In this modern world, smartphones are beneficial to everyone. They are an indispensable tool that can be used in communication, entertainment, and even retail. One of the good things that our smartphones can help us with is finding the best health and fitness apps. Without the need to visit the gym or a nutritionist, they help us manage our health while practicing spirituality.
Fasting is not only a religious practice but also a necessary habit for a number of health reasons. And since a lot of people who are into fasting are busy, they tend to look for a fasting app that will suit their schedule and give the best information. In this article, we will discuss what fasting is, its different types, and some of the best fasting apps. Additionally, we will tackle the benefits of fasting.
What Is Fasting?
Fasting refers to giving up food and drink for a specific period of time. Typically, this age-old practice was done for religious purposes. This is because many religions believed that there is a connection between the physical and the spiritual states. However, today, people are adopting this practice for health reasons.
Fasting is not a tool for losing weight. It only slows down our metabolic rate compared to the times before we fast. Additionally, it helps in detoxifying and rejuvenating our body. But it is only possible if we fast properly.
How Is Fasting Done?
If not done properly, fasting can be dangerous. With that, people should take measures when fasting and do it safely.
Fasting Periods Should Be Short
People have different ways of fasting. The duration of the fast depends on the person. However, it is advisable to do it only for a short period of time. With that, they can follow the popular fasting regimens, which include:
- The 5:2 Pattern or the Fast Diet – which is the restriction of calorie intake for two days per week and eating normally on five days.
- The 6:1 Pattern – which is the same as the 5:2 pattern. However, the calorie restriction is only for one day instead of two.
- Eat Stop Eat – which involves a 24-hour complete fast once or twice a week.
- The 16:8 Pattern – which involves the restriction of eating to 8-10 hours and fasting every day for 14-16 hours.
Don’t Cut Out All Food, Eat a Small Amount
If you are fasting, you restrict your calorie intake, but you can still eat a small amount of food. You don’t need to cut out all food. With that, fasting will be safer, and the risk of having side effects will be reduced.
Avoid Stimulants and Stay Hydrated
When fasting, it is advisable to avoid stimulants, which include drinks with caffeine and sugar. These also include artificial sweeteners that can be found in diet drinks. This is because avoiding stimulants helps in the process of detoxification. Moreover, it is important to look after the water intake. Drinking plenty of water is a must.
Different Types of Fasting
Intermittent Fasting (IF)
Intermittent fasting is one of the most popular health trends that people use to lose weight. Moreover, it is an eating pattern that cycles between periods of fasting and eating. This is done by eating nothing or just a few calories for a specific time. It helps improve metabolic health, simplify lifestyle, and extend lifespan. It is an ancient secret of health and the simplest strategy of getting rid of bad weight. More importantly, this requires very little change in behavior.
Water Fasting
This type of fast restricts any foods and drinks except water. It only means that any kind of juices is not consumed. It helps to lower the risk of chronic diseases like cancers, heart diseases, and diabetes. Also, it promotes autophagy, which is the body’s natural process of replacing damaged cells with new and healthy ones.
In this type of fasting, a person can consume salt and potassium. This way, you can avoid feeling dizzy and make sure to keep electrolytes in balance.
Calorie Restriction
Also called the Caloric Restriction (CR), it is a practice of reducing average daily caloric intake without incurring malnutrition or depriving oneself of essential nutrients. This type of fast helps to lower cholesterol, improve health, and retard aging. Some people even track their calories with food apps like Lifesum.
The Warrior Diet
This is simply referred to as the 20:4 diet or 20:4 fasting. In this form of intermittent fasting, there is a strict 20-hour food fast or under-eating period followed by a four-hour window of overeating or big feast each night. This means that during the day, a person must eat minimally. He may eat berries, green leafy vegetables, and poached eggs, a good source of protein. Also, he can take zero-calorie fluids. However, at night, one can indulge in a large meal. Nevertheless, this plan requires various exercise requirements. Workouts should also be done at times when one is not eating.
Additionally, according to its founder, Ori Hofmekler, this plan is designed to improve the way people eat, feel, perform, and look. With that, it triggers the survival instincts.
One Meal a Day Diet (OMAD)
This is the ultimate version of time-restricted eating. This is equivalent to a 23:1 fasting ratio. A person can fast for 23 hours straight and then eat one large meal in a one-hour window. In this fasting diet plan, a person will not eat or drink anything that contains calories. However, consuming water and unsweetened coffee and tea are allowed. OMAD helps to reduce hyperinsulinemia, lose weight, control diabetes, and improve metabolic syndrome.
10 Best Fasting Apps
Zero
It is the world’s most popular fasting app. This app allows tracking of customized intermittent fasting cycles for a user to be consistent. Also, it indicates the time remaining until the opening of the eating window. It also provides the start and end time of a person’s fasting cycle. Moreover, this app is ideal for keeping track of the progress while doing the fast. Besides, it gives access to useful resources, which include articles and videos that are related to intermittent fasting and health.
Additionally, this app works even if you have your own schedule. There is an option of choosing from pre-set fasting windows or a seven-day schedule.
