SparkPeople Review

 

SparkPeople is a free online weight loss resource in the vein of eDiets. With over 8 million members it serves as a rather large online community of people trying to lose weight. The site has an incredible array of information about health, nutrition, and exercise. The focus of their diet regimen and recommendations is low-fat, decreased calorie food, modeled after the USDA's Food Guide Pyramid, which is what nearly every medical professional and registered dietitian recommends.

Membership is free and it includes access to all their online community groups, menu plans, virtual exercise trainers, expert advice and most everything you could think of for a weight loss program.

The only things it doesn't have are real people standing in front of you to provide inspiration and support. That's a criticism you read when you research SparkPeople, but I dismiss that as nonsense. Long-term weight loss success requires the development of one basic, but very difficult and rare trait, self-discipline. Group therapy and "support", although popular and bandied about as important, is not helpful for the one trait that really matters.

That's why SparkPeople is a great concept. It gives you the organizational tools to lose weight independently where you become your own weight loss expert.

On the other hand, the biggest fault I can find in SparkPeople is that it suffers from the same quintessential problem that nearly every weight loss program has: it recommends food deprivation and dull, non-sustainable forms of exercise. Those who lose weight and keep it off for good don't do so by spending more time on their computer to get more information and support, they embrace a broad change in lifestyle of healthier eating and daily exercise that creates passion in their life, like running, cycling, tennis, skiing, kayaking, hiking, etc...