I was never an athletic kid, and that continued through most of my 20s. That is, until I decided to change things up, drop some weight, and focus more on my health. Intermittent fasting was a big part of that journey, and I’ve been following it for several years now. In fact, it’s the one constant in my wellness journey that has actually stuck with me. Much as I’ve dabbled with workout plans, picked up the best fitness trackers, tracked macros with obsessive detail, and even experimented with sleep optimization, it’s the 16:8 fasting approach that has been the most sustainable thing I’ve done for my health. Ironically, what hasn’t been sustainable is finding a fasting app that doesn’t eventually go down the usual rabbit hole of ads and subscriptions. Trust me, I’ve tried them all.
While most fasting and fitness apps start out helpful, the core experience very quickly gets buried under microtransactions and basic features locked behind paywalls. Curious about what fasting zone you’re in? You’d better be prepared to pony up some cash. Everything from custom fasting windows to simple insights that used to be free is suddenly a premium feature. And don’t get me started on the notification spam every time I open the app. Look, I just need a glorified stopwatch. I don’t need your app to support a full-fledged wellness program and the accompanying fees. So I did what any self-respecting tech enthusiast would do: I looked at open-source solutions to the problem.