Best App for Intermittent Fasting: Top 5 Apps Reviewed

Contrary to popular belief, intermittent fasting is not as easy as just skipping breakfast. But it does not have to be complicated: with specialized apps, tracking eating and fasting windows is straightforward and hassle-free.

As there are plenty of intermittent fasting apps, I have decided to take a closer look at some of them, test their features, and examine their unique offerings.

This article was prepared in close collaboration with our in-house research team who reviewed the apps and assisted me in analyzing the scientific background of fasting.

Best intermittent fasting apps: a shortlist

• Best intermittent fasting app to improve your eating habits: Simple
• Best fasting app that includes mental health features: Lasta
• Best health coaching app with intermittent fasting: BetterMe
• Best meal-planning app compatible with intermittent fasting: Noom
• Personalized book for weight management with a fasting app: Beyond Body

Comparison of the best apps for intermittent fasting

App	Price	Free version	Available platforms	Intended purpose	Calorie counter	Water intake tracer	Workout routines	Other features
Simple	Has a free version; otherwise $30.00/1-month, $50.00/year	Yes	Android, iOS	Improve eating habits	No	Yes	No	AI assistant
Lasta	$39.99/1-month, $54.99/3-month, $74.99/6-month	No	Android, iOS	Improve overall wellness	Yes	Yes	Yes	Mood tracker, guided meditation
BetterMe	$17.77/1-week, $38.95/1-month, $66.65/3-month	No	Android, iOS	Improve overall wellness	Yes	Yes	Yes	Guides on nutrition
Noom	$70/month, $209/year	No	Android, iOS	Meal planning	Yes	Yes	No	Guides on nutrition
Beyond Body	$36.99/1-month, $53.94/3-month, $75.78/6-month	No	Android, iOS	Meal planning	Yes	Yes	Yes	Guides on mindfulness

Best intermittent fasting apps: an overview

After meticulously analyzing various intermittent fasting apps, we picked a handful that showed potential and ranked them using the criteria mentioned above. As everyone’s needs may vary, this list reflects our subjective opinion.

Moreover, if you are considering starting a new diet, it is always best to consult a registered dietitian.

1. Simple — best intermittent fasting app to improve your dietary choices

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As the name implies, Simple is an intermittent fasting app designed to be user-friendly and intuitive. The overall goal of this app is to help users make better health decisions.

The fasting tracker in this app is easy to use and customizable to any of the preferred fasting and eating schedules. It is also available in the freemium version.

However, this app is more than an intermittent fasting app. As claimed by various reviews, users find this app to be a great starting point that can help kickstart a health journey by motivating users to stick to better choices. This is the main reason why we picked it as our first choice for the best intermittent fasting app.

What we found appealing about this app is the simplified food tracker. The tracker prompts users to log their meals manually or upload a photo for a so-called nutrition score. After testing the app for a few weeks, our team established this score to be a valuable tool for fostering greater awareness of one’s eating habits.

Simple offers two premium options: a 12-week plan or an annual. Currently, the 12-week plan costs $30, while the annual plan would cost you $50 per year. Some features of this app are available for free, but personalization is not included in the free version.

2. Lasta — best fasting app with mental health features

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If you are looking for an all-in-one app that would guide you through your wellness journey, we would recommend checking out Lasta. With numerous apps on the market, Lasta combines a wide range of features such as a water tracker, meal plans for different dietary regimes, exercises, daily wellness tasks, and, of course, a customizable intermittent fasting tracker. What makes Lasta unique is its emphasis on mental health.

For instance, Lasta includes a mood tracking feature that enables users to reflect on their fasting and wellness journey. What we appreciated about this app is its emphasis on cognitive behavioral therapy. Research studies suggest that this type of therapy can help implement lifestyle changes, making it a go-to choice for anyone struggling with weight management.

There are 3 subscription plans available: 1-month ($39.99), 3-month ($54.99), or 6-month ($74.99). Right now, Lasta does not offer a free trial.

3. BetterMe — best health coaching app with intermittent fasting features

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For those who are looking for an all-in-one app for improving health, BetterMe stands out as a valuable option. Alongside an intermittent fasting tracker and plans, this application invites users to take a broader approach to wellness and includes a wide range of features such as exercise routines and a meal tracker.

Before you start using the app, you will be prompted to fill in the questionnaire. This is done to tailor the fasting and workout plans to your needs, preferences, and experience so far.

When it comes to the user experience, our team appreciated the clean design of the app. However, after testing BetterMe for some time, we noticed the food tracker to be less comprehensive and reliable since the food library is rather limited.

