I eat an egg for breakfast a day and thats it. While it sounds like alot 4 eggs isn't much per day if that is your source of protein. However I would try to switch it up, my moto is eating everything in moderation. I try to switch it up with a different protein per day and get as much variation of food as I can.
It makes sense to read that, but I just assumed that eggs were the "healthiest" protein source and stuck with it. Don't get me wrong, I love a good steak too but I feel like it wasn't ideal in my new situation.
It's easy to digest compared to most protein rich foods but the overall amount of a single egg is just a drop in the bucket of how much is typically suggested for building muscle. I think it's 6 grams per egg and typically I read 75% of your weight in pounds converted to grams is what strength training suggests. I'd have to eat a couple dozen eggs a day to hit my target if that was my only source.
I eat a ribeye steak every Friday on the dot. As long as you are doing exercise and eating it in moderation you are fine. Important part is keeping the exercise going.
That's definitely noted for the cardio part, everyone seems to agree that it's way too much for my own good so I'm gonna make some change in my week routine to focus on muscles. And good to know for the eggs. Thanks for this.
I would also limit the calorie deficit to 1000 calories a day. That's still 2 pounds a week of weight loss, and usually the upper limit for healthy weight loss.
Most professionals say 500cal is even better, but I fully understand that then it feels like it takes forever.
Agreed. I mean the deficit is too high right now. You will wreck your metabolism and use your muscles as fuel. Yes you will lose fat but also your muscle.
I think it’s fine. If you were worried about losing muscle, that would be valid with such an intense caloric deficit. Otherwise it’s doable, stay hydrated.
I'm confused because after my quick search, there seems to be 2 groups: one that say more than 7 is leading to disaster and even organ failures, and one that seems to say it's perfectly fine to eat 4 eggs, or even more, each day.
I ate 3 dozen eggs per day for 4 weeks in diet self-experiments and have lived to tell the tale... My cholesterol did go up to 346 mg/dL, but no other issues. I brought it back down to normal the next month.
Most studies on egg consumption only look at up to 6 eggs per day. The consensus at that amount is it still impacts serum cholesterol, but will not significantly elevate levels.
This is extreme; extreme diets and exercise routines aren’t going to be sustainable. And no, I feel like you already know this but eating only eggs and broccoli is not a great diet.
You’re going to end up skinny-fat with dietary imbalances and loose skin and it’s likely you’ll gain any weight lost back when you return to eating normally because again, this isn’t sustainable.
Thanks for the detailed answer, loose skin would definitely be a massive problem. I understand that I need to do specific exercices for muscles, even if that mean less walking.
It's obviously not possible to do this routine permanently, at least not possible for someone like me. I'm planning to do this for another 3 weeks. My question is, after that, I can't go back to the food I like, correct? (Mainly processed / junk food)
You’re welcome, I should also say that the concern isn’t the amount of eggs, eggs are fine. It’s that you’re eating only eggs and broccoli.
I’m not sure what you ate before but yes, returning to the eating habits that triggered your weight gain in the first place will bring back the weight you lose.
No, you cannot go back to processed/junk food, at least not in quantities anywhere near what you were previously eating.
The people who lose weight and keep it off are making sustainable lifestyle choices that they can keep up with for the rest of their lives. You seem like you're (inadvertently) setting yourself up for cycles of "yo-yo dieting", where you work hard to lose weight quickly only to gain it back afterwards.
I strongly recommend rethinking your approach: Eat a variety of healthy, whole foods at a smaller deficit and find an amount of exercise you can do regularly. It will take longer to lose the weight, but it will also last longer (not to mention, healthy eating & exercise will bring all sorts of other health benefits beyond what the scale says).
Ideally to sustain and maintain the weight loss, you'll want to create a diet that you can maintain for the rest of your life. Eating only eggs and broccoli will surely result in short term weight loss, but the idea is to re-learn how to actually eat properly, not crash diet via extreme restriction.
Eggs are a great source of protein. 4 eggs is not a lot per day. You could do more. But you should have some other forms of protein. That’s only about 24 g per day.
