Intermittent fasting is a trend that many influencers and celebrities promote these days. The diet has its roots in prehistoric times, as our gatherer and hunter forefathers spent hours or days looking for food.
Both dieticians and doctors swear by the research-confirmed health benefits of intermittent fasting, including mental sharpness, weight loss, lowered inflammation, optimized hormones, and enhanced longevity.
While the idea of going for extended hours or days in between meals might seem daunting, intermittent fasting is quite flexible.
There are lots of ways to structure fasting and eating patterns. And just as with most diets, intermittent fasting can help you achieve weight loss and wellness results quickly.
However, the results are best achieved with proper guidance, and this is why fasting apps are increasingly becoming popular.
If you’re looking to lose weight with intermittent fasting and are ready to integrate it into your daily routine, you might be considering signing up for a fasting application.
In this DoFasting review, we are going to look at the DoFasting intermittent fasting application, which has created a buzz in the past few months. We’ll take a deeper look at intermittent fasting as a practice, and how well or bad the DoFasting app can help your fasting plan in general.
We have spent over 72 hours testing DoFasting and other similar apps to provide you with an accurate and unbiased review of how their offering compares. Our team has been helping readers make more informed decisions toward healthier lifestyles.
We evaluate each service in adherence to the latest health and medical standards, and a simple question, is this something we would recommend to our family or friends?
Read on for our full DoFasting app review.
What is the DoFasting App?
Contents
DoFasting is a subscription-based intermittent fasting application designed to help users achieve their desired fitness and weight goals through intermittent fasting. The team behind DoFasting believes that anyone can benefit from intermittent fasting.
The app works by first collecting information about the user to understand their lifestyle and what they are looking to achieve, and then formulating a personalized fasting plan.
It combines healthy diets, workouts, and fasting in a way that can easily integrate into any lifestyle.
With a variety of home workouts, health products, and over 5,000 recipes, the app has nearly everything you need to help you make the most out of your fasting routine. But there is more to the app, as we will explain below.
Company Overview
DoFasting is a diet app and is the brainchild of a nutritionist named Christine Ellis. Christine’s primary goal when creating the app was to develop one that would offer complete information about intermittent fasting. She sought to make it user-friendly in a way that would appeal to professionals and newbies looking to follow a clear fasting regimen.
However, it is worth pointing out that the company is shrouded in secrecy. Fasting Solutions UAB is the company behind the app, and it’s based in Lithuania.
It’s hard to tell who funds DoFasting’s supplement product line. A company called Max Nutrition UAB seems to be involved or behind their supplement line, but there’s little transparency about DoFasting’s scientific team.
DoFasting also found itself in the middle of a major controversy in 2020 owing to its Twitter ads. Some of their ads were hugely criticized for promoting eating disorders and body shaming by displaying “ideal” body types.
One of the highlighted ads had a “choose a body type” image showing a plus-sized woman of color surrounded by thin white women, which could generate implicit connotations about fatphobia and race.
How Does it Incorporate Intermittent Fasting?
The journey with DoFasting usually starts with a short 60-second quiz, to help get your personalized fasting plan. The quiz will ask you about your gender, age, and body measurements along with your desired weight change and any conditions that could affect the safety of your dieting.
You’ll also get questions about your lifestyle, how you prepare your meals, times of the day you eat your meals when you feel the hungriest, your work habits, and your physical activity levels.
The quiz will also ask you about your familiarity with fasting, your willingness to lose weight and try fasting, and whether you’d be willing to fast on the weekends.
Based on your results, you will be given a personal summary of recommendations for water intake, daily calories, daily physical activity, the approximate time to lose your desired weight, along with your perceived safety of fasting. The app will also give you an option to sign up for an annual subscription.
The fasting options are categorized in terms of difficulty as outlined below:
- Beginner 12:12 fasts: these incorporate a 12:12 fasting routine, with a 12-hour eating window and a 12-hour fast. 14:10 fasts can also be applied here.
- Intermediate Fasts: These include 18:6 fasts and 16:8 fasts
- Expert level fasts: These include 24:0 fasts or 36:0 (alternate day fasts)
Once you decide on your fasting window, you can navigate the app to see your fasting timer, food tracker, water tracker, and your progress on your fasting days as well as your target weight.
What Fasting Schedules Does DoFasting Offer?
The following are the intermittent fasting schedules you will find on the DoFasting app:
- The 16:8 schedule
This entails fasting for 16 hours and only eating during the remaining 8 hours. Conventional wisdom says that you eat your first meal at noon and your last by 8 p.m. However, you can choose your actual 16:8 schedule to suit your lifestyle.
- The 5:2 schedule
This refers to days, not hours. It entails eating as you normally would for 5 days and restricting your calorie intake the rest of the day. For the 2 fasting days, men should aim to consume 600 calories while women should aim for 500. The fasting days should also not be consecutive.
- Eat-stop-eat
This is a more restrictive version of 5:2 where you eat normally for 5 days and then completely fast for 2 days. The fasting days should ideally not be consecutive, and you should not eat solid food but only have water or no-calorie beverages.
