Sparkpeople.com is undoubtedly the top nutrition and fitness site available. It is a user-friendly way to help put members on the path to a healthier lifestyle. Free to join, its services help users accurately track their diet and fitness, offering tips, guidelines and encouragement.
When members initially create their accounts, they are asked to enter their current weight and measurements, along with their short and long-term health and fitness goals. This kicks off a four-stage plan specifically tailored to the individual to help them toward a healthy lifestyle. The plan includes optional meal suggestions as well as fitness ideas, or, if the user would like to build their own plan, simple guidelines are set in place for daily nutrient intake and fitness activity.
Nutrition Tracking and Meal Planning Made Easy
Probably Spark's most popular tool, the nutrition tracker has information on over 10,000 foods already programmed in for quick tracking. However, if a food is not listed, users can easily upload new foods on their own or search what other users have entered. If a home recipe is being used, nutrition information can be figured out using Sparkrecipes and then directly uploaded into the nutrition tracker as well.
As a quick view, calories, carbs, fat and protein are shown on the tracker for all foods eaten that day. A more detailed view is just a click away, showing a list of all the nutrients the user has chosen to track. For instance, if a member is worried about their glucose levels or sodium intake, or would like to see how much they are getting of a particular vitamin each day, these can be added to the tracker from a comprehensive list. Users can also view their daily intake of nutrients in pie chart through a link at the bottom of the tracker, or through the reporting tools mentioned below.
Fitness Tracking and Exercise Routines For All Fitness Levels
For optimum results, all good nutrition plans are also usually accompanied by a fitness routine. Sparkpeople understands and accommodates this by offering daily and weekly fitness plans to complement what a member is doing nutritionally. It is suggested that a user chooses a minimum of three days of cardio exercise, committing to a certain amount of time each day. Strength training is also recommended to complement their cardio workouts. If the user prefers not to come up with a strength routine on their own, Spark is willing to generate a workout for them.
When tracking exercises and fitness minutes, Spark calculates calorie expenditure based on the member's earlier input details on weight, height and age. Depending on the nutritional guidelines provided in the nutrition tracker, Spark also advises on the proper amount of calorie burn per week to provide the healthiest overall results for the member.
Progress Reporting Laid Out in a User-Friendly Format
The reporting tools allow users to track their progress over various time frames. The more consistently trackers are used, the more accurately the reporting tools can track progress. There are also options to enter weight and body measurements, as well as progress notes for other goals. Each of these can be viewed in a graphic report, so it is easy for members to chart how far they've come!
Active Membership in the Spark Community for Tips and Motivation
In addition to all the tools users have access to, they are also invited to get involved in some of the extra community aspects of Sparkpeople. Support groups and message boards are great motivators when trying to reach a goal, but also become fun, friendly places to turn even after the goal has been reached. Users can share tips and stories with each other not only on boards, but also on each others' Sparkpages and through internal Spark Mail. They can also share recipes on Sparkrecipes.com, a great resource for the diet and allergy-conscious. For those preferring not to participate in the social network, daily newsletters are available on a variety of subjects. Even if a member is not active in the community or keeping up with their daily tracking, they can still opt to have health and encouraging tips delivered to their inbox to help them stay motivated.
Source:
www.Sparkpeople.com - SparkPeople, Inc. 2009
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Maureen Rousseau - Maureen Rousseau is a New England native currently living in London, UK. She earned a BA in English from Providence College and has ...
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