Curious about the keto egg fast? Find out what it is, and how it works.
This is an account of how I first heard about and experimented with Egg Fasting years ago. Since then I have done it many times, and have created this free 5 Day Egg Fast Meal Plan that has helped thousands of people break through plateaus and lose stubborn fat.
Ever since I had to take steroids this past Spring for my allergies, my system has completely rebelled. My hormones are out of whack, and my body has become completely resistant to losing weight. No matter how strict I am with keto – even counting calories and cutting out dairy, alcohol, etc. I have not been able to drop pounds.
Even worse, every time I go off plan for the weekend or some event, additional stubborn pounds creep on. I know that a lot of you are struggling with this same problem, so I thought I’d do some research on ways to break through a weight loss plateau.
Recently I started hearing about the Egg Fast and was intrigued. I’m planning to try it and track my results. I thought you guys might be interested in trying it too, so I’m posting some basics about it here for those of you who have never heard of it.
What is the egg fast?
The Egg Fast is a (short term) diet that consists of primarily eggs, cheese, and butter. For each egg you eat, you should eat a corresponding tablespoon of pure fat in the form of butter, olive oil, or coconut oil.
You can also eat a corresponding tablespoon of full fat cheese per egg. Doing this will result in an extremely low carb, high fat, moderate protein intake that will kickstart your body into fat burning mode.
In my research on the egg fast diet I couldn’t find any scientific reasons as to why it works, but there are a lot of anecdotal cases of people who have had success with it.
The biggest issue people seem to have is gaining the weight back when you go back to regular LCHF or keto. Across the board it seems that at least 90% of the people doing it will gain at least a portion of the weight lost back – though there are some who have kept almost all of it off with a careful reintroduction to their normal keto diet.
The key to success with the egg fast seems to be cycling on and off for 4-5 days a week.
While on your off days, you should stick to LCHF (keto) and even then, don’t go nuts. It seems possible to lose 8-10 lbs (or more) a month this way and keep it off.
To be clear, while I’d love to do that, I’m not (at this time) planning to do the egg fast long term. I’m hoping that this one week egg fast will kickstart my metabolism, and get my body back in weight loss mode so that I can go back to my normal keto routine and start losing consistently again like I have in the past.
I had no trouble losing almost 60lb on keto the first year I started – and kept most of it off until I started having severe seasonal allergies in 2012 that wreaked havoc on my entire system. Stalls can be the result of medications, hormones, age, and other factors.
If you’re having issues losing on low carb now, even though you’ve had success in the past, you might need a reset like I do. Hopefully this egg fast will be the thing that works to get my body back on track, (and maybe yours too!)
I’ve customized the egg fast to my own preferences, and here are the basic guidelines of the egg fast that I plan to follow for the next 5 days:
- Bullet Proof Coffee within 30 minutes of waking (coffee with 1 tablespoon MCT oil, 1 Tbsp Kerrygold unsalted butter)
- Eat 3-5 meals of at least 2 eggs each, starting no later than 10am.
- Have 1 tablespoon of butter or sugar free mayo per egg consumed
- 6 ounces of full fat cheese (cream cheese, cheddar, brie, etc.) allowed per day (eaten with eggs or separately as a snack)
- No eggs after 7pm (1 string cheese allowed after 7pm if starving, counts as part of the 6oz daily limit)
- Don’t go more than 4 hours between meals or snacks between 10am and 7pm.
- Drink 100 oz of water per day (minimum)
- Supplement with magnesium and potassium (lite salt) daily.
- Small amounts of fresh herbs, hot sauce, no carb sweeteners, and spices will be allowed – as long as they are less than 1g net carbs per serving, not to exceed 5g net carbs per day.
This may sound unduly restrictive, but you’d be surprised how many delicious recipes/combos that you can come up with using eggs, cheese, and butter (cream cheese pancakes anyone?)Â Â For those of you that are interested in trying it and want some structure, I’m working on a one week egg fast meal plan that I will post next week. I will strictly adhere to that same meal plan and will update you with my results at the end of my first week.
Update: I lost 7.4 lbs in five days, then gained back .5 lbs over the next two days for a net loss of 6.9 lbs. in one week.
Click here for my 5 Day Egg Fast Menu Plan!
Egg Fast Recipes
Buffalo Omelette
Salted Caramel Custard
Easy Deviled Eggs
Snickerdoodle Crepes
Fettuccini Alfredo
A word of caution: If you are not already fat adapted and are eating hundreds of grams of carbs per day in your diet, you may not want to embark on an egg fast until you’ve been in ketosis for awhile. Jumping right in can make you feel really lousy, and may even be dangerous if you have other health conditions. Consider trying my 3 Day Keto Kickstart first and see how you do before trying something as low carb and high fat as this egg fast.
Stuck in a plateau? Is an egg fast something you’re interested in trying? Have you already tried it? I’d love to hear your results/thoughts in the comments!
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Sharla Ali says
I happened to stumble across this page and boy was I intrigued !! I suffer with hypothyroidism so losing weight was a great challenge for me. I’ve tried many different diets over the years and hands down keto has worked for me, I’ve lost over 30 lbs and recently have been slacking …. ( I have a weakness for basmati rice and beans ) I began the egg fast on Monday, I’ve been avoiding the scale Because I already know it was not going to look too good lol …. Monday night the scale showed 184lbs this morning I weighed in at 177lbs – oh yeah – my goal is to be at 165 lbs which I was able to achieve last year in August :)
Mellissa Sevigny says
Congrats Sharla!