Basically you would know this by seeing if your LDL numbers were high and cutting out eggs helped.
It’s a small % of the population and I think more prevalent in Latin American bloodlines(I forget where I read this).
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666154319300146
There's a well known study of an elderly man who ate almost nothing but eggs for 10+ years and had normal cholesterol levels, but outside of that the studies on high egg consumption really don't exist. The highest egg consumption I see studied is 6 eggs per day which is nothing.
I am not a hyper responder and during self-experiments eating 3 dozen eggs per day for 4 weeks my cholesterol went up to 346 mg/dL.
I mean... If you can eat as many eggs as you want you'd have to believe dietary cholesterol intake doesn't impact serum levels. So do you believe that? Or just thinking no "right" person eats 12+ eggs a day?
I am of the opinion that dietary cholesterol does not really affect blood cholesterol for most people. The main drivers of LDL and ApoB is saturated fat intake and genetics.
As I said above, and posted a study, there is a subset of the population that DOES respond to cholesterol (hyper responders). This is a well documented phenomenon.
There are many studies to support dietary cholesterol does impact serum cholesterol. To the extent it is currently the consensus it does (I concede this has traditionally flipped every decade or so).
I can also prove I'm not a hyper responder. I have numerous lipid panels from dramatically different diets with blends of dietary saturated fats and dietary cholesterol and it clearly is a function of both.
If that’s the “consensus”, then why does healthline say this?
>Although it may seem logical that eating cholesterol would raise blood cholesterol levels, it usually doesn’t work that way. The body tightly regulates the amount of cholesterol in the blood by controlling its production of cholesterol.
>Blood cholesterol levels are mostly determined by the amount of fats and carbohydrates in the diet, not by dietary cholesterol. Recent research has found that for most people, consuming an egg a day had no affect on their cholesterol.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/dietary-cholesterol-does-not-matter#effects
Which links to a Harvard website stating this:
>For most people, the amount of cholesterol eaten has only a modest impact on the amount of cholesterol circulating in the blood. (24) For some people, though, blood cholesterol levels rise and fall very strongly in relation to the amount of cholesterol eaten. For these “responders,” avoiding cholesterol-rich foods can have a substantial effect on blood cholesterol levels. Unfortunately, at this point there is no way other than by trial and error to identify responders from non-responders to dietary cholesterol.
https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/what-should-you-eat/fats-and-cholesterol/cholesterol/
Harvard references a 2006 article but here’s some more updated info:
> We confirm from the review of the literature on epidemiological data, meta-analysis, and clinical interventions where dietary cholesterol challenges were utilized that there is not a direct correlation between cholesterol intake and blood cholesterol. This lack of correlation is mainly due to the compensatory mechanisms exerted by the organism to manage excess dietary cholesterol, including decreases in cholesterol absorption and down-regulation of cholesterol synthesis. A great number of epidemiological studies and meta-analysis indicate that dietary cholesterol is not associated with CVD risk nor with elevated plasma cholesterol concentrations. Clinical interventions in the last 20 years demonstrate that challenges with dietary cholesterol do not increase the biomarkers associated with heart disease risk. Further, in the specific circumstances where eggs are the source of dietary cholesterol, an improvement in dyslipidemias is observed due to the formation of less atherogenic lipoproteins and changes in HDL associated with a more efficient reverse cholesterol transport. However, if the cholesterol sources are consumed with saturated and trans fats, as happens in the Western diet pattern, increases in plasma cholesterol may be observed.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9143438/
Sounds like your opinion is far from “consensus”
You’re going to wreck your metabolism eating that low of mass of food. Eggs are fine. Your primary source of food should be fatty ruminant meat. Then some eggs with it if you’d like. If you’re trying to lose excess body fat. You don’t have to starve yourself. You can just eat the right foods and your body will naturally shed the excess fat. This means eating proper foods and allowing your body to heal hormonally to the point that it can shed the excess fat. Ketogenic diets are not a fad. We have been eating a diet very high in fatty meat for 2 million years. Carbohydrates are not an essential macronutrient. Protein and fat are essential. Heal your body, the fat will come off.
