Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Dr. Will Cole clearly cares about his patients’ health, and he addresses the widespread misconceptions about intermittent fasting while giving readers a tailored week-by-week plan to get back in touch with what their body truly needs.”—Mark Hyman, MD, director, the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine and author of Food “Intuitive Fasting makes both the science and user-friendly application of this exciting approach to human nutrition available for everyone.”—David Perlmutter, MD, FACN, author of Grain Brain and Brain Wash The most effective and achievable guide to intermittent fasting, outlining a unique plan that merges the science behind fasting with a holistic approach to eating, from the bestselling author of Ketotarian and The Inflammation Spectrum For some, the idea of fasting by eating only one or two meals a day sounds like an extreme and overly restrictive dieting tactic. But the truth is, our daily eating schedule—three meals a day, plus snacks—does not necessarily reflect our bodies’ natural cycles. In fact, eating three meals every day can cause metabolic inflexibility, which can lead to inflammation, fatigue, and chronic health problems. For millions of years, our bodies have actually functioned best with periodic times of fasting. With his fresh new approach to fasting, bestselling author and functional medicine expert Dr. Will Cole gives you the ability to take control of your hunger and make intermittent fasting intuitive. You’ll get in touch with your instinctive eating patterns and become healthier and more mindful about how and when you eat. Intuitive Fasting will show you how to find metabolic flexibility—and once you’ve reached it, you can trust your body to function at optimal capacity, whether you’ve eaten six minutes ago or six hours ago. During his 4-Week Flexible Fasting Plan, Dr. Cole will guide you through varying intermittent fasting windows, with each week of the plan tailored to focus on a different aspect of your health. He illustrates the most effective ways to fast and eat to amplify the health benefits of intermittent fasting, balancing rest and repair with clean, nutrient-dense, delicious foods. By the end of the four weeks, you will have all the tools necessary to: • Reset your body • Recharge your metabolism • Renew your cells • Rebalance your hormones Along with more than 65 recipes, you’ll also find a maintenance plan, so you can adapt fasting and feeding windows to work sustainably with your lifestyle.