You are on your keto journey. You are adding proteins and eliminating carbohydrates from your diet. That’s great!
However, do you know that a keto doesn’t need to contain only your so-called ‘superfoods’ and exotic vegetables? Something as simple as an egg can be an integral part of your ketogenic diet.
The question is that how many eggs should you eat daily on a keto diet? You can eat anywhere around 6 to 8 whole eggs on an everyday basis. Six eggs will provide you with around 36 grams of protein to make up a significant part of your daily quota. Moreover, eggs are low on carbohydrates, making them a perfect fit for enabling ketosis.
However, knowing the number of eggs to eat daily is not what you need to know regarding eggs and keto. You need to gain a thorough understanding of macronutrients to inculcate eggs into your keto diet.
Read along to find out everything you need to know regarding eggs and keto.
How Many Eggs Should You Eat Regularly on a Keto Diet?
To answer this question, we need to dive deep into the macro nutritional qualities of an egg and your body’s unique requirements.
Simply speaking, you can eat as many eggs as you stand on a keto diet. Some people have reported eating as many as 25 eggs while still being in ketosis. However, consuming 25 eggs daily sounds a bit unrealistic. This would mean that you’ll consume nothing but eggs the whole day.
Therefore, it would be best to dial down the number. If you’re just starting on keto, you can start by eating around 4-5 eggs a day. This will allow your body to slowly get used to carbohydrates deficiency and generate energy from proteins.
As soon as you start feeling settled into a keto diet, you can increase the number of eggs to 6-7 per day. Six eggs are believed to be the ideal number by health experts worldwide for triggering ketosis.
Talking about the upper limit, you should refrain from eating more than 8-9 eggs a day. Otherwise, your whole day’s diet will only circle around eggs. As a result, you might lack the variety from your keto journey, get bored, and then give up. You don’t want that!
Here are some points to help you seamlessly include eggs into your keto diet and with maximum efficiency.
- Eat whole eggs, including the yolk. It will provide you with both fat and protein
- Consume around 15 grams of butter or other healthy fat per egg
- Eat at least one egg within 30 minutes of waking up
- Consume around 25 grams of good quality cheese per egg
- Eat around 6 eggs every day
- Try to get locally pastured eggs
- Don’t consume eggs three hours before bedtime
Where Do Eggs Fit in the Keto Diet?
If you have just started consuming eggs as a part of your keto diet, it is vital to understand the nuances related to this superfood. An egg fulfills all the requisites to fit into a keto diet. How? Let’s find out.
Eggs Are Low in Carbohydrates and High in Protein
A typical person on a keto diet doesn’t consume more than 5% carbohydrates of the total calorie intake every day. Therefore, you need to eat food rich in protein and low in carbs to sustain yourself throughout the day while keeping your energy levels high.
This is where an egg fits in perfectly. It stands up to all the guidelines. This includes low carbs, high protein, high fats, and various essential nutrients.
An egg has around 1 gram of carbohydrates (or less) and around 6 grams of proteins.
However, while being on a keto diet, you must ensure that you eat the whole egg, including the white and the yolk.
Why?
Because this is how you get the full benefits of eating an egg since most of the nutrients are present in its yolk.
These nutrients include antioxidants like zeaxanthin and lutein, improving and maintaining your vision.
Eggs Contain All Essential and Non-essential Amino Acids
Eggs are so healthy that they contain all the 9 essential amino acids and other non-essential amino acids that make a big part of the keto diet. These amino acids allow your body to use the protein you consume on a keto diet fully. This can help you increase muscle mass and weight loss, reduce blood pressure and improve bone health.
Some of the prominent amino acids found in eggs are
- Histidine
- Leucine
- Methionine
- Valine
- Tryptophan
- Phenylalanine
- Threonine
- Lysine
Eggs are loaded with Vitamins and Minerals
Besides high-quality protein and good fat, and egg consists of several healthy vitamins that boost body functioning. Just think about it. An egg contains enough nutrients to turn one fertilized egg into a fully functioning baby chicken.
Generally, a single egg consists of the following vitamins.
- Vitamin B2 - 15% of the recommended daily allowance
- Vitamin B12 - 9% of the recommended daily allowance
- Vitamin A: 6% of the recommended daily allowance
- Selenium - 20% of the recommended daily allowance
- Vitamin B5 - 5% of the recommended daily allowance
Eggs are Extremely Versatile
The best part about eggs is that you can eat them differently. Moreover, all the variations taste so different that your meals will not become boring and bland.
You can just use your stove for five minutes in the morning with a pan and treat yourself to a healthy and yummy sunny side up. If not, you can boil your eggs and enjoy them on the side with another meal. You can have omelets, scrambled eggs, and whatnot. The list just doesn’t end.
A pro tip would be to include some cheese and butter in your egg recipes to take the good fat quota of your diet into account. This way, eggs can make up for at least 50% of your daily nutritional requirements to trigger ketosis.
Wrapping it Up
To conclude, let’s reiterate the importance of eggs in a keto diet. Eating five to six eggs every day can help you trigger ketosis by providing rich protein and minimal carbs.
Not just this, it also provides you with amino acids, vitamins, and minerals that help you perform other bodily functions. Therefore, there is no reason for you to shy away from eating eggs on a keto diet.
Finally, you must understand that you must eat whole eggs to reap the full nutritional benefits of the food item. Don’t fear raising your cholesterol levels. Egg yolks only increase the good cholesterol and don’t trigger the bad cholesterol in your body.
Therefore, it’s perfectly safe to eat egg yolks unless you have a specific medical condition. So, get your egg crate and take your keto diet to the next level!
FAQ
Ideally, you should go for locally pasteurized eggs since they have the cleanest fat and protein. In case you can’t find them, any eggs will do.
No, eggs will not break your ketosis process. In fact, it will help you fasten the process with its amino acids and other essential vitamins.
Egg fast is a diet plan that only includes eating eggs, butter, and cheese. It is basically done to overcome weight loss plateaus.
