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?) 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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karis says
Try paleo. I started it after you posted books on here. It says excluding dairy from your diet for 30 days helps with allergies and inflammatory issues.
Mellissa Sevigny says
That’s true for a lot of people but I was in the midst of a Whole 30 when I had the worst of my allergies unfortunately! Never had them until I moved to South Carolina – now I have extreme oral allergy syndrome which means I can’t eat any fruits or veggies during the month that the worst pollen is out – among other things. But I’m working on ways to combat it without the steroids so that I (hopefully) won’t have to take them next Spring!
Marion Harvie says
Ooh, I’ve been thinking of doing this too! I’ve lost 50 since January but the last month – nothing. I’m nowhere near my goal and I keep control of my carbs to less tan 20 a day and 1700 for calories. But no weight loss
Mellissa Sevigny says
Isn’t it SO frustrating to just STOP losing even when you’re being super strict? It makes it much harder to stay the course! It felt good to see a drop in the scale this morning even if it was mostly water weight! I highly recommend giving it a try – what have you got to lose (besides more weight lol?!?)
Alison @ Butter Is Not a Carb says
Mellissa,
Sounds interesting! I’ve not heard of an egg fast but have heard of fat fasts before. I’ve been fortunate to not hit a plateau yet to date but I know if I did I would fat fast to get back to losing, so I’m excited to see your meal plan! Hormonal imbalance is chaos for the body, so I hope the issues can be resolved soon. Best of luck!!
Mellissa Sevigny says
Thanks so much Alison! Hey if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it – hopefully you’ll never hit a plateau!!! I may still try a version of the fat fast, but so far this is pretty painless and it’s working well so I’ll see it through!
cindy says
I am super interested in trying this. I look forward to your menu and results. To me this seems much easier and tastier than a fat fast.
Mellissa Sevigny says
The fat fast is something I would try if this doesn’t work, but this seemed so much easier to undertake! So far so good – I’ll keep you posted!
Marion@Life Tastes Good says
Mellissa, This is very interesting. I’ve not heard of it before, and I’m going to be watching for your results! I wish you great success with it, and I may follow in your footsteps. I have not been a very good girl since Blogher in Miami, so I’d like to get back on track, but will heed your advice about slowly moving into ketosis before going all out on the egg fast. Since I’ve gotten older it is more difficult for me making that transition. Good luck!!
Mellissa Sevigny says
Hey girl! I have struggled with on again off again since Miami too! So far so good though – down 5lbs this morning which felt awesome! Let me know if you try it and how it works for you!
CommonSense says
Interesting, thanks for the post! I haven’t technically plateaued, i.e. going at least a month with no weight loss or loss in inches, but I have slowed down considerably. The first 4 months, I lost about 40 lbs very easily, but only about 20 lbs during the last 6 months. I’m happy if I see .5 lb a week. I’m also menopausal, so that is really screwing with me, although the perimenopause wasn’t so great either. I joke that I’ve run smack into my genetics, my build is just like my Italian great-grandmother. I should say my build before keto. I still have 15-20 lbs to lose and it would be nice if it didn’t take another year. I now have clothes in 4 different sizes!
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve taken to eating only twice a day, breakfast and dinner. It’s much easier to manage my carbs, and since I’m adapted, going 8 hours or more without eating is actually pretty easy. I sure hope I’m burning fat during those hours! I also stop eating at least 4 hours before bed. I was having serious sleep issues and that practice has really helped. Those changes work better for our lifestyle too, since my husband works from about 2am to sometimes as late as 5 or 6.
I may just try this, I do love your cream cheese pancakes, so does my husband!
Mellissa Sevigny says
I’ll be curious to see how you do if you try this – especially with your hormone issues! I will be 41 this summer and wonder if that’s part of my problem. I found that intermittent fasting didn’t work for me – I wasn’t hungry, but I wasn’t losing either! I think eating smaller meals more frequently helps my metabolism rev up and keep burning more consistently even when I’m sleeping. I’m wondering if part of my stall is due to slowing my metabolism down since I started having only coffee until 11am or later. Thyroid problems run in my family as well, though last time I was tested I was still in the low end of normal range. Let me know if you decide to try this and keep us posted on your progress! I’ll post my updates daily through this week, as well as the recipes I’m developing for use in the menu plan which I’ll post next week!
