SparkPeople

I've been a member of SparkPeople for several years. Initially I was all involved in the groups and the activity and the rah rah of the site. All good things. It was a very educational and informative year and I lost over 75 pounds. I learned a LOT. I don't use the site often anymore as a social support network. I've continued to lose weight - now over 100 pounds - and am keeping it off because of what I learned there. Now that I can live a healthy eating lifestyle in the 'real' world I no longer need or use the on-line support. They still send me helpful information via the newsletters and emails I subscribed to early on and I'll probably stay a member as a reminder of what I've accomplished, how much I learned, and what I still need to do each day. I would recommend this site to anyone dealing with weight loss issues.

I've been a member for 3 yrs and have to say this free site has more than one could ever need from a health lifestyle site. There are articles, how-to stuff, videos, recipies, trackers you name it, they have it! They also have very supportive forums. It's an amazingly uplifting site. Plus you can create your own page (optional) to communicate with other members. I have learned a lot about myself, nutition and exercise. Plus I have lost weight with the information and support of their professionals and their members support. And it's also fun!

I've been using sparkpeople.com due to the fact it was the first site I found that has a database of foods and nutrition information that I could use for calorie tracking, but there are other similar tools out there. There are big problems with the functionality of the website. The list of foods won't populate when I am searching "recent" or "favorite" foods, and I have to enter and re-enter my search terms. Then the list will finally populate but it disappears just as I am trying to choose what I ate from the list. Then foods that had an indicator onscreen that they were "added" for the day are not on my food log at all when I refresh the page or access my log from the phone app. And don't get me started on the buggy problems with the phone app! Sparkpeople is run by people with moderate scientific knowledge on weight loss-- not experts by any analysis-- but they are enthusiastic about their topic despite poor article writing, editing or soliciting skills. And there is clearly no one on their staff with current web design skills sufficient to compete in today's web market.

But hey, it's free. And if you already know how to use science to improve your weight and health the tools can be useful if you are patient with the poor functionality.

SparkPeople's mission is to help you become a healthier and (if you wish) lighter person, for free. It has more content and community than you could ever need. It's a very balanced site which uses tried and true nutrition and fitness improvements to get you on track.

Meal tracking. Exercise tracking. Medical stats. Auto-syncing. Daily goals. Meal plans. Monthly challenges. Cheesy but effective reinforcement system. A community which cheers each other on. SparkPeople's got it.

Endless articles teach you how to cook, exercise, manage illness, and balance life, and the information on the site tends to be quite well scientifically supported and actionable. Then there are some cool features like when you select a weight loss goal, it will automatically adjust your daily recommended calories and weekly exercise minutes to help you achieve that goal.

I've never bought anything from the site, and I actually won two free exercise DVDs. Although sparkpeople does sell some goods and services, it's not overly pushy or annoying, especially if you have an ad blocker installed.

This is a popular self-help weight-loss site that doesn't try to sell you phentramin-d, which in itself is a bonus and a refreshing change from all the other weight-loss sites trying to get reviewed here at sitejabber.

This site rather stuns you on arrival, there's so much happening on the front page. But as you'll notice, it was created by a man with a most impressive hat so it gets my vote right there.

It also got the votes of the vast majority of readers at lifehacker.com, as the best weight-loss site around. And you've got to take that seriously because us lifehacker folks take our website recommendations very seriously.

The site was also named "Best Health Website" in 2006, 2007, and 2008 by Business Week, and it offers, amongst other things, a personalized diet & fitness plan, calorie counter & exercise tracker, fitness demonstrations & videos, and over 100,000 articles, recipes, & tips. It all looks so very jolly and positive, I'm almost tempted to join up, myself.

Well, maybe after dinner.