The Egg Diet: Lose Fat By Eating All You Want

The Egg Diet is a low-carbohydrate nutritional approach designed to facilitate fat loss by changing how your body fuels its cells. By restricting carbohydrates, and nothing else, the body is forced to shift from burning dietary glucose to utilizing stored body fat.

Important Disclaimer: Before starting any new diet, please consult with your healthcare provider.

How It Works: The Science of Fat Loss

Normally, your body processes carbohydrates into glucose, which acts as fuel for your cells. Excess glucose that isn't immediately used is converted into body fat and stored.

• Nutritional Fasting: This diet operates on the principle of "nutritional fasting," where you limit your intake of carbohydrates.
• Forced Fat Burning: When you restrict carbohydrates, your body no longer has a steady supply of glucose to fuel your non-fat cells. To survive, your body must pull from its fat reserves and convert that fat into glucose.
• The "Stuffing" Effect: Because this process is driven by the lack of carbohydrates, you can consume virtually unlimited quantities of allowed low-carb foods (such as eggs, steak, and cheese) while still losing body fat.

Why Starvation Diets Make Things Worse

Unlike The Egg Diet, the vast majority of weight loss diets out there are known as "Starvation" diets. These can be easily recognized by diets that restrict dietary intake by counting calories or some other calorie reduction system. While starvation diets can provide a significant initial weight loss, this comes at the price of damaging your basal metabolism. Because the basal metabolism is lowered, when the starvation diet is stopped and the person resumes "normal" eating habits, now the food eaten has a much more significant impact on body fat than before. The result is that the person may lose 20 lbs, but ends up gaining back 30 lbs when the diet is over.

I mentioned basal metabolism. What is that? Basal metabolism is the burning of calories just sitting there doing nothing. Even though you are just resting, it is the one single thing when you are burning the most calories. More than running. More than jogging. Now that isn't to say that physical exercise is bad. Quite the contrary. However, if you take a look at some of the "exercise type vs. calories burned" charts, you will see that even high intensity exercises, like running, can't compare to what is burned by your basal metabolism.

Now that explains what basal metabolism is, now lets learn how it works. If you remember from your biology lessons in school, you know that when we eat something, it first gets chewed up, swallowed and then it goes into our stomach. In the stomach, a lot of chemical processes convert the food into something better suited for energy. Doing all that takes calories. Then it goes into the small intestine where more chemical processes initiated by the pancreas and liver further break down the food. All of those chemical transactions cost calories. This, not to mention your heart, lungs and brain, are all there constantly sucking up glucose.

When a person goes on a starvation diet, the the amount of food that has to be processed by the digestive system decreases, and in turn, decreases the need for calories to fuel digestion. The basal metabolism doesn't immediately drop, but it can gradually take a week or two. This is why starvation diets usually produce the biggest loses during that time. When a person resumes eating "normal", their metabolism isn't what it used to be and the result is that the extra glucose gets stored in fact cells.

The bottom line is that while some starvation diets are tempting, they will ultimately result in fat gain, not loss. So why bother? The egg diet is not a starvation diet and requires that you continue to eat normal quantities of food. This prevents your basal metabolism from taking a hit.

Is The Egg Diet A High Protein Diet?

Not intentionally. As it turns out, a lot of low carb foods tend to be high in protein. Eggs, for example, have 6 grams of protein in a single large egg. That is about half of what actual chicken meat provides of the same volume. Ounce for ounce, ground beef (70/30) has about the same protein as an egg.

There are a few vegetables that are low in carbs once you subtract out the indigestible fiber carbs (=net carbs). Raw chopped cauliflower is one with only 3 net carbs in a cup. However, when prepared as creamy mashed cauliflower, it can hit 10 carbs per cup due to being more dense than raw cauliflower. Its not perfect, but vastly superior to mashed potatoes (35 carbs/cup). Other low carb vegetables include:

The Egg Cholesterol Myth

In the 1950s, a prominent American physiologist named Dr. Ancel Keys published influential research (falsely) linking dietary fat and cholesterol intake to heart disease. While Keys established a correlation between high blood cholesterol and heart attacks, it was only an assumption that eating foods high in cholesterol (like eggs) would directly translate to high cholesterol in the blood. Later in his career, Keys recanted the dietary intake claim and actually noted that dietary cholesterol had a negligible effect on blood cholesterol. Unfortunately, by then, the anti-cholesterol movement had already taken over mainstream medicine.

The myth became official public health policy in 1968, when the American Heart Association (AHA) decreed that no one should consume more than three whole eggs per week. Because of this, eggs were instantly branded as public health enemy number one.

Although it was common knowledge for decades that consuming eggs and other high cholesterol foods did not raise serum blood cholesterol, it took nearly 50 years of rigorous data and testing to finally correct the myth. In 2015–2016, the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee officially removed the restriction on dietary cholesterol, explicitly stating it was "not a nutrient of concern for overconsumption".

What to Eat (and Avoid)

• Allowed Foods: Focus on items that are low in or void of carbohydrates. Eggs are highly encouraged due to their low cost and versatility. Avoid cooking with trans fats.
• Starchy Foods to Avoid: Sugars, bread, flour, pasta, and potatoes are all part of the carbohydrate family and should be avoided.
• Reading Labels: Check "Nutrition Facts" labels. Be cautious, as many "fat-free" products are high in carbohydrates. For example, real mayonnaise contains zero carbs, whereas fat free mayonnaise contains 2 carbs per tablespoon and an odd taste.
• Beverages:
  
  • Recommended: Water (essential) and certain sodas sweetened with Splenda or Saccharin (e.g., Diet Rite).
  • Off-limits: Drinks and sodas containing sugar, high fructose corn syrup, or aspartame.

