Ricki Lake's Allstride

jennifir

I wanted to know if anyone here has checked out allstride.com. It is an online community for overweight children kind of like fitnesspal. I was a little disappointed to find that to really have any kind of community or use any kind of tools you have to pay. I was just wondering if anyone else has checked it out. I was really excited to hear that there was something like this for children only to find that is more of a for profit than the welfare of children. if fitnesspal can do all they do for free for adults why can't allstride for children?

xraychick77

i dont know..but i friended them on facebook

miriamtorason

It's not free because it offers considerably more than MFP does. It offers consults with a pediatrician, customizable meal plans, exercise plans and videos, and what I think is actually significantly worth a monthly charge? The ability to do a family meal plan that uses augmentations on the same meal to make specific goals for each member of your family.

While MFP does give you access to track and network (and is my own tool of choice), it does not give users access to these kinds of specific tools. Therefore, a fee. I think it's quite on the high side, but it is a robust enough program to be worth paying for - and is likely too intensive in terms of resources and professional time to be able for the costs to be offset by ad revenues. So, while the program may be moderately for-profit, there are a *lot* of experts involved (whose time is worth considerably more than what the membership costs) who deserve to be paid for their time.

jennifir

I understand the fee for that part. But it is really hard to navigate the free online community. My daughter goes to the Y with a program that is free with a nutritionist and personal trainer. I just wanted her to have the opportunity to use the facebook like online community they advertise as free.

miriamtorason

Ah. See, I'm not a member there or anything, so the best I can do is guess. I'd expect, though, poking around the site, that they're fairly new and still working a few of the kinks out of the system. I wonder if, going forward, they find a more active community... And I also wonder if the 'community' functionality is new, so it's still pretty unused, comparatively. It seems a shame if the users aren't interested in the community - that's one of the more interesting and fun parts of the whole thing!

jringe

Hi Everyone,

I work for AllStride and Miriam is right, we are a new online community for families who are trying to lose weight and get healthy.

The free community message board is just getting started and we have encouraged our existing members to report their progress so people can see ongoing results.

Our paid membership, which costs less than $1 a day, offers customized meal plans for up to five family members. You enter your height, weight, age, genders, and food likes and dislikes, and we provide daily meal plans that include 3 meals and 2 snacks, along with the recipes. We also offer online workouts (called playouts, because they're fun to do!) for kids.

You also get access to our experts: Dr. John Monaco, a pediatrician who specializes in treating overweight kids, Izaiah Truyman, our kids' fitness coach, and Robert Ferguson, our nutrition expert. And you get a copy of the book "Too Small to be Big" by Ricki Lake and Dr. Monaco.

Thanks xraychick77 for friending us on FB. We are hoping to reach as many families as we can, and in the coming weeks you'll find a new and improved version of the website, which will be easier to navigate.

And thank you miriamtorason and jennifir for your interest.

Fan us on FB and follow us on Twitter @allstride. We welcome your feedback and we aim to please.

Any questions, send an e-mail to info@allstride.com.

Thanks!