Besides a few drawbacks, BetterMe is one of the most popular and well-received applications for fasting. Currently, the app takes 9th place in the Health and Fitness category both on the Apple App Store and Google App Store with the average rating of 4.7 and 4.5 respectively.

Although the price will vary depending on the seasonal and personal discounts, the 1-week plan is priced at $17.77, the 1-month plan at $38.95, and the 12-week at $66.65.

4. Noom — best meal-planning app that works with intermittent fasting

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While Noom primarily functions as a meal-planning app, it is compatible with intermittent fasting. We have chosen to include it in the list since it stands as a holistic solution to weight management.

Most diets flop because they are not sustainable and fail to address the psychological aspects of eating habits. Our team resonated with Noom’s mission to encourage people to make lifestyle adjustments instead of relying on crash diets.

Noom’s features are all about cultivating and improving healthy habits around food, including mindful eating and understanding hunger cues and emotional triggers related to food.

However, some users reported the app to require too much effort. As it prompts to track a wide range of health information, e.g., food, water intake, and physical activities, it can feel overwhelming. Yet, others have found these features to be motivating and encouraging.

As for now, one month of Noom premium is priced at $70. The most expensive plan, annual, would cost you $209.

5. Beyond Body — personalized book for weight management with an intermittent fasting app

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Although Beyond Body is a personalized meal plan and exercise routine book, it offers an assistant app that includes an intermittent fasting tracker. Alternatively, you can choose to use the app on its own.

Besides meal plans, the application contains tips that align with your goals stated in the quiz.

It is worth pointing out that if you follow any particular dietary restrictions, Beyond Body is probably not the first choice for you. As claimed by multiple customers, the book is not always personalized to fit diets such as vegan, gluten-free, and asks the customer to figure out substitutions on their own, defeating the purpose of the book.

Right now, you can order your Beyond Body book for $79.99. If you desire to have an assistant app, the book would cost you $35.99. You can choose from three subscriptions: 1-month for $36.99, 3-month for $53.94, or 6-month for $75.78.

How we compiled the list of best intermittent fasting apps

When we were looking for the best app to track intermittent fasting, we considered a few key criteria to help us craft this list.

Features	Compatibility	Price	Personalization
Has features that may help track and improve your health	Android, iOS	Freemium-$70/1-month	Customized fasting windows

• Features. Although the main feature of intermittent fasting apps is the fasting window tracker, we favored apps that also incorporate features that may help their users excel in their overall wellness journey.
• Availability. We favored apps that are both available on Android and iOS devices.
• Price. Price may be a crucial factor in determining the best product for yourself. We selected applications that are in different price ranges.
• Personalization. To tailor a fasting plan that suits you best, most intermittent fasting apps require you to complete a questionnaire. We favored apps with many personalization possibilities.

What is intermittent fasting?

Intermittent fasting is a practice of restricting all food intake for certain periods, usually ranging anywhere from 12 and 16 hours. Although there are more extreme versions of intermittent fasting, if you are a beginner who is not supervised by a professional, intermittent fasting regimes with a shorter fasting window may be the most suitable.

One of the main benefits of intermittent fasting is weight loss. Numerous scientific investigations have demonstrated the potential of this dietary approach to support weight reduction, particularly when combined with a nutritious and well-balanced eating diet.

For instance, one meta-analysis concluded that intermittent fasting can help reduce body weight, waist circumference, and body fat mass. However, IF was not superior to calorie restriction, with both interventions potentially sharing overlapping benefits for weight loss.

Moreover, studies suggest that intermittent fasting could be beneficial in aiding blood sugar control and improving insulin sensitivity parameters. For this reason, it is postulated that intermittent fasting could be helpful even without any weight loss — as a tool that supports metabolic health.

While intermittent fasting is generally regarded to be safe, it is crucial to consult your physician before starting any new restrictive diet, especially if you have any underlying conditions. Moreover, intermittent fasting may not be suitable if you have nutrient deficiencies, have a history of or currently dealing with an eating disorder, take part in intense physical exercise, or are in a life stage that requires additional dietary support, such as pregnancy or elderly.

Expert insight

For the last section of this article, I sat down to talk with our in-house nutritionist, Sandra Vigelienė, BSc, who gladly answered some of the questions I had regarding intermittent fasting.

What specific populations should avoid practicing IF?

Intermittent fasting is not recommended for people with a history of eating disorders. As there are no studies to date that have evaluated the safety of this dietary regimen in those with hormonal imbalances, pregnant and breastfeeding individuals, as well as children, these groups should avoid engaging in intermittent fasting.

