The 10 Best Intermittent Fasting Books

The intermittent fasting shelf is crowded, and most of it was written without women in mind. Protocols get handed over as one-size-fits-all, when a woman’s hormones change what a fast does to her body from one week of the month to the next. We read the field’s best-known titles and ranked the ten worth your time, with the three written specifically for women at the top.

The list runs from clinical manuals to a cultural history, so there is something here whether you want a plan to start tomorrow or the science behind it first. Every entry links to a full review, and to the guides that fill in the cycle-aware detail the books tend to leave out.

At a glance: the best fasting book for every reader

Book	Author	Best for	Approach
The Essential Guide to Intermittent Fasting for Women	Megan Ramos	Fasting shaped to female hormones and life stages	Clinical protocols, low-carb
Fast Like a Girl	Dr Mindy Pelz	Syncing fasts to your menstrual cycle	30-day cycle-based reset
Intermittent Fasting Basics for Women	Lindsay Boyers	Total beginners who want a gentle start	Crescendo fasting, meal plans
The Complete Guide to Fasting	Dr Jason Fung	A thorough therapeutic-fasting manual	Intermittent to extended fasts
The Fast Diet	Dr Michael Mosley	A simple, flexible weekly structure	The 5:2 method
The Fasting Fix	Dr Andreas Michalsen	Readers who want the science first	Evidence-based, clinical
Life in the Fasting Lane	Dr Jason Fung and co-authors	Staying consistent when you keep quitting	Narrative, real-life questions
Intermittent Fasting For Dummies	Janet Bond Brill	A neutral overview of every method	Dietitian-written reference
Intermittent Fasting Made Easy	Thomas DeLauer	Combining fasting with training	Tactical fitness hacks
Why Fast?	Christine Baumgarthuber	The history and culture of fasting	Cultural study, no plan

How we picked these books

We looked for four things. First, honesty about the evidence, since fasting attracts big claims and we rated books higher when they stayed close to what the research shows. Second, relevance to women, because a fast lands differently depending on where you are in your cycle and few books account for that. Third, practicality, meaning you can act on it rather than just admire it. Fourth, the credibility of the author, whether that comes from clinical work, research, or a registered dietitian’s training. The ranking puts the three women-specific books first, then orders the rest by how useful they are to the widest range of readers.

1. The Essential Guide to Intermittent Fasting for Women

Megan Ramos co-founded The Fasting Method clinic with Dr Jason Fung, and this book rewrites that clinical experience for female physiology. It gives real space to fasting through PCOS, perimenopause, and menopause, and keeps returning to stress and cortisol as the things that decide whether a fast helps or backfires.

Best for: women who want fasting protocols mapped to their hormones and life stage. Read the full review.

2. Fast Like a Girl

Dr Mindy Pelz’s book did more than any other to popularise cycle-synced fasting. It maps different fast lengths to different effects and builds a 30-day reset that eases off long fasts before your period. The framework is useful, though the precise claims run ahead of the published evidence, so hold the numbers loosely and lean on our complete guide to cycle-synced fasting for the version kept closer to the research.

Best for: women who want to sync fasting to the phases of their cycle. Read the full review.

3. Intermittent Fasting Basics for Women

Lindsay Boyers wrote the gentlest on-ramp of the three. It centres on crescendo fasting, a pattern of fasting on a few non-consecutive days rather than every day, and backs it with more than 25 sample meal plans so beginners are never left wondering what to eat.

Best for: complete beginners who want a simple, low-pressure start with the meals mapped out. Read the full review.

4. The Complete Guide to Fasting

Dr Jason Fung, with Jimmy Moore, wrote the closest thing the field has to a practical manual for therapeutic fasting. It covers intermittent, alternate-day, and extended fasts, with clear cautions on who should avoid them. The extended protocols are its strength and also where women need to be most careful, so ease into extended fasting slowly and track how your cycle and sleep respond. Set the female-specific dose with our overview of intermittent fasting for women.

Best for: a thorough, protocol-driven how-to for longer fasting. Read the full review.

