The internet just got healthier. Step aside ticket booking, yahoo email and wedding sites, we’re interested in websites that want to keep us healthy. And there are plenty of them. We picked the following three health websites based on their content, ease of use, and meal and fitness planning apps. Let’s take a look at Health Me Up’s top three health websites for weight loss and maintenance.

Sparkpeople.com
Sparkpeople is an inspiration for a lot of health, fitness and food bloggers. It’s probably the best free health website available, with fitness tools, calorie counters, performance trackers, even meal planning. All you have to do is create an account and start. Sparkpeople keeps you motivated through group, personal and community interactions. Associate sites like SparkRecipes keep you on the health track with recipes and healthy cooking ideas. I especially love the exercise demos and workout planning information that Sparkpeople’s coach Nicole offers regularly. She hits the nail on the head with her bikini workout series, posted routinely before summer each year.

Everydayhealth.com
With such a wide range of health websites and portals out there, how do you decide which one to follow? Simple – pick the one with the most answers and the best design. So if you don’t want to spend endless hours deciphering disease symptoms with theMerck Manual, visit the EverydayHealth website to know what that cough could mean. The website comes with the, by now expected, calorie counter, BMI calculator and community interactions. The real juice in this health offering is in the Common Conditions and Symptom Checker sections. We don’t recommend self diagnosis, but do you really need to run to the doctor for every little cramp?

Mealsmatter.org
Planning a meal is easy, but are you really sure about what each recipe and ingredient really entail? Don’t watch each calorie, but yes do pay closer attention to what you are buying, cooking and eating. My favourite section on the Meals Matter website is theShopping List maker. It helps to know what items you routinely buy. For instance, when you stock up on chips and batter coated and fried peanuts for unexpected guests, it really means that on a movie night it’s you who’s actually eating them. Monitor that shopping list and you won't be able to sabotage your own diet.

Other than these three health websites there are at least a dozen perfectly great and helpful websites out there. Most have trackers, tools, planners, community sharing, food logs, and exercise logs galore. What you need to do is decide. Decide whether your weight management goal is going to become an important part of your life. Once the decision is made pick a health site that comes in your favourite colour, dedicate 10 minutes to logging and tracking your daily health, and fire away.