Petra says
This point is really interesting……. for the past 6 months I haven’t really lost, but I’ve stayed strictly to my keto eating plan (I lost the first 17 kilos easily…. and have stopped.) I haven’t thrown it away with the thought that maybe my body is getting rid of toxins/ ect, and I was too scared I’d put that 15 kilos back on. Plus, I love the way I eat now. But, I did start intermittent fasting roughly 7 or 8 months ago, purely because I just wasn’t hungry until lunchtime…… I’m 42….. I might need a kick start to my metabolism too………
I’ve just done an egg fast, (4 days- ) I’m very happy with the results…. I have started to lose. Directly after the fast, I gained every day a tiny bit, (panic stations!!) but then, about 4 days ago, the scales start d to go back down, and this morning I am the lowest I have been in this cycle of weight loss. and I’m very hopeful that the weight loss will continue……. fingers crossed.
Jan says
Pat, you must be right down the road from me-I was thinking the exact same thing-Not til this holiday weekend is over with all its Chesapeake traditions! I will be joining you ladies on this adventure as soon as I figure out a dairy-free sub for the cream cheese (graciously taking suggestions!) I am 51, hypothyroid, recovering from a hip replacement 8-9 weeks ago. This time in 2012, I was at least 10-15# lighter than BEFORE adopting grain-free paleo habits. I put in lots of physical activity, have been meticulous about what I eat & drink, but can’t seem to budge an inch. Reset it is!
I’ll check in on Monday!
–Jan
Pat says
I bet I am close by. Ocean City, MD right now and soon to be living in Bethany Beach, DE. Life is good, except how slowly I lose weight.
Trader Joe’s Non-Dairy Spread is an alternative to cream cheese, vegan and only $2.49. I love dairy myself and don’t seem to have an issue, except w/ milk. Now I use Trader Joe’s Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk in the dairy case. Best tasting of any I’ve tried and has a very long refrigerator shelf life as opposed to dairy milk. Hope the brand names don’t prohibit the post.
Jan says
Pat-thanks for the tip, I will check it out when I go grocery shopping today(I’m from Baltimore, living in Columbia-maybe I’ll see ya downne Oshin, hon!)). I must steer clear of soy (wreaks havoc with thyroid issues) so I WILL find something! Good luck to everyone!
Mellissa Sevigny says
Is it just cream cheese or is it all cheese that you have to steer clear of Jan? If it’s all cheese that will make it tough – but you can do it with just eggs and coconut oil or olive oil if you can’t tolerate butter either. You just won’t have as many recipe options available so it will get even more boring. Might be worth a try still if nothing else is working though!
Jan says
HI Melissa, I am trying to avoid dairy (I do use ghee, tho) as a suggestion by Drs. WmDavis & Tim Noakes to a stalled hypothyroider. I’ll see how far I get & insert it as a last resort! Just bought 4 doz eggs, will start Monday!
erin says
Hi Jan, you may have already resolved this, but my boyfriend is severely lactose intolerant and I thought I’d chime in. We’ve made a ton of cream cheese pancakes (and waffles) using Tofutti Dairy Free Cream Cheese over the last year. For other dairy-free cheeses, the most affordable and delicious we’ve found are Trader Joe’s Yogurt Cheese and (some) Cracker Barrel sliced cheeses and cheese sticks.
Lisa says
Try testing for food sensitivities with an Alcat or similar test. Most people have leaky guts which can lead to difficulty in losing weight among a myriad of other symptoms.
