The keto egg fast diet is a short term method to reduce your daily carb intake to help you quickly get into ketosis. The egg fast diet is a simple plan that has a few simple rules. This isn’t suppose to be a long term diet. Instead it is a quick 3 to 5 day long diet that helps to kick start ketosis and get you on track for eating fewer carbs.
There are a variety of reasons for doing a keto egg fast:
If you’ve found yourself getting off track due to holiday eating, and all the high carbs meal favorites that people like to indulge in, then the egg fast can help you kick the carb cravings that can hit when you first jump back into a ketogenic diet.
If you’ve hit a weight loss plateau, are trying to get into ketosis or trying to kick carb cravings after getting off track then the keto egg fast diet might be the thing for you.
What is the Keto Diet?
The purpose of the keto diet is to reduce your carb intake so your body goes into ketosis. This means that instead of using glucose as fuel the body uses fat as a source of energy. When your body switches from glucose to fat as a source of energy this is ketosis. For more information about the keto diet and ketosis you may want to check out these posts:
Start the keto diet in 5 easy steps
The Ultimate guide to the keto diet
What Is The Keto Egg Fast?
Over the years keto dieters have used various methods to break through weight stalls without feeling hungry including egg fasting and fat fasts to help them get into a state of ketosis.
For those following the keto diet or even a low-carb diet, the egg fast helps you to eat fat (to provide your body with fuel), maintain a moderate protein intake (to prevent muscle breakdown) and keeps the carbs low (to keep you in ketosis). If you are just starting on the keto diet it can provide you fast results for getting you into ketosis.
Eggs (including the egg yolk) are nutritious and make a great meal:
- They contain about 6 grams of high quality protein. What is a “high quality protein”? This is a protein that has a high biological value (it contains all the necessary amino acids that your body needs to build other proteins). High quality proteins come from animal sources. Vegetable proteins are missing one or more of the necessary amino acids that your body needs. Eggs have all 9 essential amino acids!
- Eggs are rich in choline. This is an essential nutrient that promotes normal cell activity, it helps the liver metabolize fats and it helps to transport vitamins and minerals throughout the body.
- Eggs contain very few carbs. Each egg contains about half a gram of carb.
Eggs are also one of the most inexpensive sources of protein. If your budget is tight then eating eggs can help you create some budget friendly meals. Try working in some egg based recipes for nutritious low cost meals that the whole family can enjoy.
For more information about egg nutrition check out these egg nutrition facts at the Egg Nutrition Center.
Keto Egg Fast Rules
The idea behind the egg fast is to eat eggs as your source of protein while cutting carbs and including fats to help fuel your body. This can be done in a variety of ways. If you look around online you will find a variety of “rules”. There really isn’t any set rules to this fast. But there are some guidelines that you can follow to help make creating a snack and meal plan easier:
- Eat whole eggs, both the yolk and the egg whites.
- Eat 3 to 5 meals per day that consist of at least 2 or more eggs for each meal. If you find that you are not hungry you should be eating at least 3 meals of at least 2 eggs per day. This is a minimum of 6 eggs per day though you can eat more than that number.
- Fat is eaten with the eggs. Use 1 tablespoon of fat per egg consumed. See notes below.
- Cheese is eaten with the eggs. Use at least 1 ounce of full fat cheese per egg. See notes below.
- Begin eating within 30 minutes to 1 hour of waking up.
- Stop eating at least 3 hours before bedtime.
- Sauces, condiments, herbs and spices are allowed. They should be low carb or no carb. Try to avoid adding items that have more than 1 net carb per serving to your meals.
- Stay well hydrated. Drink water. Coffee and tea are permitted (see notes below). No calorie or sugar free diet sodas and no calorie sparkling water are also permitted. If you drink diet soda it is suggested to limit them to 1 a day.
These are the most common rules but people tend to make their own changes to them based on their needs and likes.
Following this keto egg fast for 3 to 5 days is usually enough to get you back on track, get you into ketosis, cut carb cravings and break a weight loss stall. Some people do it for up to 7 days. Following it for long term can lead to nutritional deficiencies and constipation so this is not intended to be a long term diet.
Notes on fats:
This might include foods such as butter, coconut oil, bacon fat and other types of oil. Mayonnaise would also be considered a fat as it is typically made from an oil emulsified with eggs.
Avocados: while not carb free they are high in fat and can be added into the egg fast to break up the monotony of having eggs with every meal. A typical avocado has 29 grams of fat and 5 net carbs. Sticking with the notation above about using condiments with you meal that have 1 carb or less then adding 1/4 of an avocado to a meal would fit with this “rule”. It also helps to add flavor and a bit of fiber to your meals.
Bacon: 1 slice of bacon has about 4 grams of fat and 0.1 grams of carbs. It would fit the 1 gram of carb or less rule and can help make your egg meals tastier. Cook up a couple of slices and save the bacon fat to cook your eggs in for other meals.
