy, live a healthy lifestyle, and to be accountable for your self. No YO-YO diets here...this is for the long term weight loss goals.
I joined Sparkpeople on March 17th, of this year & I fell in love with the site instantly. It is the best site for weight lost that I have ever seen. I recommend
anyone who wants to lose weight to give Sparkpeople a try.
Love it! really useful.
Great way to lose weight. Fun! Great support system.
The nutrition and fitness trackers are great but the community teams and the support they offer are the best. I love SPs daily info tips as well. I found some very useful blogs listing fast food menus with nutritional breakdowns to be quite helpful as well. It's just a great experience all around! And it's FREE!
I've been a member at SparkPeople for quite a while and overall I really like the site. The only downside I've found is that some of the nutritional advice offered by their "experts" is not particularly up-to-date. I've seen some really bad advice given out and if anyone points out the flaws in one of their nutrition articles, their comments are immediately removed.
But, free is free, so I guess you just have to take the bad with the good if you don't want to pay for a site with more well-known, well-regarded nutritionists.
I began using Sparkpeople on Jan 1, 2008. 2009 is now approaching; I've lost 30 pounds, am a size 2, and am incredibly fit. I did it all the healthy way, too--nothing magical, only hard work. I HIGHLY recommend Sparkpeople. (If you use it faithfully, it works!
I started SparkPeople last week - mainly to track my food intake and find out how many calories I was taking in. The first day I could not believe how many calories I had been consuming on a regular basis. No wonder I was having trouble losing weight. I have cut my calorie intake almost in half and I feel more in control of what I eat. I can tell the difference already. I want to slowly get more involved in other aspects of SparkPeople.
I LOVE it is so help me i
lost 12 pounds in 15day
couldn't imagine my life without it.
Love SparkPeople! Where else can you find all of this for no cost? I like it better than even Weight Watchers because it seems the most natural to me.
Coach Nicole's workouts are some of the best info on the site.
I find that when I visit it several times a day and use more than just the food journal, I do great. It sets my mind to a healthy lifestyle and a no self hatred attitude.
No magic bullet; just a smart way to track calorie intake, exercise, weight, etc. Lost 45 lbs.
I've been on SP for 1-yr and have lost 15-lbs. It's a great, multi-disciplinary method of becoming healthier inside and out. It's diverse programs and tools allows a fit for practically everyone. It's a great social site to establish a solid support network as well as provide knowledge based information for the novice to expert. Many if not all of their article contributors are certified in various areas of health/fitness/psychology which makes SP a great place to start one's new LIFE journey- there are NO SHORT CUTS ON SP!
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