- Alternate-day fasting
This entails fasting every other day and restricting your diet to between 500 and 600 calories.
- The Warrior Diet
This is a date that only lets you eat one large meal, ideally in the evening, within a four-hour window. It requires that you restrict yourself to eating only small quantities of fruit and vegetables for the earlier part of the day.
- Skipping Meals
This is simply an unstructured method of intermittent fasting. You simply skip a meal two or more times a week. You might not experience a great deal of weight loss using this method, but it’s generally easier to follow.
Is it Safe?
While intermittent fasting has become a popular way of losing weight in the past few years, some people remain skeptical about its effectiveness. Some criticize Intermittent Fasting and apps like DoFasting for what critics term as “glamorization of starvation”. Others believe that the rising popularity of fasting is unhealthy for people struggling with eating disorders.
When looking at significantly changing your diet, you should always review the new plan with your doctor to see if it’s a good option for you. While you might not be changing the number of calories you take or what you eat with intermittent fasting, it could still have adverse effects on your body if you’re not careful.
On the other hand, some clear benefits come with controlled caloric intake. When deciding whether to start fasting, you should ideally account for all aspects of the practice and how it could affect your health. It’s always wise to review any medical information that you can find about a plan or method before applying it to your dietary regimen.
Who Should Consider the DoFasting App for Weight Loss?
DoFasting offers an exciting experience to users through personalized intermittent fasting plans. The app is ideal for users looking to lose weight and need a tool to track their progress. The app also comes with many recipe ideas, challenges, tips, exercise routines, and reminders to get the most out of your intermittent fasting diet.
The app will help you monitor your intermittent fasting with the following features:
- Food, water, weight, and step tracker
- A fasting tracker that indicates your fasting hours and your eating window
- A rich library of workouts
- Articles and guides about intermittent fasting
- More than 5000 healthy recipes that you can personalize to suit your meal preferences
- A challenge mode that you can use if you’re inclined to test your limits
The app wants to help you lose weight by providing workouts to get you moving, healthy recipes to cook, and a custom fasting plan that suits your lifestyle.
You can also subscribe to their supplements which work in conjunction with the app to provide you with the needed nutrients and help suppress hunger.
This goes a long way in making your fasting routine more effective and tolerable.
DoFasting is therefore suited for someone interested in intermittent fasting and is looking to lose weight through exercise and healthy meal ideas. It allows for great flexibility as you can choose your fasting method, how you work out, and what you eat.
If you prefer a more structured weight loss plan, then this might not be the best app for you. It’s also not ideal if you prefer to have social support as part of your weight loss program.
The app doesn’t provide any dietitians, coaches, or instructors to help with motivation or accountability.
It’s also worth mentioning that fasting is not recommended for expecting or breastfeeding mothers, people with diabetes, or those with gastroesophageal reflux or a history of eating disorders. It’s recommended that you talk to your doctor before committing to a new eating regimen.
DoFasting Supplement Reviews: Can They Help with Your Weight Loss?
What about their supplements? Are they effective? Well, DoFasting offers three different supplements which we will discuss below in detail.
BHB Ketone
This is a supplement meant for boosting energy. It contains magnesium hydroxybutyrate and calcium beta-hydroxybutyrate and is a naturally occurring ketone that your body also produces. The supplement helps to increase the level of BHB in the body to help start ketosis for weight loss benefits.
To use the supplement, you only need to do the following:
- Mix one BHB Ketone sachet in 14 ounces of water
- Drink the mixture half an hour before lunch or breakfast. You can choose a meal yourself.
- The supplement is available in peach and raspberry flavors, and you can choose the one that you prefer
Apple Cider Vinegar Gummies
You have likely heard about apple cider vinegar as an effective natural ingredient for weight loss. A study conducted in 2009 found out that taking 15ml to 30ml of apple cider vinegar per day can help to reduce a kilo or two of your weight in 12 weeks.
The apple cider vinegar gummies from DoFasting are easy to take and you can just pop one whenever you get the chance to do so.
Essential Fiber Complex Box
The Fiber Complex Box contains glucomannan and cellulose. It’s a soluble source of fiber that helps with weight loss because it makes you feel full faster. This in turn makes you not eat as much as you normally would.
On the other hand, cellulose is great for weight loss as it gives you dietary fiber. It’s essential for weight loss and can be great for constipation. You just need to mix a packet of the product in water and drink it daily.
Generally speaking, the three supplements in the DoFasting program serve a purpose in helping you achieve your goals. Plus, there’s research supporting the effectiveness of the ingredients present in each of the supplements. However, DoFasting it’s not very transparent about the manufacturing of these supplements, and we cannot be certain that these supplements have been tested in a lab.
DoFasting App Cost: How Much is it Every Month?
The DoFasting app is free to download, though you will need to purchase a subscription if you want access to all the features. The app offers three subscription plans with auto-renewal: three months, six months, and annual subscription plans.
