Looking to lose weight before the holidays? Maybe your New Year’s resolution is to lose the weight you gained during the holidays? There are many resources right at your fingertips for helping you with your diet. Unfortunately many of these sites and resources require membership fees and who has the extra money to lose the extra weight? One site which does offer resources for free is SparkPeople.com.
SparkPeople offers free personalized diet plans, calorie counters, weight loss goal counters and so much more. When you first sign up you choose a member name and password like any other weight loss site, but the difference with this site is that no credit cards are required!
You are provided with a My Tools tab, which allows you to chart your progress. Meals can be noted everyday and each calorie is counted. Exercise is also charted and calories burned are noted. While accessing the fitness chart you can also watch fitness videos which will show you the correct movements to various exercises. Under the My Tools tab you can also choose from looking at goals, Sparkstreaks, reports, planner, mail, and sparkpoints.
Sparkpoints are a nice incentive to logging onto the site. When you chart specific activities on the Sparkpeople site, you will be rewarded with Sparkpoints. These certain activities include but are not limited to charting weight, charting meals, charting water consumption, commenting on the message boards, and reading Sparkpeople articles. As the Spark points are added up the small image or “trophy” next to your user name changes with each level achieved. Activity stats are shown in real time which is a wonderful way to see how others are doing as well. As I look at the site right now I see Calories Burned: 5,016,949,081 Pounds Lost: 6,278,838, Cups Water Drunk: 137,258,754, and SparkAmerica Minutes: 407,813,355.
As a member you will also have access to the message boards, articles, and recipes. I did not feel the need to use the tools when I first started logging on and what a mistake that was. I never even considered to look at the articles and now I am reading several of them a day. I have also learned some great cooking tips and healthy recipes. While I do look at the message board at times, I have to state I am still a bit of a lurker. I think I may have only posted a handful times, but those few times really helped me through the day. It is very helpful to communicate with others who are dieting as well and to even read through their stories.
Overall, SparkPeople is a wonderful resource for anyone who wants to lose a few pounds, lose a lot of weight, or even want to gain better eating habits. I have spoken read several posts on the site by other members who have paid for the diet sites such as Weight Watchers and these people state that SparkPeople is as good if not better. The best part about the site is that it is free! Why lose 20 pounds for $20 when you can lose the weight for free!