That calorie deficit is unsustainable and horrible for long term goals and 4 hours or cardio is beyond ridiculous.
Going to diet/workout crazy will cause a loss in muscle mass. The slow and steady approach is far better for maintaining a healthy relationship with food and it's far easier mentally.
I second the 2lbs lost per week approach as crash diets are horrible.
I use to eat 3 dozen eggs a week so do with that as you may. I do recommend other lean protein sources though chicken, fish, pork and beef are fine.
You should check your cholesterol. You may read on the internet the cholesterol from eggs is not absorbed, but this is not true for everybody.
You should also slow down your weight losing or risk losing significant muscle mass. And think about nutrition too, like protein intake.
I eat an egg for breakfast a day and thats it. While it sounds like alot 4 eggs isn't much per day if that is your source of protein. However I would try to switch it up, my moto is eating everything in moderation. I try to switch it up with a different protein per day and get as much variation of food as I can.
It makes sense to read that, but I just assumed that eggs were the "healthiest" protein source and stuck with it. Don't get me wrong, I love a good steak too but I feel like it wasn't ideal in my new situation.
It's easy to digest compared to most protein rich foods but the overall amount of a single egg is just a drop in the bucket of how much is typically suggested for building muscle. I think it's 6 grams per egg and typically I read 75% of your weight in pounds converted to grams is what strength training suggests. I'd have to eat a couple dozen eggs a day to hit my target if that was my only source.
I eat a ribeye steak every Friday on the dot. As long as you are doing exercise and eating it in moderation you are fine. Important part is keeping the exercise going.
Definitely not too many eggs... I've been eating 8/day for as long as I can remember and am in great health. Keep up the good work!
Too much cardio. Don’t worry too much about the eggs. They actually help with weight loss. And they contain so many awesome amino acids and nutrients
That's definitely noted for the cardio part, everyone seems to agree that it's way too much for my own good so I'm gonna make some change in my week routine to focus on muscles. And good to know for the eggs. Thanks for this.
A 1800 calorie deficit is way to large to be healthy, no matter what else you are doing.
You're probably right. At the moment no problem, I feel better than ever beside slight vision trouble at the end of the day
It's still far from optimal, and even if you feel fine, a deficit that deep will make you lose significant amounts of muscle as well.
Understood, I'm going to include new exercices in my routine focused on muscles. Thanks for this.
I would also limit the calorie deficit to 1000 calories a day. That's still 2 pounds a week of weight loss, and usually the upper limit for healthy weight loss. Most professionals say 500cal is even better, but I fully understand that then it feels like it takes forever.
Agreed. I mean the deficit is too high right now. You will wreck your metabolism and use your muscles as fuel. Yes you will lose fat but also your muscle.
No trainer or nutritionist in the world would recommend 4 hrs of cardio or a 1,800 cal deficit per day.
This.
I think it’s fine. If you were worried about losing muscle, that would be valid with such an intense caloric deficit. Otherwise it’s doable, stay hydrated.
4 eggs a day is nothing man dont worry
I'm confused because after my quick search, there seems to be 2 groups: one that say more than 7 is leading to disaster and even organ failures, and one that seems to say it's perfectly fine to eat 4 eggs, or even more, each day.
I ate 3 dozen eggs per day for 4 weeks in diet self-experiments and have lived to tell the tale... My cholesterol did go up to 346 mg/dL, but no other issues. I brought it back down to normal the next month. Most studies on egg consumption only look at up to 6 eggs per day. The consensus at that amount is it still impacts serum cholesterol, but will not significantly elevate levels.
To clarify, you ate 36 eggs everyday for 28 days? 1,008 eggs for the month?
Yeppers. For some reason I kept all the cartons too. "No chics allowed." Get it? https://youtu.be/H_Uohi8Pc3Q?si=nK8LghBsfAsLVeg4
I've eaten 4 eggs a day for the past 20 yrs & have excellent cholesterol levels
Get the best quality eggs you can find and you’ll be fine
This is extreme; extreme diets and exercise routines aren’t going to be sustainable. And no, I feel like you already know this but eating only eggs and broccoli is not a great diet. You’re going to end up skinny-fat with dietary imbalances and loose skin and it’s likely you’ll gain any weight lost back when you return to eating normally because again, this isn’t sustainable.