The 3-month plan costs $66, the 6-month plan costs you $92, while the 12-month plan will set you back $264. So, just as with many plans, the more months you pay, the cheaper the subscription is.
A subscription will give you access to all the apps features including the following:
- Ability to personalize fasting options
- Food, water, weight, and step tracker
- A fasting tracker that outlines your fasting hours and eating window
- A large library of workouts for all fitness levels
- Educational articles and guides about intermittent fasting
- More than 5000 healthy recipes that you can personalize to suit your meal preferences
- A challenge mode that you can use if you’re inclined to test your limits
Once you purchase a subscription, the app will prompt you to choose the type of fasting you want to follow. Fasting sessions are categorized based on the level of difficulty.
For example, beginners will start with the 12:12 fast, where you fast for 12 hours and have a 12-hour window for regular eating.
With your fasting type selected, the app will start tracking the eating window. The fasting tracker comes in handy especially if you leverage the app’s reminders.
You can also customize different parts of the app, such as food preferences, fasting method, the kind of workouts you want to do, dietary restrictions, and whether or not you want to track your steps, calories, and water intake.
Supplement Costs
- The Essential Fiber Complex: Costs $69.99 for a 1-month supply, you can purchase it from their online shop or with a subscription
- Apple Cider Vinegar Gummies: These cost $63.99 for 3 bottles, and are available from their online shop or with a subscription
- Keto Cycle Fuel: Costs $45.80 for a 5-pack, and is only available through a subscription
- BHB Ketone Boost: Will cost you $29.16 for a 6-month supply, and is only available with a subscription
- Twice-As-Easy Bundle: Costs $79.83 for a 1-month supply. You can buy it from their online shop or with a subscription. The bundle comes with the Apple Cider Vinegar Gummies as well as The Essential Fiber Complex Box
- DoFasting’s All Supplements Bundle: Costs $129.99 for a 1-month supply and is only available with a subscription. The bundle includes a bottle of Apple Cider Vinegar Gummies, The Essential Fiber Complex Box, and 2 boxes of the BHB Ketone Boost.
- Pricing current at time of publication – see current pricing at DoFasting website
Does it Really Help You Lose Weight?
The short answer is yes but understanding how it works is important here. Intermittent fasting works by optimizing your metabolism, restoring your natural internal rhythm, and allowing your good gut bacteria to thrive.
While your internal systems improve, the fat-burning processes kick in. Gradually, being overweight will become a matter of the past. The good thing about the app is that it can help you lose weight without investing in a lot of products and spending a lot of money.
The benefits of fasting are well known in the health and fitness community, and some of them include:
- Weight loss
- Anti-aging benefits
- Improved mental health
- Improved gastrointestinal health
- Improved blood sugar levels
In a 2020 review, it was found that intermittent fasting was beneficial for weight management in obese individuals. The study found that it can help individuals lose up to 13% of their body weight.
According to the study, part of the reason intermittent fasting was helpful is that it restricts the amount of calorie intake.
Another 2019 study showed that Intermittent fasting played a role in improving blood sugar levels. It demonstrated that eating for 6 hours and fasting for 18 hours would generate better blood glucose levels compared to following a 12:12 fasting pattern.
With all these factors in mind, it’s understandable why the DoFasting app would be great in helping you lose weight and maintain proper health. Plus, many people can struggle to control every aspect of their fasting regimen without any help. This is why DoFasting and other similar apps are recommendable.
Pros and Cons of DoFasting
The following are the pros and cons of the DoFasting app:
Pros
- The app uses a multi-faceted approach to weight loss, ideally integrating physical activity and nutrition into the regimen
- You can adjust your fasting schedule and weight loss goals to make the regimen more convenient and easier to follow
- You can use that app on a mobile phone or in a web browser
- The app gives everyone a personal summary based on their background
- 24/7 access to personalized meal ideas, fasting tracker, and workout routines
- Supplements and programs appear to be supported by science
- Discounts and promotions are regular on all their subscription plans and supplements
Cons
- No free trial available
- You have to deal with a barrage of ads for dieting/wellness products during signup
- No self-service cancellation for web sign-ups
Final Thoughts
The bottom line here is that DoFasting is a good app for intermittent fasting and weight loss.
While the app itself is not a scam, the company behind it is quite questionable, considering the amount of controversy and secrecy surrounding it.
The company’s communication with customers has also been quite questionable, to say the least. One glaring example is their requirement to cancel a subscription via email if you register your account via a web browser.
Moreover, some of their offerings might not be worth what they are asking for. For instance, the additional parts of the program, like the workout plans, meal ideas, and informational articles could easily be found elsewhere free of charge and without too much hassle.
Nonetheless, if you are still interested in trying out their app or supplements, we recommend talking to your doctor first to see if it’s safe to do so.
While fasting may bring a lot of health benefits, it also comes with certain risks, which means that it might not be suitable for everyone.
And if you’ve already established that fasting is the right path for you, DoFasting might just give you the support you need, but it’s likely not worth the cost.