Intermittent fasting is also not recommended for adults of advanced age as they are at higher risks of dehydration and malnutrition, as well as those with immune deficiencies.

People with diabetes should also be cautious, especially if they use insulin or other medication. I would advise you to approach this regime only with the support of your doctor.

Finally, some literature sources propose that this regimen may be cautiously approached by males as well because there are associations between IF and lower testosterone levels.

What are the common undesirable effects of IF?

Overall, the most common undesirable effects of IF are dehydration, nausea, headaches, dizziness, syncope, weakness, cold, irritability, bad breath, low energy, and hunger pangs.

Many of these effects are linked to dehydration, making it important to stay properly hydrated. In addition, follow a balanced diet during the eating window, so your body gets as many micro- and macronutrients as possible to support its functions.

Apps for intermittent fasting: do they work?

Intermittent fasting apps are beneficial for tracking one’s fasting and eating windows.

Whether it can work for other purposes will highly depend on many factors. For example, intermittent fasting has been seen to be effective in numerous clinical studies for weight loss. Tracking intermittent fasting without any apps may be difficult, so a specialized app for that may make the process smoother.

Main features of intermittent fasting apps

While the primary function of intermittent fasting apps is fasting time tracking, many other features may be integrated into them. Below we highlighted the most common features found in intermittent fasting apps.

• Fasting timer. There are several fasting windows to choose from. For example, the 12-hour fasting regime is the most beginner-friendly option, where 12 hours fall under the eating window. The best option ultimately depends on many individual factors. Most fasting apps allow you to customize your fasting window.
• Calorie counter. Calorie counting may be a useful tool combined with an intermittent fasting timer, especially if your principal aim is to lose weight. Most intermittent fasting apps include some kind of food tracker — but that does not mean that it can compute calories for you.
• Macronutrient tracker. Some people may also benefit from tracking macronutrients (carbs, fats, and protein). For instance, this could be helpful for certain diets (e.g., keto) or people trying to increase protein intake.
• Water intake. During your intermittent fasting period, you are encouraged to consume water. You may also include drinks such as unsweetened tea or coffee without milk. By increasing your water intake, you may also curb food cravings you might have while fasting.
• Meal recommendations. Many intermittent fasting applications include recipes and, sometimes, offer personalized meal plans. While these features can be advantageous, they may not align with individual dietary needs. For precise and personalized dietary guidance, it is strongly advisable to seek consultation with a qualified dietitian.
• Mood tracker. Certain intermittent fasting applications may incorporate a range of features related to mental well-being, including a mood tracking function. These features may assist users in managing their mental health and noticing recurring emotional patterns.
• Workout routines. Many intermittent fasting apps are seen as all-in-one tools to improve your general health. For this reason, you may find various exercise routines integrated into them. If you have any specific needs or injuries, always consult a physiotherapist before starting a new workout regime.
• Compatibility with wearable devices. Some intermittent fasting applications can be used with smartwatches. This can help the user to check their fasting window and receive reminders for when it is time to start or break their fast.
• Data analysis and reporting. Keeping track of your fasting may be easier if you have in-depth statistics on your progress so far. Some applications may provide personalized reports to offer valuable insights and feedback to users.
• Stress management tools. These tools could include guided meditations, mindfulness exercises, mood journals, and other features tailored to assist your fasting journey.

Best free intermittent fasting app vs. paid: how to choose the right one

As there is a wide range of free (or freemium) intermittent fasting apps on the market, it can be difficult to decide what works best for you.

To give you a better understanding of what to expect from an intermittent fasting app based on your specific needs and preferences, we gathered information on what you can usually find within free and paid applications.

	Free version	Paid (premium plans, paid versions)
Fasting tracker	+	+
Water tracker	+	+
Body weight tracker	+	+
Customizable reminders	+	+
Fasting journal/notes	-	+
Personalized meal plan	-	+
Personal fasting program	-	+
Access to all fasting programs	-	+
Data reports and statistics	-	+
Mood tracker	-	+
Nutrition tracker	-	+
Nutritionist’s meal tips	-	+

The features within the app will depend on the product you choose to try out.

Our conclusion of intermittent fasting apps

If you have decided to try intermittent fasting, intermittent fasting apps may be a valuable tool. These apps may assist you in effectively managing your fasting schedule and setting a doable target for you. Moreover, they often include various features that may prove advantageous throughout your wellness journey, such as the monitoring of dietary and hydration intake.