SparkPeople
Encyclopedia
SparkPeople is a company which develops and maintains several healthy living website
s.
SparkPeople's goal is to show people that they can use health and fitness to improve other areas of their lives, both personal and professional.
program which uses tools, content, and support to help users make lifestyle changes. Users are prompted to enter height
, weight
, and amount they intend to exercise, as well as a target date and weight. The site then gives recommendations for calorie
, fat
, and carbohydrate
intake based on calculated BMR
, as well as a personalized fitness
plan. Users can enter the foods they eat and exercises they complete and are given feedback via charts and prompts on their progress. The site also has numerous articles on nutrition
, fitness, motivation
, and general health
. Support is provided through other users and experts on messageboards as well as from social networking features like member pages, teams of users with some common bond (like quilting
or college students), and blog
s.
SparkPeople.com was named the winner of BusinessWeek
's Best of The Web : Health in 2006, 2007, and 2008 .
In January 2007, SparkPeople.com was ranked by Hitwise
as the 6th most visited site in the "Health and Medical - Wellbeing" category (and 3rd among diet
sites).
One of the features of the website is SparkDiet, a proprietary diet program. The four stages of the diet are:
women through a healthy pregnancy and beyond. It also covers topics such as parenting
and breastfeeding
and offers some of the same social networking features as SparkPeople.
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
s.
SparkPeople's goal is to show people that they can use health and fitness to improve other areas of their lives, both personal and professional.
SparkPeople.com
This site offers a free four-stage dietDieting
Dieting is the practice of eating food in a regulated fashion to achieve or maintain a controlled weight. In most cases dieting is used in combination with physical exercise to lose weight in those who are overweight or obese. Some athletes, however, follow a diet to gain weight...
program which uses tools, content, and support to help users make lifestyle changes. Users are prompted to enter height
Height
Height is the measurement of vertical distance, but has two meanings in common use. It can either indicate how "tall" something is, or how "high up" it is. For example "The height of the building is 50 m" or "The height of the airplane is 10,000 m"...
, weight
Weight
In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force on the object due to gravity. Its magnitude , often denoted by an italic letter W, is the product of the mass m of the object and the magnitude of the local gravitational acceleration g; thus:...
, and amount they intend to exercise, as well as a target date and weight. The site then gives recommendations for calorie
Calorie
The calorie is a pre-SI metric unit of energy. It was first defined by Nicolas Clément in 1824 as a unit of heat, entering French and English dictionaries between 1841 and 1867. In most fields its use is archaic, having been replaced by the SI unit of energy, the joule...
, fat
Fat
Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and generally insoluble in water. Chemically, fats are triglycerides, triesters of glycerol and any of several fatty acids. Fats may be either solid or liquid at room temperature, depending on their structure...
, and carbohydrate
Carbohydrate
A carbohydrate is an organic compound with the empirical formula ; that is, consists only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, with a hydrogen:oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 . However, there are exceptions to this. One common example would be deoxyribose, a component of DNA, which has the empirical...
intake based on calculated BMR
Basal metabolic rate
Basal Metabolic Rate , and the closely related resting metabolic rate , is the amount of daily energy expended by humans and other animals at rest. Rest is defined as existing in a neutrally temperate environment while in the post-absorptive state...
, as well as a personalized fitness
Physical fitness
Physical fitness comprises two related concepts: general fitness , and specific fitness...
plan. Users can enter the foods they eat and exercises they complete and are given feedback via charts and prompts on their progress. The site also has numerous articles on nutrition
Nutrition
Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....
, fitness, motivation
Motivation
Motivation is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for humans but it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation...
, and general health
Health
Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...
. Support is provided through other users and experts on messageboards as well as from social networking features like member pages, teams of users with some common bond (like quilting
Quilting
Quilting is a sewing method done to join two or more layers of material together to make a thicker padded material. A quilter is the name given to someone who works at quilting. Quilting can be done by hand, by sewing machine, or by a specialist longarm quilting system.The process of quilting uses...
or college students), and blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s.
SparkPeople.com was named the winner of BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek
Bloomberg Businessweek, commonly and formerly known as BusinessWeek, is a weekly business magazine published by Bloomberg L.P. It is currently headquartered in New York City.- History :...
's Best of The Web : Health in 2006, 2007, and 2008 .
In January 2007, SparkPeople.com was ranked by Hitwise
Hitwise
Experian Hitwise is a global online competitive intelligence service which collects data directly from ISP networks to aid website managers in analysing trends in visitor behavior and to measure website market share. The Hitwise product is a commercial platform whereby customers pay Hitwise a...
as the 6th most visited site in the "Health and Medical - Wellbeing" category (and 3rd among diet
Dieting
Dieting is the practice of eating food in a regulated fashion to achieve or maintain a controlled weight. In most cases dieting is used in combination with physical exercise to lose weight in those who are overweight or obese. Some athletes, however, follow a diet to gain weight...
sites).
One of the features of the website is SparkDiet, a proprietary diet program. The four stages of the diet are:
- Fast Break, which gives users a simple goal to complete for several weeks in order to provide a springboard toward other goals.
- Healthy Diet Habits, which aims at various pillars of success in dietDietingDieting is the practice of eating food in a regulated fashion to achieve or maintain a controlled weight. In most cases dieting is used in combination with physical exercise to lose weight in those who are overweight or obese. Some athletes, however, follow a diet to gain weight...
such as portion controlPortion control (dieting)Portion control is understanding how much a serving size is and how many calories a serving contains. Portion control is important for weight management as the weight is defined by the total calorie intake...
, exercising consistently, and drinking water. - Lifestyle change, which teaches consistency and constant motivation in health and diet goals.
- Spread the Spark, which gives tips and goals to continue a person's goals and to teach others.
Babyfit.com
SparkPeople also offers a modified version of its healthy living program to pregnant women through its site Babyfit.com. Babyfit uses similar tools and forums to SparkPeople.com to guide pregnantPregnancy
Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...
women through a healthy pregnancy and beyond. It also covers topics such as parenting
Parenting
Parenting is the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood...
and breastfeeding
Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding is the feeding of an infant or young child with breast milk directly from female human breasts rather than from a baby bottle or other container. Babies have a sucking reflex that enables them to suck and swallow milk. It is recommended that mothers breastfeed for six months or...
and offers some of the same social networking features as SparkPeople.