An early proponent of the now-popular fasting lifestyle, Dr. Fung is often called the founder of intermittent fasting, and is regularly “cited to provide scientific legitimacy for a diet that can seem outlandish to the unfamiliar” (Quartz). As a young nephrologist (kidney doctor) working with patients whose type 2 diabetes had led to kidney disease, Dr. Fung saw a clear relationship between prescribed insulin medication and weight gain, an observation that led him to intermittent fasting as a way to lower insulin and force the body to burn fat as energy. Today, Dr. Fung has prescribed intermittent fasting and a low carb diet to thousands of patients who have seen results that include reversal of type 2 diabetes, weight loss, and overall higher quality of life and wellbeing. In 2016, Dr. Fung published one of the first popular science books to recommend intermittent fasting for weight loss, The Obesity Code, which went on to sell over 2 million copies worldwide. Next, he published The Diabetes Code, which lays out his foundational approach to type 2 diabetes prevention and reversal. A New York Times-bestselling author, Dr. Fung has written numerous other books on disease prevention including The PCOS Plan, and The Cancer Code.

Dr. Fung completed medical school at the University of Toronto and a fellowship in nephrology at UCLA. He continues to practice nephrology in Toronto, where he is also the co-founder of The Fasting Method, a program that helps patients lose weight and reverse their type 2 diabetes naturally.