Spark People

Today I decided to try out Spark People and see what it was all about.  It is really awesome!  I personally think it is better than My Fitness Pal because it is more comprehensive.  One of the best features is that you have access to thousands of healthy recipes where the nutrition information is all laid out for you, and all the recipes have been rated by other users.  You can store favorite recipes and make your own cookbooks!  I just started three new collections (crock pot, casserole, and Dinner).  I am really excited to start cooking my way through some of these recipes!  It really makes figuring out what to eat easy, Free recipes are always a plus!  They also have a recipe creator where you can enter in your ingredients and they will calculate the nutritional information for you, just like the weight watchers recipe creator calculates how many points are in a recipe you want to make. 

They also have a community where people talk over different topics and can find support with each other just like in Weight Watchers and they have scientific articles you can read as well, just like in Weight Watchers!  It is based on calorie counting and gives you a range of calories to eat.  So my range was 1,200-1,500 each day without exercising, and then if you add in your exercise your range will increase.  I really like how they give you a range to eat in instead of saying you can only eat 1,200 calories in one day.  It gives you more flexibility kind of like the weekly points that you get in Weight Watchers.  For the nerd in all of us we can get spark points for tracking food, exercise, reading articles, making recipes, tracking healthy habits, etc.  Collect points and you can level up!  Just another motivator for people who are motivated by earning points and leveling up :-)

For the first time in any weight loss companion I noticed that they ask you about your health.  Not only do they ask about nursing/pregnancy but they ask if you have diabetes, heart problems, seasonal allergies, etc.  It's a basic short medical history and they take into account your answers to create your very own special diet program.