This question is for people who have used sparkle in the pas

sculley

Hey before you shoot me i am not leaving this site for that one hahahaha....I have a cousin that is on that site and I really want to encourage her to move to this one so I wanted to know the differences and the benefits of this one over that one. Any help would be great!!!

purple1butterfly

You don't have to pay

Samantharose8akaDebbie

Sparkle (southbeach) or spark people?

orange_avocado

Sparkle = SparkPeople? Or the obscure Windows program for tracking heath...?

sculley

I believe it is spark people

LettyM62

Don't shoot me either! In all honesty, I use Sparkpeople for my recipes, but I do all my logging and support here (actually I haven't logged anything since the beginning of December because I was extremely busy). I like the camaraderie and support from other MFP members, I like the structure of the excercise and food diaries, the forums, and I love reading peoples blogs. One thing though, and I apologize for it, I'm not much of a writer so I don't blog, but I do respond to some of the forums. The most important thing for me is knowing that I have the support from other people and the knowledge that I'm not alone in this. Hope this helps.

orange_avocado

I used SparkPeople for about 3 or 4 years before joining MFP. I actually like a lot of things on it *better* than MFP, so uh, don't shoot me either!

PROS:
- Official team boards let you run challenges and support groups without creating endless message board threads
- SparkPoints and SparkStreaks- some people find this very motivating as it encourages to log in and record certain things every day (similar to MFP's "you've logged in for X amount of days", but less faulty)
- TONS of articles. Almost too many. But very accurate and good source of health information
- More health professionals. They have nutritionists and personal trainers on staff to answer questions.

CONS:
- Very commercial. SP has grown into a huge industry and they're constantly trying to sell you their products
- Too large. I feel like I get to see the same people on MFP over and over, which helps me with my idea of a community
- Near-Obligatory diet plan. They start you off on a 6-stage diet plan, and if you skip it, it assumes you don't want to lose weight and adjusts your calories appropriately (believe me, I've tried). Great for absolute beginners, but if you know a fair bit about nutrition and exercise, completely unnecessary
- The SparkPoints rewards system can get taken to the extreme and obsessive level

SIMILAR:
- Almost every feature, including forums, blogs, friends, logging, smart phone apps, and reports.

I'd say they're very similar and it comes down to your cousins preferences. If she has a lot of SP friends (like you do MFP friends!) she may not want to leave. But if she hasn't been on the site very long or isn't very attached to it, she should find MFP an easy changeover plus have you here for support.