Does anyone here use sparkpeople.com? What do you think of it? Has it been helpful? Enjoyable? Valuable? I'm thinking of trying it out but it all seems so involved.....then again maybe that's what I need *sigh*
I have used Sparkpeople and yes I personally found it too involved and too American.. some of the brand foods were American only..if i'm thinking correctly..haven't looked at my account in ages. I personally think forums like this are best.
Last edited by momma michelle; 11-30-2009 at 12:32 PM.
I use SparkPeople but mostly to track calories and exercise. I prefer their calorie tracker over The Daily Plate which is what I started with.
I don't really frequent their forums as I don't think they are easy to navigate or as helpful as 3FC. However, they do have some articles and whatnot that can be interesting to read but I don't delve into the entire site too much.
I use it the same way Jess does, for food/exercise tracking. It's not perfect, but it's useful in that respect. I don't really use the forums because I'm not crazy about the way they're set up. There is a P90X forum over there that I read, but that's about it.
So the answer really depends on what you're hoping to get out of it. I like the calorie counting feature because it tracks whatever nutrients you choose, and it's got a more comprehensive library of foods than Fitday (though I haven't looked at Fitday in years).
I'm not sure about it being "too American" as you can always manually enter a food and save it and look up what other members have posted. When i search for an item I rarely just do a regular search, I usually tell it to look for all keywords and what other members have input into the site. I've found it's been 95%+ accurate on all items I have input.
And what's even better is you can choose to track other nutrients such as salt and fiber intake.
There's definitely the ability to get super involved, though you don't really have to to get a lot out of the site. I love their food library, it's so much more comprehensive than the service I had. I used to have to hand enter SOOOO much!
I like it for tracking exercise usually some times i do the calorie tracking too. I really do not like the forum mainly because i did not feel welcome over there and it is hard to get around and follow what is new and old some of the post are 1 year old and people are still talking on them since they are near the top of the post list
I tried it, but I agree with Michelle about it being too American. A lot of the foods I eat aren't on there. I use Calorie King now, because it's from where I am.
Course, there's nothing wrong with being "too American" if that's where you're from!
Quote:
Originally Posted by beerab
I love sparkpeople!
I'm not sure about it being "too American" as you can always manually enter a food and save it and look up what other members have posted. When i search for an item I rarely just do a regular search, I usually tell it to look for all keywords and what other members have input into the site. I've found it's been 95%+ accurate on all items I have input.
And what's even better is you can choose to track other nutrients such as salt and fiber intake.
I think the poster who mentioned that is actually from the UK. Unless there's another Kent I'm missing. And manually entering every single packaged food becomes a pain in the backside pretty quickly, because you guys have totally different brands from us, and even the brands we share have different nutritional info.
I use sparkpeople to track my food & exercise & change in weight. I LOVE it & really do think its been a huge help for me. Plus they have really good articles and example menus.. And there is a lot that you can do on the site, but you don't have to do anything you dont want, like tracking certain things or posting on the boards.
I tried it, but I agree with Michelle about it being too American. A lot of the foods I eat aren't on there.
I think the poster who mentioned that is actually from the UK. Unless there's another Kent I'm missing. And manually entering every single packaged food becomes a pain in the backside pretty quickly, because you guys have totally different brands from us, and even the brands we share have different nutritional info.
totally agree with this. i'm in ireland and very little of what i eat is on it. the brands are totally diffferent, and we dont eat the same types of food. a biscuit to us is not the same as a biscuit to you! apart from that i think it is a really great site, and very easy to use.
I've nosed around their message boards a bit but agree with you all that its setup is sort of annoying! Especially how the newer posts are at the top of the thread and older ones at the bottom!
I created a page and a blog over there and I'm tracking my calories with their program but haven't really gotten into the rest of the site yet....
I use it for tracking. It's a huge help for me to go back and see what I was eating and doing for exercise when I had success or not. I don't use the message boards or other features.
And sometimes I use their videos when I want a quick workout.
Sparkpeople