The Zero app is available both in Android and iOS devices.
Features:
- Clean and simple interface
- Easy to use
- An intuitive tracker
- Includes history, stats, and notes on your fasts and weight
- Checking of the longest fast cycle
- Fetches the user’s location
- Pre-set type of fast
- Useful information on intermittent fasting
- Supports 16-hour intermittent fasting
- Circadian rhythm fasting
- Weekly scheduling
- Expert analysis of your fasting habits
- Customize your own fast
- Share the fasting experience on social media
- Flexible fasting times
- 18:6 fast ratio for more advanced fasters
Fastient
This fasting app is one of the more wide-ranging tracking apps. It has a wide, open interface where you can record and view your data in easy-to-read graphs. The data includes body measurements, fasting details, food intake, diet plans, and so on. Also, it lets you access your info within the app or on desktop, and easily record your food intake via the fasting schedule tracker. This simple fasting app lets its user to optionally set a goal, customize fasting plan, edit the start time of the fast, and add an end goal. Moreover, its journaling feature lets you record your thoughts, ideas, mood, and experiences while fasting.
The Fastient app is available both in Android and iOS devices.
Features:
- View progress in a beautifully-designed completion bar
- Simple home screen for viewing current stats
- View weight loss as a graph anytime
- Edit the start time of the fast
- Add an end goal to the fast
- Cancel the current fast
- Accessible on any device and platform
- Journal feature
- Check the fasting history via interactive graphs
- Secure data
- Visualize progress while fasting
- Premium features, which include a dark mode, progress pictures, and quick-tag emojis
- Intermittent Fasting (IF)
- 16:8, 20:4, or 36-hour fast
- One Meal a Day (OMAD)
- Alternate Day Fasting (ADF)
- Extended Fasting (EF)
Life Fasting Tracker
This fasting app is a scheduling tracker. It allows its users to adjust their own start and end time and goals for their fasting periods depending on their convenient times. If the user is into a keto diet, this can help him track how long he has been into ketosis. Moreover, the user can connect with his friends who are using the app and be able to motivate each other.
The Life Fasting Tracker app is available both in Android and iOS devices.
Features:
- Easy and flexible fasting tracker
- Fasting statistics
- Short research-based collection of intermittent fasting articles and videos
- Advanced tracking features
- Feed feature for easy sharing and following options
- Supports community option
- Offers experts guidance over intermittent fasting
Ate Food Journal
This fasting app is a visual food diary. It helps in maintaining and establishing a healthy eating habit by having a journal. Also, it offers an easy way for users to look back on their food choices and how they made them feel. If a user is into social media, there is an option for them to share their journal with friends for support and for them to know what the user has been eating. Moreover, it lets a user experiment with new habits. With that, they will know what will work for them.
The Ate Food Journal app is available both in Android and iOS devices.
Features:
- Quickly track meals through photos
- Track fasting automatically
- Share progress on different social platforms via social media integration
- Build sustainable healthy behaviors
- Experiment with new habits to see what works for you
- Stay connected with friends or coach
- Share your day on social media
Vora
Photo by BodyFast App on YouTube
This fasting app allows its users to choose a coach to provide a personalized fitness program. You can follow the coach’s meal planning tips and enjoy other health advice. It has a timer for fasting and eating periods. Also, it has weight and body measurement tracker. Moreover, it helps in losing weight and boosting the immune system. Besides, this app can help in troubleshooting the users’ challenges if they are struggling with the daily mechanics of their intermittent fasting.
The Vora app is available both in Android and iOS devices.
Features:
- More than ten intermittent fasting plans available
- A fasting tracker with a timer
- Wide range of notification options
- Option for tracking weight and body measurements
- Knowledge pool for intermittent fasting
- The healthy way to your feel-good weight
- Personal fasting plans
- Track your weight and body measurements
- An easy-to-use water tracker that reminds when to rehydrate
- Multiple notification alert options
- Apple Health connectivity
FastHabit
This fasting app helps its users to consistently perform their fasting activity and to keep up with the schedule. Users can set up a specific time period when they are ready to begin the fast. Also, they can define how long they have to be in fasting according to their preference. Moreover, users can set reminders and notifications about their ongoing fast. They can also check their fasting stats through the app’s simple dashboard.
Additionally, this fasting app has an Apple Watch and Apple Health integration for easy tracking of the fasts and comprehensive health management. With that, even if the user doesn’t have their phone with them, they can still track their fasts.
The FastHabit app is available both in Android and iOS devices.
Features:
- Simple and flexible fasting tracking
- Reminders and notifications
- Weight tracking
- Calendar and weekly views
- Data export
- Multi-day fasting
- Statistics of the past fasting history
- Easy editing of when to stop, start or adjust the fast anytime
- 10-day Snapshot with “streaks”
- Log weight records
- Daily log
- Getting started guide
- Enhanced support for longer, multi-day fasts
- Export your fasting data
- Syncing to Apple Watch
- Password protection
- Comparisons of daily activities
- Chart and timeline features
- Variety of display modes
- Visualize the progress in percentage and time completed or the remaining time to complete
DoFasting
It is more than just a diet and fitness app. This fasting app is the perfect personal assistant for people who want to lose weight and feel great at the same time. It offers fasting tips from experts in addition to daily fasting schedule, workout plan videos, and access to healthy meal recommendations by professional nutritionists. Its goal is to ensure that people will stick to their calorie intake and do fasting in the safest possible way. Moreover, this fasting app will guide the user to their daily fasting schedule, keep them motivated, and offer not only helpful tips but also diet and workout tricks.
