MFP vs. Sparkpeople

I did SP for many years and honestly, if my cousin hadn't invited me to try MFP with her I'd still be there. Like anything, you get out if it what you put into it. I liked the exercise tracker better on SP. I liked the ability to change all my goals easier at SP (they helped me recover from diabetes). I liked the way fitbit synced easier with SP. most especially I liked that I had my favorite food database created & logging was a piece of cake. Not sure what app everyone paid for because when I got the SP app it was free. I rarely ever used the forums over there.

Now ... I love MFP. I like the friends feature. SP has one too but it isn't right out there for you to see as soon as log in like it is here. I like the food database here. MUCH more complete! I will stick with MFP but I do still use SP to track fitness & play around with goals.

Sparkpeople is the best!!! Food & fitness teacher are great & the site is super motivational!!

I came here to find some princess half Marathon buddies bc I couldn't seem to find any on Sparkpeople & I don't want to train alone (although I do have the support of my husband and two kids)

I only heard about it a few months ago, having lost weight with MFP 2 years ago +

I only just looked at it right now and the site hurt my eyes. Not sure I'd bother forging my way through all the pop-ups, ads, multiple columns, and crazy colour palette.

It looks like it's designed for people who like to watch a lot of TV.

I tried SP a few years ago, and thought it was way too "busy" for me. The whole points/trophy thing was more of a distraction than a motivator for me and I lost interest in logging in very quickly.

Let's go at this with different angles shall we?

Food Tracking: MFP wins this hands down. Much more precise, less variables you need to plug in, you don't have to worry if you placed your food on the right meal and it's not so hard to find your food like in Sparkpeople.

Activity Tracking: This will be slightly hard to give to MFP due to the fact that it's easier to log your workout and you see vids that assist you how to perform them well, BUT, and that's a huge one lol it's not as efficient as the one I have been using since I started tracking my workouts (before i met MFP) the database is much bigger but then again we are NOT talking about another app, so I say in terms of NOT having to use alot of apps at the same time (separating the fact that there are apps that sync with MFP that sorta help you LOG your workout), SP wins.

Calorie Balance: MFP wins. I've logged my workouts in SP and was very annoyed. There is absolutely no way to monitor your heart rate nor your steps unless you're willing to pay for the activity tracker, which obviously will NOT provide you with enough data to efficiently let you know how many calories you've burned (which is why i personally do not enjoy any pedometer that doesn't have a heart rate monitor).

Goal planning: SP wins, but seriously, this isn't a site based on personal goals other than monitoring your calorie intake. It's nice though, but not really a feature that will put MFP in the dust.

Cons of MFP: So many trackers that can sync with MFP and none of them log your workout like JEFIT. I've talked to JEFIT before and it seems like they are not planning to sync with MFP anytime soon. Soooo this is just a shout out to MFP that i would gladly pay for an upgraded version of MFP that has it's own calorie tracking, syncs with a bluetooth heart rate monitor AND logs your workouts efficiently. MAPMYFITNESS is the closest thing to this but just like alot of people I've talked to about this, everyone's getting tired of having three apps running to monitor their training (Track your heart rate, log your workout and efficiently monitor your time spent on each exercise).

Anyhow, going to the point... MFP stands out as the best app to monitor not just your diet but your weight AND activity (since it has apps that sync with this application as well).