Review of SparkPeople: The Number #1 Online Weight Loss Source!

SparkPeople.com is a weight loss program that can make losing weight possible in your life as it has in mine. As you read those words, what do you think? Did you roll your eyes? I bet you are thinking diets don't work. You're right. Diets don't work. Lifestyle changes work when it is comes to the battle of the bulge. Should you choose to have a healthy life style and lose weight, SparkPeople may be right for you. It's been the choice for over 6 million members worldwide.

Initially SparkPeople charged for this nutritional sound and lifestyle program. Since the birth of this program in 2001, the website has continued to evolve. Part of this evolution was that it became available, without charge in 2005. You heard correctly. Unlike Weight Watchers online program, or some other sites I could mention, SparkPeople is free. Here's why. Using the profits from being an early employee of eBay, Chris "SparkGuy" Downie and his wife, are now using their profits as a way of giving back to society. The reason SparkPeople is free is that the founder of the program and his wife were early employees of eBay. They are now using their profits as a way to give back to society. So sometimes the best things, and in this case, websites for weight loss are free.

Why this Website Works for Weight Loss

The reason why SparkPeople works is because you are the one in control, not your significant other or a parent pushing you to lose weight, but you. You set your own goals. Sometimes it isn't necessarily healthy to be so "food focused", when aiming for weight loss. Other things contribute to inability to lose weight such as lack of exercise and believe it or not, not getting adequate quality and quantity of sleep. There are even emotional reasons why you may have an inability to lose weight. Prior to starting any program such as this, check with your doctor. By the way, SparkPeople encourages you to do this too.

Weight loss will only be achieved through incremental changes. You didn't get to be overweight in a day. Your current lifestyle has been in place for a long time; it will take much more than a day to correct this. If you chose to alter your lifestyle and get healthy, SparkPeople can help with this challenge.

The SparkDiet: Four Doable Stages

The Fast Break Stage is the start of your life changing journey towards fitness and weight loss. It helps you quickly break from your old way of unhealthy living. This allows you to adopt a new lifestyle. During this stage you will receive six weeks of emails with strategies for success. Changes in lifestyle are simple at this stage. For example, you are encouraged to have five servings of fruit or vegetables, and 8 8-oz of water a day. Gentle exercise is encouraged. Videos with how to do the exercises are available at the site.

Healthy Diet Habits

At the Healthy Diet Habits stage, the alterations you have already made in your lifestyle will continue to be reinforced. Strength training exercises are encouraged daily, cardiovascular exercise is encouraged three times a week. Both a nutrition tracker and meal planner will allow you to plan your meals and record what you have eaten. Recording every food you eat for six-weeks, according to the August 2008 issue of the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, will increase the likelihood of lost weight. This study stated that dieters that track their food intake for six or more days a week lost 50% more than those who did not. It can mean the difference of to help you to loss be hat you eat, on the nutrition tracker, is another part of the plan that will help you stick to the commitment that you made to yourself. The meal planner and a way to make certain you drink eight glasses of water a week.

Life Style Change

This is the stage helps keep the positive momentum of your lost weight going. It reinforces your new way of life.
This is the 3^rd stage of the program. Hopefully, by this point you will have participated in the forums and message boards where members encourage each other. In the "online world" you can find the support that will encourage you when the needle on the scale doesn't move and you reach a plateau. Plateaus usually occur as fat is lost, muscle becomes more defined and actually burn more calories.

Spread the Spark

This is the 4^th stage. It will help you achieve long-lasting success. During this stage you can begin to support and encourage others. You can especially help those that are on the earlier stages of the program. The new member will marvel at your journey should you choose to share it with them. As with the entire program, you are in control. You only share if you want.

As a one who majored in nutrition and has a degree in nursing, this program is nutritionally sound. The constant reinforcement you get from returning to the site and the e-mails received are motivational. You can do this, it works. Believe me it works; my daughter passed the SparkPeople spark to me.

Source:
August 2008 issue of the American Journal of Preventative Medicine
SparkPeople.com