If you have reached a weight loss plateau on keto, there are a number of methods you can try to start losing weight again.
Most of these methods involve cutting your calories and/or carbs to accelerate weight loss. One way to do this is with the ketogenic egg fast.
In this article, we are going to see what an egg fast is, what benefits or drawbacks it has, how to do it successfully, and the foods to eat and avoid. There is also a free sample meal plan for you to see what the diet really looks like.
The keto egg fast is a short-term meal plan where you only eat eggs, butter, and cheese. On this plan, for each egg, you have to eat a tablespoon of pure fat. Most people choose butter as their choice of fat, but other fats like olive oil and coconut oil work just as well.
This diet is very low carb, very high fat, and moderate protein. The goal is to force your body into ketosis by cutting carbs to nearly zero. Almost all the foods allowed are zero-carb except for cheese.
It is hard to say what the ketogenic egg fast macros are because everyone will eat a different number of eggs. What matters most is that you eat only eggs and match each egg with a tablespoon of full fat. You cannot eat more than 5 g of carbs per day.
This fast became popularized in 2010 by keto blogger Jimmy Moore of the Living La Vida Low Carb Blog. He did the diet for 1 month, lost over 27 lbs, and made it famous when he posted his results online.
The primary benefit of the keto egg fast is weight loss. You can only eat so many eggs in a day. No matter how hard you try, it would be very hard to consume your daily calorie requirements in eggs.
This, in combination with keeping your insulin levels at a minimum, will inevitably result in weight loss.
Any other benefits you may see will be as a result of fat loss. Some of the benefits you may see include:
Fat loss has many other benefits, like reducing risk for disease, but this diet is very short-term so it wouldn’t allow enough time for any of these effects.
As you would expect, this is a diet with serious drawbacks. Some of the problems you can expect to experience on it include:
Due to the restrictive nature of this diet, adequate preparation is a must if you want to do it successfully. To achieve your goals, divide your process into three stages and prepare yourself for each.
The three stages we shall use are:
Before the fast, you will prepare your body and yourself by doing some or all of the following:
During the diet, here are some of the tips that might help you do it with more ease:
After the diet:
You must avoid all high-carb foods like bread, cake, and candy. Unlike traditional keto, even low-carb foods like meat, yogurt, and low-carb fruits are not allowed.
Eggs are almost the only food you can eat on this plan. In addition, you can have a few other 100% fat foods, like butter, coconut oil, olive oil, and avocado oil. Some cheeses are also allowed.
Cheese is not 100% fat, but you can eat any type that has less than 1 g of carbs in it. Low-carb cheeses include brie, cream cheese, and mascarpone.
To see what an egg fast would look like in practice, here is a 1-day sample menu.
Calories: 1,763 | Macros: 0.6 g net carbs - 70.1 g protein - 161.1 g fat
If you still have questions on how to do this, we don’t blame you. Keep reading as we answer some of the questions you might have.
Yes, you can.
Coffee has zero carb and zero calories. You can make your coffee even more ketogenic by adding butter and MCT oil to it.
Yes, you can. Instead of butter, you can choose another source of fat like olive oil or coconut oil.
No, but it is highly recommended that you try keto first. Being fat-adapted can ease some of the negative effects the diet can have on you.
No, you can not eat anything other than eggs and fats on this diet.
You will not be getting any fiber on this plan. This is one of the biggest downsides of the diet. It is also one of the main reasons you cannot do this diet long-term or even why you should not do it at all.
High-fat low-carb cheeses are the best for this diet. These include cream cheese, mascarpone, and brie.