Alexandra says
On the excess diet, what else can I eat in place of cheese as I’m lactose intolerant and I have celiac’s so I can’t eat anything with wheat or dairy. Any suggestions for foods and a diet meal plan would help. I have been doing phentermine, and have been yo-yoing. I’ve also been recovering from being on steroids with cancer for which I’m cancer free thank gosh. Any suggestions for food and her meal plan for lactose People would be appreciated for me. Thank you
Willow @ Will Cook For Friends says
Fascinating… I’ve never heard of an egg fast before, but now I’m really intrigued. I’ll be curious to see how it goes for you!
Mellissa Sevigny says
Me too Willow! I’m hoping it will be a success – so far so good, I’m down 5lbs after the first day! Don’t expect to keep losing at this rate, but even another 2lbs a day for the next 4 days would be SO AWESOME! I’ll keep you guys posted!
Michael Dieu says
Can’t wait to see your results and see your meal plan and give this a try! Love your page so much!
Mellissa Sevigny says
Thanks so much Michael! I’ll be posting daily updates so be sure to check back often!
native says
Definitely interested in trying this. +1 for a menu!
Pat says
Oh my, do I ever need this right now. I’ve been struggling lately and wondering what is going on with my not losing. I had no trouble losing a few years ago but this time, it has been very, very difficult. I am older now which may account for this, but I really love this WOE for so many reasons, especially how good I feel when I don’t eat sugar or grains. I follow your blog religiously and when you posted this today, I jumped for joy. I cannot wait to try this and also cannot wait for your ingenious Egg menu and recipes. You have a gift for being creative. As often as I eat your cream cheese pancakes, I did not immediately think of them as a great Egg Fast meal. You are our leader! And grateful for it.
I will wait patiently for the week of Egg Fast menus. I absolutely love eggs and I hope by the end of it, I still do!
Lastly, I cannot believe you lost 70 lbs. I did not know that. Truly amazing. I’m even more inspired. Did you ever post a before picture on your site? I just can’t picture you anything but thin, like your photo.
Mellissa Sevigny says
Thanks so much Pat! Actually the 70 was a typo (which I just fixed!) – I lost almost 60lbs, not 70 (58 to be exact) – but it was still a lot on my 5’7 frame! I never did before and afters, but the photo on my about page was taken last week and it shows me back up by a little over 30 lbs in it. I’ll post an after when I get to goal someday! I’m already mad at myself for letting this happen, and can’t bear to gain another ounce, which is what led me to try something drastic like this egg fast. It will hopefully get my body reset somehow so that I can start losing again. I’m fine with losing slow and steady, but I’ve got to see some loss or I’ll go crazy! When I read that ketogenic woman was older and a slow loser but that it helped her, I was determined to try it! I’m excited and will hopefully see some real progress this week. Can’t wait to update you guys and I’m working on some egg fast recipes this afternoon that I’ll share throughout the week! If you decide to do it keep me posted!!!
Pat says
Oh, I absolutely will let you know if works for me. My plan is start after Tuesday as I have a crab feast w/ neighbors here at the beach that evening. I suppose I could just eat deviled eggs when Chesapeake Bay steamed crabs are staring at me. Nah! Not gonna happen..I start after Tuesday.
Wishing us both success.
Mellissa Sevigny says
Hopefully by Tuesday I’ll have a really clear picture as to whether or not this is going to work for me – and a few more recipes up for you to start with! Enjoy the crab – totally jealous!!!! :)
sunflower956 says
Ho w long can you do the egg fast diet. Would three weeks be too long?
Mellissa Sevigny says
As long as you can stand it, but I recommend two days off per week to get some veggies in!
Jennifer says
I know you dont recommend doing the egg fast if not yet fat adapted but want to try it
Phelonise says
How long can you safely do the egg fast?
Phelonise says
nevermind….see my answer above… Sorry!!
Phyllis says
I started this today and I have a nagging headache that won’t quit. I took an Aleve about 3 hours ago and it went away for a little bit. Is this suppose to happen for the first 3 days or what?
Mellissa Sevigny says
Drink water, get lots of salt, supplement with magnesium if necessary!