Managing Your Routine

• Consistency: Eat at least three meals a day with at least one of them containing a high percentage of eggs. Don't skip meals, even if you are not hungry. The diet can sometimes cause a decreased interest in food, but skipping meals is counterproductive.
• Hydration: Drink plenty of water. Don't be shy about drinking water - especially if you work outdoors. Avoid "water pills" unless mandated by your doctor.
• Exercise: While it might be difficult at first, after a week on the diet you need to add some physical exercise to your routine. This can be anything from working out at the gym, evening walks, or just working in the yard. If you don't regularly exercise, your body may decide that cannibalizing your muscle cells is more tasty than eating fat. That is the last thing you want.
• Cost Considerations: While you don't need to purchase specialized diet products, the higher consumption of meat may increase your grocery budget. Eggs serve as an affordable staple to help balance these costs. As mentioned before, eggs have about the same protein as the equivalent volume of 70/30 hamburger meat.

What to Expect

Because many of us are accustomed to high-carbohydrate diets, the first few days may be difficult. You may experience weakness, nausea, or headaches as your fat cells shift from "Forward" to "Reverse." This is known as the carb withdrawal period. Fortunately, this usually lasts for only a day or two.

You can test your progress by purchasing ketone test strips from your local pharmacy. Although these urine test strips are primarily designed for diabetics, they can detect ketones which indicate how well you are progressing on the egg diet. If the egg diet is working properly, you should see increased ketones which indicate that your body is in ketosis (meaning that it is burning fat).

If you start losing a lot of weight, but aren't in ketosis, then you are burning muscle, not fat. In that case, its time to get some physical exercise to prevent muscle loss. If you still don't see evidence of ketosis, then you may be getting more carbs in your diet than you realize. You may need to increase the volume of food while decreasing the number of carbs.

There is also a risk of hypoglycemia due to the reduced carb intake. It is recommended that you purchase a cheap blood glucose monitor from the drug store. You should monitor your blood glucose levels with this. You do not need a prescription, but most insurance will not pay for it. Don't even ask or they might brand you as a diabetic and raise your rates. These meters require sterile pin pricks to obtain a tiny drop of blood for the meter to operate. There are also over the counter continuous glucose monitors that you can use, but beware that these are very pricey.

When you check your blood sugar, do so in the morning right after you wake up and before you eat or drink anything. This is called your fasting blood glucose level. Normal (in the US) is 70 - 100 mg/dL. If it is below 70, you need to start getting concerned. Below 55 and you need to stop the diet immediately and resume eating carbs. On the other end of the spectrum, if your fasting blood glucose is consistently above 100, then you need to consult your doctor about a possible diabetes or pre-diabetes diagnosis.

Why do some call the egg diet controversial?

While the egg diet is sometimes criticized by traditional "experts," it is an effective tool for weight loss and improved blood chemistry. They emphasize that the diet's success relies on the scientific principle of eliminating the combination of carbohydrates and trans fats that the body requires to produce excess cholesterol and stored fat. Some critics have even falsely claimed that The Egg Diet is a "Water-Loss" diet. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Can I change the diet?

In terms of which low carb foods you can eat, the diet is very flexible. Any low carb food that is low in trans-fats is acceptable.

Although it is ill advised to reduce all fat intake with this diet, trans-fats should be eliminated entirely if possible. Trans fats are artificial fats created by adding hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them solid. They raise "bad" (LDL) cholesterol, lower "good" (HDL) cholesterol, and significantly increase heart disease risk.

Stick to the core principles to ensure the proper metabolic process continues uninterrupted.

Based on the principles outlined in this article, here is a sample weekly meal plan. This plan focuses on high-protein, low-carbohydrate foods like eggs, steak, and cheese, while ensuring you hit your goal of three meals a day.

Sample Weekly Egg Diet Meal Plan

* When frying eggs, be sure to use an oil or margarine that is free of trans-fats. Real butter contains a small amount of trans-fat.

Important Reminders for Success

• Hydration is Key: Drink plenty of water consistently throughout the day.
• Don't Skip Meals: Even if you lose interest in food, stick to the three-meal-a-day schedule to keep your metabolism regular.
• Flavoring & Drinks: If you need a sweet drink, opt for Diet Rite (sweetened with Splenda) or mix water with a stevia or sucralose sweetened Mio (liquid kool-aid concentrate). Avoid anything containing aspartame especially diet sodas.
• Label Checking: Always check labels for hidden carbohydrates. If a product claims to be "fat-free," verify that it isn't loaded with carbs; often, standard versions are better for this specific plan.
• Monitor Progress: Use your ketone test strips occasionally to track if your body is actively burning fat reserves.

The egg diet can be summed up in one sentence: "Don't eat any carbs and never let yourself get hungry." If your stomach ever starts to growl, eat a low carb food as quickly as possible to avoid damaging your metabolism.

Disclaimer: As noted in the article, please consult with your doctor before starting this or any diet to ensure it is appropriate for your individual health needs.