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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Susan says
Nevermind, I’ve read the answer on the meal plan :)
Susan says
Hi,
I’m sorry, but I have a weird question. While eating so little (weight-wise) and no fiber do you still go to the toilet? This fast sounds like a week without #2.
Crystal says
Hey Melissa,
Thanks for the this post! Two days into the egg fast and I’ve finally broken through my month long plateau with a whopping 3 pounds! My question is: Do you think it’s okay to fry eggs in bacon fat. I know that egg is suppose to be the only protein, but is bacon fat okay for cooking?
Mellissa Sevigny says
Yes I would say bacon fat is definitely egg fast friendly!
Tracey says
Hi,
I am on day 2 of the egg fast diet. I feel sick so I know I must be into the ketosis. Does the nausea get better? Im only doing this for 3 days.
Christina Johannesen says
Hi Melissa,
I am just starting my egg fast today – and very excited – so far it’s taken me 6 months to go down about 22 lbs, so I’m desperate for some progress…
Could you let us know, how it went on for you after the egg fast. I understood you managed to regain only very little after the fast ended, but did it also help your stall, more long range? I mean, did your slow and steady weight loss set in again after the egg fast?
Christina
Mellissa Sevigny says
When I behave myself I see a loss, but we’ve been traveling A LOT this month, and I have indulged in lots of carbs. So the egg fasting right now has been keeping me from gaining – I do a few days after a weekend of indulging and it gets me back to where I started which is great – problem is, I still want to lose 30lbs so I need to stop cheating and start behaving! Hopefully we’ll be home for awhile and I can get back into a normal keto routine and finally start making some progress in the right direction! But the egg fast does work and it’s helped me a lot!
Christina says
Thanks for your reply.
I am on day 4 right now and this morning – after three days – I was down about 3 lbs. So not the huge losses I am hearing about from other people, but as i am a really slow loser and had been stalling for the last couple of months, I am really just happy to see some kind of downward movement on the scales… Just hope that it will also re-kickstart a normal, steady weight loss on normal strict lchf after this…
I have been fealing quesy after each meal – is that normal?
br
Christina
Keva says
Mellissa, i came across your instagram page last week and instantly became interested in doing the Eggfast. Ive been following a HFLC diet since last november and have had success with it, ive lost 23lbs (That was mainly in about 4 months) and maintained since then even though ive been a little off track!! The final blow came a few weeks ago i was on a weeks holidays and over indulged!!! – I put on 8lbs in a week, i couldnt believe it, i tought once i got back on track id lose the majority of it pretty quickly as id put it on so quickly!! :( Im 2 and a half weeks back on track and sticking to it religiously and ive only managed to lose 4lbs, and that was in the first few days and ive plateaued ever since. Im getting really annoyed now as i have a wedding im attending in 5 days so i decided to start the egg fast this morning, hoping this works!!!
Mellissa Sevigny says
Can’t wait to hear back Keva! Hope you drop a bunch in time for the wedding – keep me posted!
Linn Hagen says
Hi. I’m planning to do the egg fast. But I was wondering, is it possible to combine fried eggs with just ONE slice of bacon? or a slice of ham on my omelett? and what about a little slice of smoked salmon? That can’t ruin the whole thing…? They have no carbs!
Mellissa Sevigny says
It’s the excess protein that’s the problem Linn – the egg fast works because it’s almost zero carbs, low protein, and very high fat which gets you into optimal nutritional ketosis. If you want the meat go ahead – it’s just not the egg fast anymore.
Linn Hagen says
I understand .. But I have heard of people doing the egg & meat fast with even grater results than just the egg fast.. What do you think about that?
Mellissa Sevigny says
I think you need to decide what’s right for you. If you think an egg and meat fast is more to your taste then that’s what you should do. I just put the information out there, whether you decide to follow exactly or tailor it to your own needs is really up to you! Whatever you decide, I wish you the best!
Donna says
What if you don’t drink coffee?
Hélène says
You don’t need the coffee but you do need the fat. So I’m going to drink bone broth with coconut oil or you could use the butter. And–no need to emulsify IMO AND there’s some fat in the broth too. Fat is your FRIEND; on this fast especially. FYI the broth is not part of this fast as it could have some carbs lingering in it but I’m chancing it as a) I think there’d be miniscule carbs in it and b) I can put dulse and turmeric in it also which are great for you and a different flavor besides egg lol
Donna says
Helene,
Thanks for the reply. I’ll add a bit more fat since I don’t drink Coffee or Tea (caffeine is not my friend). Thanks for the broth tip.
Eva says
I tried your SnickerDoodle Crepes today…. or should I say I attempted it as I wanted to try something different. Now, I must admit, I am not a cook. But my consistency ended up extremely runny and when I poured this consistency into the pan, it was very thin and whilst trying to turn it, it turned into mush.
The mush tasted very nice especially when I mixed it with the butter with cinnamon and xylotol.
What did I do wrong?
I’d appreciate some help.
It is very rich. Have been banting for 5 weeks now.
Mellissa Sevigny says
The batter is definitely on the thin side Eva but firms up into a perfect crepe when cooked. It sounds like your pan wasn’t hot enough if it turned to mush – next time try a higher temp and let the pan heat up a bit until the butter is sizzling before you add the batter!
Marion Harvie says
Eva most of the crepe cooks on one side. Watch for all the little bubbles that appear at the top of the crepe. Once most of them have popped then flip it over. Count slowly to twenty and slide it onto a plate. Voila!
Kim says
I’m contemplating trying this… But the only place I see Kerrygold available near me on the kerrygold website is SAMs club. Does it have to be Kerrygold?
Cameron says
Have you checked at Wal-Mart? That’s where I buy kerrygold and it is legit the best butter out there. Also, Wal-Mart usually has a pretty good sale on it!