5. The Fast Diet

The book that made 5:2 famous. Dr Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer pair an accessible tour of the science with menus and recipes for the two low-calorie days. It treats every week the same, so many women find the two low-calorie days easier to place in the first half of the cycle. Our best fasting schedule for women shows how.

Best for: beginners who want a simple, flexible structure around normal eating. Read the full review.

6. The Fasting Fix

The most credentialed book on the list. Dr Andreas Michalsen, a professor of clinical complementary medicine in Berlin, makes an evidence-based case for fasting as medicine, drawing on the European clinical fasting tradition and his own research. Dense reading, but the most rigorous science in the roundup.

Best for: readers who want rigour and a doctor’s caution before a plan. Read the full review.

7. Life in the Fasting Lane

Dr Jason Fung, Eve Mayer, and Megan Ramos wrote the warm, human counterpart to Fung’s clinical titles. Built around real-life questions rather than physiology, it is aimed at the person who understands fasting but keeps falling off. Many women notice their motivation dips before their period, and when to stop fasting covers the signs to watch.

Best for: staying consistent when the science is not your problem. Read the full review.

8. Intermittent Fasting For Dummies

Janet Bond Brill, a registered dietitian, wrote the neutral overview the topic badly needs. It surveys every major method, from 16:8 to alternate-day fasting, without pushing a brand, and it is clear-eyed about safety and who should not fast.

Best for: a balanced, dietitian-vetted map before you commit to a method. Read the full review.

9. Intermittent Fasting Made Easy

Thomas DeLauer’s tactical guide splits fasting into three stages and focuses on optimisation for people who already fast, with a section that adapts several hacks for women. It is strong on training and body composition and quiet on the cycle, so pair it with our guide to fasting and hormone balance.

Best for: fitness-minded readers combining fasting with training. Read the full review.

10. Why Fast?

Christine Baumgarthuber’s book is the odd one out, and deliberately so. It is a cultural history of fasting rather than a diet plan, tracing the practice from antiquity to the modern boom and weighing the benefits against the risks. Read it to sharpen how you think about fasting, then plan your week elsewhere.

Best for: the history, culture, and critical context of fasting. Read the full review.

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How to choose the right fasting book for you

If you are brand new, start with Intermittent Fasting For Dummies for a neutral overview, or Intermittent Fasting Basics for Women for a gentler, women-first version. If you want fasting built around your hormones, go straight to Megan Ramos or, for a cycle-by-cycle system, Fast Like a Girl. If you want the deep science, The Fasting Fix and The Complete Guide to Fasting are the two to own. If you keep quitting, Life in the Fasting Lane is the most likely to keep you going, and if you train hard, Intermittent Fasting Made Easy has the tactics. Whichever you pick, the piece none of them fully covers is how your cycle should change the plan across the month, which is what our guides for women and the walkthrough of how to fast with your cycle are for.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best intermittent fasting book for beginners?

For a neutral, dietitian-written overview of the methods, Intermittent Fasting For Dummies is the safest first read. If you want something gentler and written for women, Intermittent Fasting Basics for Women eases you in with crescendo fasting and ready-made meal plans.

What is the best fasting book for women?

The Essential Guide to Intermittent Fasting for Women by Megan Ramos is our top pick, because it treats female hormones as the starting point rather than an afterthought and covers PCOS, perimenopause, and menopause. Fast Like a Girl is the better choice if you specifically want to sync fasting to your menstrual cycle.

Which Jason Fung book should I read first?

If you want the practical protocols, start with The Complete Guide to Fasting. If you struggle more with consistency than with understanding, Life in the Fasting Lane is the warmer, more motivational read and includes Megan Ramos’s coaching perspective.

Do I need a fasting book written for women?

Not strictly, but it helps. A general book will teach you the mechanics of fasting perfectly well. What it will not do is explain why the same fast feels easy one week and punishing the next, or why long fasts before your period are harder for many women. A women-first book, or our own guide to intermittent fasting for women, fills that gap.

Read the book, skip the guesswork

The best fasting books explain the science of fasting. FastingBestie turns it into your weekly plan, reading your cycle phase automatically and adjusting your fasting window so you never have to translate a book into a routine yourself. You can also browse the full library of fasting guides for women.