Leah says
So I might have missed this but how do you carefully come off the egg fast? I am on day 4 and have lost 5 pounds so far and am super happy! I worked out hard yesterday so I did not see a loss this morning, but it could be because I did not add enough fat and eggs in to make up for this and it stressed my system. What should I do on day 6 going back to HFLC Keto? I still need to loose 5 more pounds at least in 18 days, hoping for 10 as I have a weigh in coming up and refuse to get taped ever again lol! Thanks and love this diet albeit it’s getting a bit hard today :) texture is getting to me
Chris Hampton says
I’m a big fella at 6ft and 265lbs. I just started working out 7 days ago and walking 1 mile per day, and also started the egg fast 3 .5 days ago. I have been eating as much as I want when I’m hungry, but being sure to add the 1tbsp of butter per egg. Most days I’ll eat about 14 eggs. I’m steadily losing 2lbs per day, consistently! I’m hoping the transition to keto diet will be smooth with minimal weight gain with my heavy gym routing and watching my diet. This morning when I weighed myself I was 244lbs. I’ve been weighing myself every morning and it’s been a steady 2lbs per day with no adverse effects yet. I’m sticking to the fast for a full 7 days and then transition to keto. I’ve never attempted any type of diet in my life, so I’m having great luck so far!
Rachel says
Starting Day 3 and lost 0.3 lbs. Looking at your lists of what you ate each day, thinking maybe you reduce the butter in other meals to make up for the butter & MCT oil in the BPC? At first it looked like BPC AND 2 eggs, 2 T butter for breakfast. Now I’m not so sure. Trying not to panic when I look at my macros and just trust the eggs. :-) Thanks!
Rachel says
In 2 days on the egg fast I wasn’t losing weight, so I did more research and found the basic Egg Fast is 2 eggs with 2 Tblsp. butter 3 times per day. You CAN have up to 1 oz. of cheese for each egg, but you don’t NEED to eat all that cheese. It also looks like you should substitute 1 oz. of cheese for the Tblsp of butter if you’re eating eggs and cheese for a meal. Once I started having 6 eggs and 6 T. of butter per day, THAT’s when I started losing weight like everyone is talking about. So, I wasted my first 2 days of the egg fast eating way too much fat and cheese. Live and learn, right?
Angela says
Hi – i have been Keto for nearly 2 years. been in a 6 month stall. I have been on your egg fast for the last two days, and my ketones were 4.1 last night, and lost 1.8 lbs. Just letting you know I have to take meds with something other than water, so must have 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk, with 1 tablespoon of HWC each day. I’ll let you know how it goes by day 5.
Bella says
Hi. I would like to know how you counted 1200kcal on this egg fast. I’m already on 1200kcal everyday. And when I put 6 eggs, 6 ounces of cheese and 6 tablespoons of butter in the app – I hit 1600kcal. My question is, if I’m already on 1200kcal then going up to 1600 Kcal would suggest that I would gain weight instead of lose it since weight loss is about calorie deficit. Any idea?
Robyn says
This was the EXACT question I have. I’m very nervous about going up to 1600 plus calories from my normal 1200. Would really love to have an answer!
Mellissa Sevigny says
You don’t track calories on the egg fast typically.
Rachel says
Today I had a BPC with 2 eggs for breakfast, morning and afternoon snack was string cheese, lunch was 2 eggs, 2 T butter and the same for dinner. Calories – 1232. Read my comment to myself above. I’m now losing weight but wasn’t with all the extra cheese. I also thought the BPC was in addition to the eggs, fat, and cheese. I now count that as 2 fats. Seems simple, but not really!
Kathy says
Day 3 lunch makes no sense to me. 1 cream cheese pancake, what is the 1 Tbsp mayo for? The recipe say sugar free syrup and the deli slice cheddar cheese????
Mellissa Sevigny says
It’s basically a mini wrap. Made with 1 cream cheese pancake, spread with the mayo, then the slice of cheese, then rolled up and eaten. The syrup is for use when eating the pancakes as a breakfast if desired – not together with the cheese and mayo.
Monica says
Hi!!! I‘M from Peru and i looooove your page! I have one doubt, if i have a bpc in the morning and i Want another in the afternoon… can i take it? If i have for example 8 eggs and only 5 TBSP of butter…
sorry for my english!!! ?
Mellissa Sevigny says
Yes!
Laura says
Hi
I would love to know why you have to eat before 10am? I’m having 2 bullet proof coffees before that but can’t stomach the idea of eating before 11/12am.
Thanks!
Michelle says
I’ve done an egg fast before to get out of a stall. It was successful. Somedays I had two bpc and I still lost weight. If I had scrambled eggs I would do 1 tbsp butter for 3 eggs, then have 2 tbsp of butter available for a couple cups of bpc.
I’m starting an egg fast today and will be having egg coffee this time. It’s actually really good. If you decide to look up some recipes for it I just suggest using little to no hwc. Just modify, or find, a recipe that fits the egg fast.
Amber Waldron says
Is sugar free gum (1-2 carbs per piece) okay on the egg fast? Asking because I know it’s a “no” on the beef and butter fast. Thanks!
grace2u says
Just finished a 5 day egg fast.I always find the egg fast easier that after the fast. I am very strict with eating, always below 20 carbs a day. But here is the question..how do i transition back.
When I do an egg fast i am keeping it simple.I hate to cook so its just eggs butter cheese sometime.My eating routine is simple raw spinach some chicken breast ,Renees chunky blue cheese dressing 0 carbs 7 fat ,actually 1 tablespoon, depending how much fat i had so far. Can i eat like that the first day after 5 day fast.Oh I always eat eggs for breakfast.Just thought i was not starting right.
Thanks so much
Jill says
Starting egg fast today. I’m shhoting for 4 days to start then grilled chicken and greens over the weekend. I’m 52 and can’t lose since menopause. I’m also giving up beer for the 4 days…. just woke up and ate an egg in 5 min of waking up.
grace2u says
Hi there.I didn’t even know beer was allowed when eating keto?