The DoFasting app is available both in Android and iOS devices.
Features:
- Various intermittent fasting types
- Customized healthy meal recommendations
- Daily motivation boosts, guidance, and helpful tips
- Exercise suggestions
- Professional trainers
- Dialogue windows
- Personal fasting assistant
- Useful tips on hydration and proper diet
- Progress tracker and calendar
- Easy personalization of weight loss goals
- Easy to use
- User-friendly navigation
- Pre-loaded workout plans along with video demos
- In-app food diet plat along with food recipes
- Form stronger, healthier habits with its diet planner
- Adjust your fasting type and schedule anytime
- Set up your own intermittent fasting pattern
- Professionally visualized training routines
- Freshly-published food and nutrition articles with scientific research
Simple
This fasting app is the right option for those who are looking to build a strong foundation for a healthy life. It is the most popular, healthy, and effective weight-loss method that most people trust. Moreover, it is the easiest way to keep track of eating habits. The user will get personalized insights about his health, and help him to make his daily fasting routine better.
Additionally, this fasting app is ideal for creating a basic eating discipline. Also, it offers educational and motivational content that helps the user to be in good shape during self-isolation.
The Simple app is available both in Android and iOS devices.
Features:
- Provides health, weight loss, and cognitive power
- Expert advice
- True motivation
- Daily support on customized tips, guidance, and easy life hacks
- Smart and flexible tracking
- Start and end your fasts with one quick click
- Step-by-step guide and tips on intermittent fasting
- Custom fasting protocols
- Easy-to-use meal journal for mindful eating
- Simple and easy to use
- A fasting 16:8 timer, 5:2, 18:6, 20:4, 14:10
- One Meal A Day (OMAD)
- Circadian Rhythm Fasting
- Extended tracking
- Additional tracking options
- Simple and easy to use
Fasten
This fasting app is a perfect choice for those who are on a keto diet and considering complementing it with intermittent fasting. It offers access to over 200 low-carb recipe suggestions that a user can only access during his eating window. With that, he will not be tempted to eat at his fasting hour. Also, this app allows its users to customize the fasting time and get reminders and notifications on when they achieve their fasting goal.
What makes this app unique is that it features weight and mood tracking. The user can also track their water intake level that helps to prevent dehydration. Furthermore, it offers preset options, but users can still customize their fast cycle according to their preferred cycle.
The Fasten app is available both in Android and iOS devices.
Features:
- Customize fast cycle
- See the completed and remaining time
- Stop, restart, or modify the fasting time
- Weight tracker
- Hydration tracker
- Mood tracker
- Integrated with Google Fit
- Over 200 low-carb recipe suggestions
Benefits of Fasting
People are fasting not only for spiritual purposes but also for health reasons. Scientists and researchers confirmed that fasting has a lot of benefits. Here are some of these benefits.
- Promotes blood sugar control by improving insulin sensitivity, thus lowering the risk of Type 2 Diabetes
- Improves eating patterns, brain functions, and immune system
- Boosts brain function, mental clarity, concentration
- Prevents neurodegenerative disorders
- Increases the secretion of hormones
- Helps weight loss
- Speeds up metabolism
- Helps clear and rejuvenate the skin and prevents acne
- Fights inflammation
- Could delay aging, extend lifespan, and help live longer
- Limits calorie intake
- Helps prevent cancer and increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy
- Good for the brain and helps prevent Alzheimer’s disease
- Beneficial for heart health by improving blood pressure, triglycerides, and cholesterol levels
- Changes the function of cells, genes, and hormones
- An effective tool to lose weight and belly fat
- Generates cellular repair processes
- Reduces oxidative stress and inflammation in the body
- Promotes detoxification
- Contributes to self-enlightenment
Is Fasting Safe for Pregnant Women?
Fasting is not safe and not recommended not only for pregnant women but also for breastfeeding mothers. This is because fasting could prevent them from getting the nutrients that their body needs to keep them and the baby healthy.
Be the Best You With Different Fasting Apps
There are a lot of fasting apps available. However, choosing the best fasting apps depends on the user’s preference. Also, to be able to get what you desire, you should be responsible and stick to the chosen fasting regimen. Each app has different features that can be helpful to each user. Fasting does not only benefit the physical appearance but also the mind. With that, it can improve self-confidence, alertness, concentration, and self-discipline.
After finishing your chosen fasting app, you’ll notice an improvement in your body and mind and will be satisfied with what you become. That way, you’ll be able to show the best in you and all that you’ve got. Just remember to always be healthy!
