This site is chock-full of tools to make losing that excess weight a possibility. Anyone who's suffered on a weight loss plan knows how it feels to try and do it alone. Here's a place where you can join others and learn from their experiences as well as share yours. I especially liked that there were SparkRecipes to try. Pretty cool place to hang out!

SparkPeople.com is a website with a wide variety of tools to support people who want to live a more healthy lifestyle through changes in diet, exercise, and support. Participation can be completely on your own or you can get help from SparkPeople's experts.

The tools available on the site include food trackers, exercise trackers, a weigh-in section, and reports to let you see your progress. The site includes tons of resources: recipes, articles, meal plans, and interaction on a variety of levels.

When you sign up with sparkPeople (for free), you set your own fitness goals. SparkPeople's experts will help you determine the best way to reach those goals. When I joined and entered my weight-loss goal and target date, SparkPeople's nutritionist automatically returned a plan telling me how many calories I needed to eat each day and suggested meals (with lots of choices). When I entered my exercise preferences, my ideal exercise plan was added to my membership page by their exercise experts. Each day I log in, enter the foods I eat, and enter my exercise. It automatically tracks my activities.

Members are also encouraged to create their own personal pages to use for journaling, blogging, and interacting with other members. There are also a wide variety of groups you can join for fellowship and inspiration (in my case, there is the group made up of all of the people who joined SparkPeople the same week I did, a group for members in my my hometown, and groups that relate to special insterests). Group leaders pose questions, challenges, and inspirational links.

The thing I like most about SparkPeople is that you can take advantage of all of the tools and still remain completely anonymous if you choose. There is no pressure--just a large community of people who want you to succeed.

Check it out--you'll like it!

Spark people is something I have used and was very impressed with. It is very simple to use, you plug in what food you eat everyday and it tracks just about everything you'd ever want to know. It's great to track for a while, even if you don't think it's something you have time for indefinitely, just to see where you stand. Fitness tips and daily exercises are great benefits, and oh yeah.. it's all free!

There is research that shows that keeping a food diary of everything you eat can promote successful weight loss. Just the simple act of writing it down makes you more conscious about what you're putting into your body. Sparkpeople makes it easy to record what you eat and how much you exercise every day. You can look up how many calories are in your favorite foods and how many calories you burn doing various exercises. There are also some sort of social networking tools that I haven't taken advantage of but could be really useful for those who need other people to motivate their weight loss. The website is extremely easy to use, even if you're not very technologically inclined. Best of all, unlike similar weight loss programs, it's completely free, so sign up today!

Sparks People is a free website first of all. Sparks People is a terrific site to track your daily food intake, weight, exercise and numerous goals. The site gives nutritional guidelines to you or you can set your own nutrition goals.

There are many different groups and teams on Spark People. Are you a vegetarian looking for buddies? There is a group for you. Are you a low carb dieter needing menu advice? There is a group for you too. Looking for an exercise buddy or training for a marathon. There is a group for most anyone. If not just start your own!

Sparks People message board are a great source of information and support. If you have a question it is always answered quickly. Another great feature in Sparks Page. You and other members make an individual page. This page can share progress pictures, the teams you are on,your blog entries,your friends Spark Pages, your favorites and any other profile info you care to share.
It really is a fun way to get motivated!