Most fasting apps count down to a finish line. This one doesn’t — and that’s by design.
Paleo Fasting was shaped by people who fast regularly, not by people who read about fasting. All the essentials are here — timer, mood log, notes — free, for everyone, permanently. But a few things work differently than you might expect.
No countdown to “done”
You won’t find a timer counting down to zero. You set intended fast hours — and that’s a deliberate, philosophical choice.
Fasting is not something you should do. It’s something you choose to do. No meaningful experience deserves a deadline ticking over your head. Your body is not a stopwatch; it doesn’t operate on a precise hour-by-hour schedule, and neither should your mindset.
Here’s what that means in practice: if you set out to fast 72 hours but stop at 48 — or even at 16 — this app records that as a success. Because it is one. Life intervenes, your body sends signals, plans change. A shorter fast is still a fast. The app will never brand any session a “failure,” regardless of what you originally intended.
Intended hours, not a hard goal. You’re always welcome to hit them or go beyond — but you’ll never be punished for listening to your body.
Dry fasting mode
Dry fasting — no food and no liquids — is water fasting with the intensity turned up. The research is still young, but what exists is compelling: dry fasting may deliver roughly 3× the metabolic benefit of a water fast over the same period. Muscle preservation appears to be about 2× better, while fat loss and autophagy accelerate.
The app lets you track dry fasting segments within a longer fast and adjust a personal multiplier based on your own observations. There’s a dedicated forum post on the science and practicalities — worth reading before you try it.Fast-mimicking mode
Fast-mimicking mode
You’re mid-fast and you eat something. Fast ruined? Not necessarily. Research led by Valter Longo at USC shows that fasting benefits remain largely intact when daily intake stays between 800 and 1,100 kcal with the right macro profile — very low protein, very low sugar, moderate healthy fat.
The app includes a toggle for this: flip it on and your progress bar reflects that you’ve entered a fast-mimicking window rather than broken the fast entirely. More on how this works and the research behind it in a separate forum post.