Sparkpeople.com for Weight Loss
SparkPeople.com is a free online weight loss website that offers many great features to help users with their weight loss. Upon joining SparkPeople, users are asked about their goals. First, dieters enter their current weight, their goal weight and the date by which they would like to meet that goal. SparkPeople calculates a body-mass index (BMI) to let users know if they fall in the category of underweight, healthy weight, overweight or obese. As pounds are shed and the information is updated, users can see how their body mass index is changing for the better.
The second part of the SparkPeople weight loss website is the exercise plan. When a user is ready to start doing cardiovascular and strength training he or she can begin a fitness plan with guidance from SparkPeople. The fitness plan is calculated based on the user’s current fitness level, the days of the week that the user wants to work out and how many minutes each day he or she wants to dedicate to exercise.
Finally, the SparkPeople online weight loss website helps users to set up a nutrition plan by suggesting nutrition goals and number of calories per day. The nutrition goals of this weight loss website include the suggested number of fat, carbohydrate and protein grams that the individual should intake. There is also the option of adding custom goals as well as other nutritional goals such as the intake of vitamins and minerals.
Like other weight loss websites, SparkPeople offers meal plans based on the type various types of diets such as vegetarian, low sodium, low cholesterol, no pork, etc. The meal plans make every day easy by telling the dieter what foods to eat to meet all of their nutritional goals. Foods can be substituted, meals can be changed based on personal preference. Grocery lists and menus for the week are printable to make planning and shopping simple. This is likely one of the features that many are willing to pay for at other weight loss websites, but at SparkPeople it is free.
Not only does SparkPeople help users to lose weight and get more active, they have a planner tab that allows users to add in appointments, keep a journal, and view a calendar. Adding appointments into the calendar feature is handy when trying to make time for exercise. Users are able to see what time constraints they will have on a particular day and find a way to work around them in order to complete their exercise goals for that day.
Like most weight loss websites, SparkPeople enables dieters to run reports about their goals and progress. Reports detailing the amount of weight lost, nutritional goals, and exercise progress are available. Other custom goals can be viewed with the report feature also.
One of the best features of the weight loss website SparkPeople is that there are many ways to stay motivated. From SparkPoints, to community message boards to personal webpages to share progress and personal weight loss stories, this weight loss website offers many ways for users to connect and keep each other going strong on their journey to a healthier lifestyle. Of course, all of those features are free unlike at other weight loss websites. SparkPeople wants to “help people reach their goals and live meaningful lives”.
