Spark People

[Hudson_Hawk]

In the past I''ve used The Daily Plate to track my food intake and exercise, but I''ve heard good things about Spark People and I''m now considering it. Have any of you tried it? It doesn''t seem to be the most user friendly site, kind of like a confusing Facebook for weight loss. For example, I see that it''s made a meal plan for me, but I can''t find a shopping list for it....Can those of you who''ve used it share any helpful hints?

 

[cushionladyESQ]

Hey Hudson,

I have been trying to get into Spark People also...I''ve been using it for a few months now but it was hard for me to follow the meal plans strictly since I was in Europe for four months and they don''t have the same kinds of foods for purchase...

I can''t really say if I like it or don''t yet. Maybe I need to commit to it more? I remember I found it because of PS, though. So there is probably something to it.

As far as your concern about the shopping list, when you are on the page that has your "Nutrition Tracker" information for that day, if you scroll down to the bottom, there is a button that says "Grocery List for this Week." You can add items to the list as well.

I think the forum pages are good and some of the people are knowledgeable. I might have to get it another full try.

 

[charbie]

i''ve done it in the past, in fact, i used to be very into it. i think it worked to get me jumpstarted, and got me into drinking a ton of water. the problem i have is that it seemed to become ANOTHER thing to do on the computer, so i felt like i was always either using my phone''s internet for PS, FB, or SP. i''ll still pop over there for some meal ideas, and if i don''t see results in a month (6 lbs this month is my goal...that way if i hit 8-10 i''m happier) i''ll probably have to become more strict with my SP use!

 

[marcy]

Sparkpeople has some useful tools and you can find teams to join for commong interests. I honestly don''t track my food because it seems too time consuming for me (I use a little notebook when I am tracking calories). It''s free so you can always try it and see if you like it.

 

[Maria D]

I started an account on SP a couple of years ago (2007 I think?). I thought it was pretty simple but since then, it seems like they''ve added more and more features so I''m wondering if that''s why you''re finding it confusing. I never used their meal plans, and I''m not sure how "Grocery List for This Week" works. When I click on that, it tells me what to buy based on my entries for the day. I don''t see how that''s helpful since I already bought the stuff and now I''m going to eat it! If it could look backward at what I''ve eaten in the past and make me a list I would find that more useful.

Anyway, here''s how I''ve used SP. Since I eat pretty much the same thing every day for breakfast and lunch, I set up meals in the "Food Groupings" tab of "Add Food". For example, every morning I have a oatmeal with vanilla yogurt and blueberries so I grouped the proper amounts and only need to click on one food grouping to track this. I did the same with lunch and with certain dinners that I make over and over again. SP also has the option to "Copy this Meal to Another Day" so if last Tuesday I had chicken cutlets and broccoli and I''m going to have it again tonight I can go back to that date and copy it to today. I''ve found that SP works great for me if at the beginning of the day I go in and track what I plan on eating for the day. It takes less than 10 minutes. This works for me because I already know exactly what I need for a healthy diet -- the problem for me was eating that and then some! At this point, I am not trying to lose, just maintain. As ridiculous as it is, telling myself that I have to "go track it" if I want something extra keeps me from mindlessly grabbing a handful of m&m''s as I walk by someone''s candy dish. If I really want a treat, fine -- but I have to track it. Research has shown that keeping a food diary of some kind, even if you don''t track the actual calories, helps people lose weight. With a program like SP, you can keep the diary and let it do all the calorie/nutrient calculations -- amazing that it''s free!

 

[plantationcatt]

i like it because it forces me to watch everything I''m putting in my mouth. Once I get a better feel of calories/portions I won''t track everyday because that would make me neurotic. Also, I didn''t realize how little fruit I was eating until it told me how much I should be. You can totally ignore the "community aspect" or choose to participate.

 

[Bella_mezzo]

Cool, I''m going to look into spark people too. I''ve found it kind of intimidating up until now...

 

[somethingshiny]

I love Spark!!! I was using it for 8 weeks and I lost 15 lbs! I entered all of my own food because I don''t like being told what to eat. I imported a lot from other members but HAD to check that their info was correct. After the first couple weeks of searching for most of the foods, it was much easier because I just saved them in my favorites. I seem to repeat foods every couple weeks so there wasn''t that much to enter. Also, at the beginning of the day I''d select what foods I intended on eating starting with my MOST wanted meal. Then it was easy to figure out what to eat for the rest of the day. For me, I was actually eating way too little and had to increase my intake. I had to add fruit and yogurt and usually another snack throughout the day. It was really good for my body, I had lots more energy and looked forward to working out. I love the fitness tracker too. I would just go through and keep saying "new workout" and see what it did. Then I started finding things I liked to do so I just saved them as my workout. You can also go into your fitness settings and tell it how long you want to work out or on which days, etc. It really helped for me to see everything in black and white. It also helped to be accountable. I kept track of calcium, folic acid and fiber too. After I wrote what I would eat, I didn''t change it. Even if I saw cheese cake, i thought "It''s not on the menu today, add it for tomorrow" so I would and then it didn''t get in the way of the diet.

When I got pregnant I tried the Pregnant version but found it more complicated so I went back to Spark. I''m not really eating too much right now so I haven''t been tracking, but as the pregnancy progresses I will track again to manage my weight gain.

Bottom line~ Very helpful but the first 2 weeks take a lot of work. After that, you can track everything in 5 minutes a day. Once you find out how to eat, you can back off of it and trust your slimming gut!


Also, I found this site helpful for my home cooking. I would just copy over the nutritional info and save it as a favorite. calorie counter for recipes


Good luck!!


oh, I could also look through my reports and find patterns in my eating. For example, if I had a day that I dropped below 1000 calories, within the next two days I''d binge and eat 2000+ cals. So, it was very important for me to stay within my goal range so I didn''t go crazy.

 

[steph72276]

Ditto to everything SS said! I haven''t used it since 2007, so I''m not sure if it''s changed or not, but I found it very helpful. I lost 55lbs of pregnancy weight + 15 more at that time to get to my goal weight tracking my calories through SP and running. I am planning on using it again after this pregnancy. I would try it out and just give it a few weeks to see if you like it, especially since it''s free.

 

[neatfreak]

I like it but only use it for the "food journal" aspect of it. Some of the other stuff is really poorly designed and hard to navigate.

 

[AmberGretchen]

Date: 1/1/2010 10:53:35 PM
Author: neatfreak
I like it but only use it for the ''food journal'' aspect of it. Some of the other stuff is really poorly designed and hard to navigate.

Ditto. I found the food journal aspect to be by far the most helpful feature (I actually lost 45 lbs using that). What I find tough is that because of all the features, the site can be kind of slow sometimes, and eventually, it can get to feel like a chore to track every single thing you are eating. It wasn''t that bad when I was in grad school, but now that I''m working a crazy-busy job and traveling all the time, its virtually impossible to keep it up...

 

[sillyberry]

After this thread I signed up for SparkPeople, and I think (and hope!) it is going to work for me.

One good thing is that it has forced me to measure my food. I think "oh, X cereal has Y calories," but then I eat three servings at a time... Measuring is enlightening! And horrifying! I''m also thinking more about what I pack in my lunch and whether or not I want to eat the Doritos. Sometimes I do, but I like having to think about it first. I''m also drinking more water.

Hopefully I can sustain this. I have never been good at keeping track of things on paper, so having an open internet tab of SparkPeople means that I''ll actually go in and track things.

Now I just need to get on the exercise bandwagon...

 

[marcy]

Good luck Sillyberry!