Notes on cheese:
You can use any type of full-fat cheese (shredded, sliced, sticks or cubes) as well as cream cheese. If you find you are not losing weight then you may want to limit the number of ounces of cheese you eat daily to just 1 ounce with each meal.
Notes on drinks:
Make sure to drink plenty of water and no calorie or sugar free drinks.
While black coffee and tea can be included there is the question about adding in cream or other types of creamers. 2 tablespoons of heavy cream has about 1 net grams of carbs in it. If you are allowing yourself to have the addition of condiments with no more then 1 gram of carb to be included with your meal then this would contain a similar amount of carbs. You can also try keto butter coffee, also known as Bulletproof coffee, and see if you enjoy this instead.
If you add the heavy whipping cream to your coffee at breakfast, or at another meal, then I would pass on including a condiment with the eggs. The idea of the egg fast diet is to break the carb cycle, especially if you had been allowing more and more of them back into your diet, so you don’t want to begin doing the same thing while doing the egg fast.
Keto Egg Fast FAQ’S
Can anyone follow the egg fast?
If you have an egg allergy then the answer is no.
If you hate eggs then you may want to rethink trying this.
If you have a medical or health conditions in which your doctor has told you to limit or avoid eggs then this is not for you.
If you have a medical condition in which you should avoid eating high amounts of fat then you would also want to avoid doing the egg fast.
If you have an eating disorder it’s possible that the restrictive diet aspect of the egg fast might trigger your eating issues. Proceed with caution.
Remember, I’m not your doctor nor am I your dietitian. I don’t know what your medical conditions are, what medications you are taking, your allergies, etc. Please always remember to consult with your doctor if you have any questions about doing this fast or any other type of fast/diet.
Where can I go for support or for more information?
You can always join the Facebook groupfor additional support and to ask questions.
Get all the keto egg fast information in once convenient ebook (information, tips, recipes AND a free egg fast tracker) here:
Can I include some keto friendly fruits with meals?
Well, you can do whatever you would like. But, if you are sticking to this fast then low carb fruits would not be included during the fast as they are higher in carbs then the 1 gram limit (such as adding in condiments).
What about low carb vegetables? Can I add them in?
Again, you can alter the egg fast in whatever way suits your needs. If you want to add in small amounts of vegetables, such as diced onions, peppers or even spinach, with your eggs to make them more palatable then that is up to you. Try a dash or two of hot sauce. To give you an idea of carb counts for these items:
1 tablespoon of chopped onions has 0.7 net grams of carbs
4 tablespoons of chopped green bell pepper has 0.8 net grams of carbs
2 ounces of raw spinach or 1/3 cup of frozen, chopped spinach has about 1 net gram of carbs
As you can see you could add in small amounts to meet the 1 net carb or less for condiments. Remember to use small amounts and don’t go overboard. Your adding flavor not using them to build a meal.
I can’t tolerate cheese. Can I still do the egg fast?
Yes you can. You can still continue to include healthy fats such as olive oil, coconut oil or MCT oil with your meals. Cheese makes things a little tastier. The meals might get boring quickly but it is still doable.
Can I just repeat one day of the egg fast over and over again to make things easy?
Sure if that’s what you want to do. A word of warning…. you will get sick of eating eggs quickly. I mean it. A few days of eating egg salad and hard boiled eggs will leaving you bored with food. You will want to mix it up a bit which is why there are some sweet recipes in with the savory recipes. Perhaps you won’t if you are doing this for just 3 days. But, if you are doing this for 5 to 7 days, then you will most likely reach a point where you are questioning your life choices and if you even want to continue the fast until the end. Switching things up a bit will help with this feeling.
How do I transition off the egg fast and back to a keto diet?
This is a short-term diet plan. You can slowly transition off the fast by continuing to eat one or two egg fast meals and adding in a keto meal. Some people follow the egg fast for 5 days and then do 2 days to transition back to keto. Day 6 they eat two egg fast meals and 1 regular keto meal. Day 7 they eat 1 egg fast meal and 3 keto meals. Day 8 back to 3 keto meals per day.
The keto egg fast is a way of eating that can help you quickly get into ketosis, help you to kick carb cravings and get you back on track on the keto diet. It’s a great method for getting back into keto when you’ve found yourself cheating and going back to eating high carb meals.
Some people will go an egg fast for a day to help refocus on eating keto. It makes it easy to prepare quick meals and you don’t have to go crazy trying to think of what to eat. It’s pretty easy….eggs and some type of fat source.
Typically the egg fast is done from 3 to 7 days with 5 days being the average length of time though I have seen people do 10 day egg fast. If you’ve found yourself regaining, in a weight loss stall, weight plateau or cheating with high carb meals then the egg fast might be a way to get back on track.
Here are some egg diet recipes to get you started:
Looking for more information or have additional questions? Join us on Facebook to be part of our interactive Keto and Lazy Keto discussion or follow us on Instagram, Pinterest, or subscribe to our newsletter (see below) and be the first to know when we post a new recipe!
If you are looking for other low-carb/keto recipe ideas, be sure to check out our growing Recipe Index full of low-carb/keto recipes!
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