What Is the Egg Diet?

At Diet Daily Read Tips, we believe there is no one-size-fits-all approach to a healthy lifestyle. Successful eating plans need to be individualized and take the whole person into consideration. Prior to starting a new diet plan, consult with your health care provider or a registered dietitian, especially if you have an underlying health condition.

The egg diet is a weight loss program that requires you to build at least one meal each day around the traditional breakfast staple. It is a low-calorie, low-carbohydrate, high-protein plan designed to help you lose weight quickly without losing muscle mass. The egg diet is a weight loss program that requires you to build at least one meal each day around the traditional breakfast staple. It is a low-calorie, low-carbohydrate, high-protein plan designed to help you lose weight quickly without losing muscle mass.

There are different versions of the egg diet, including an egg-only diet or a boiled egg diet. In all variations of the plan, you'll eat three meals a day with no snacks, and only water or zero-calorie beverages. More flexible forms of the egg diet include foods like grilled chicken, fish, and steamed veggies, but eliminate starchy foods and sugar.

What Can You Eat?

Since there is no one standard egg diet, what you eat will depend on the type you follow. In general, you can expect to eat a lot of eggs, other lean proteins, vegetables, and some fruit. All versions of the egg diet require you to eat primarily egg-based meals. Here are the most popular variations.

14-Day Egg Diet

If you choose this version of the diet program, you’ll consume three meals each day. Snacks and drinks with calories are not allowed. Each day, eat one meal with eggs, but other meals can be built around other sources of lean protein such as chicken or fish.

To supplement the protein on your plate, you can add low carbohydrate vegetables such as broccoli or spinach. Citrus fruit is sometimes allowed. This diet is sometimes called the “Boiled Egg Diet” and requires that you eat your eggs hard-boiled, rather than poached, scrambled, or fried.

Egg and Grapefruit Diet

This is a variation of the 14-day Egg Diet and lasts for the same amount of time. On this version of the diet, you eat half a grapefruit at each meal with your egg or lean protein. No other fruit is allowed.

Egg-Only Diet

This version of the weight loss program is a mono diet. Mono diets are extreme, unhealthy weight loss programs where you eat only a single food for an extended period. People on this program eat only hard-boiled eggs and water for two weeks.

As you might imagine, exercise is not recommended on this plan because of the extreme fatigue that you are likely to experience.

“Medical” Egg Diet

This version of the egg diet requires that you eat one egg and one piece of bread, three times each day. You can also eat as many fruits and vegetables as you like. Beverages allowed include water, black coffee, or other zero-calorie drinks.

Eggs can be prepared any way you want as long as no calories are added. That means you can’t use butter or oil to cook your egg. Some dieters believe that this version of the egg diet is used in medical settings to reduce a patient’s weight prior to surgery, but there is no evidence to support that rumor.

While some bariatric physicians put their patients on diets before surgery, it is typically a liquid diet (including meal replacement shakes) and the program is supervised by a physician or other medical expert.

Keto Egg Diet

Ketogenic diets, also called keto diets, require that you increase your intake of fat to put your body into a state of ketosis. This version of the egg diet recommends that you eat eggs with butter and cheese to get your body to produce ketones. The most popular ratio promoted on the internet is one egg to one tablespoon of fat (cheese or butter).

Is the Egg Diet a Healthy Choice for You?

Eggs are an excellent source of complete protein. They provide several beneficial vitamins and minerals, including choline and vitamin A. Compared to expensive diets that require special powders and supplements, the egg diet is a whole-food approach to weight loss.

However, depending on how strictly you follow it, the egg diet is missing important nutrients, like fiber. Since eggs only have about 70 calories each, you're unlikely to consume enough to meet a reasonable calorie minimum of at least 1200 per day for healthy weight loss. There's also a good chance you won't have the energy to maintain regular workouts to support your metabolism on such a restrictive plan.