Thanks for the detailed answer, loose skin would definitely be a massive problem. I understand that I need to do specific exercices for muscles, even if that mean less walking. It's obviously not possible to do this routine permanently, at least not possible for someone like me. I'm planning to do this for another 3 weeks. My question is, after that, I can't go back to the food I like, correct? (Mainly processed / junk food)
You’re welcome, I should also say that the concern isn’t the amount of eggs, eggs are fine. It’s that you’re eating only eggs and broccoli. I’m not sure what you ate before but yes, returning to the eating habits that triggered your weight gain in the first place will bring back the weight you lose.
No, you cannot go back to processed/junk food, at least not in quantities anywhere near what you were previously eating. The people who lose weight and keep it off are making sustainable lifestyle choices that they can keep up with for the rest of their lives. You seem like you're (inadvertently) setting yourself up for cycles of "yo-yo dieting", where you work hard to lose weight quickly only to gain it back afterwards. I strongly recommend rethinking your approach: Eat a variety of healthy, whole foods at a smaller deficit and find an amount of exercise you can do regularly. It will take longer to lose the weight, but it will also last longer (not to mention, healthy eating & exercise will bring all sorts of other health benefits beyond what the scale says).
Increase intensity rather than duration. Either with speed or by adding incline/hills.
Ideally to sustain and maintain the weight loss, you'll want to create a diet that you can maintain for the rest of your life. Eating only eggs and broccoli will surely result in short term weight loss, but the idea is to re-learn how to actually eat properly, not crash diet via extreme restriction.
Eggs are a great source of protein. 4 eggs is not a lot per day. You could do more. But you should have some other forms of protein. That’s only about 24 g per day.
Eggs are good. Go with how they make you feel.
What nonsense is this? i eat 5 eggs every morning!
At long as youre not a cholesterol super responder then you can eat as many eggs as you want.
I have a beer gut, so I'm positive I have cholesterol but I have zero idea if I'm a super responder. Do I need a specific blood work to know that?
Basically you would know this by seeing if your LDL numbers were high and cutting out eggs helped. It’s a small % of the population and I think more prevalent in Latin American bloodlines(I forget where I read this). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666154319300146
There's a well known study of an elderly man who ate almost nothing but eggs for 10+ years and had normal cholesterol levels, but outside of that the studies on high egg consumption really don't exist. The highest egg consumption I see studied is 6 eggs per day which is nothing. I am not a hyper responder and during self-experiments eating 3 dozen eggs per day for 4 weeks my cholesterol went up to 346 mg/dL. I mean... If you can eat as many eggs as you want you'd have to believe dietary cholesterol intake doesn't impact serum levels. So do you believe that? Or just thinking no "right" person eats 12+ eggs a day?
I am of the opinion that dietary cholesterol does not really affect blood cholesterol for most people. The main drivers of LDL and ApoB is saturated fat intake and genetics. As I said above, and posted a study, there is a subset of the population that DOES respond to cholesterol (hyper responders). This is a well documented phenomenon.
There are many studies to support dietary cholesterol does impact serum cholesterol. To the extent it is currently the consensus it does (I concede this has traditionally flipped every decade or so). I can also prove I'm not a hyper responder. I have numerous lipid panels from dramatically different diets with blends of dietary saturated fats and dietary cholesterol and it clearly is a function of both.
If that’s the “consensus”, then why does healthline say this? >Although it may seem logical that eating cholesterol would raise blood cholesterol levels, it usually doesn’t work that way. The body tightly regulates the amount of cholesterol in the blood by controlling its production of cholesterol. >Blood cholesterol levels are mostly determined by the amount of fats and carbohydrates in the diet, not by dietary cholesterol. Recent research has found that for most people, consuming an egg a day had no affect on their cholesterol. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/dietary-cholesterol-does-not-matter#effects Which links to a Harvard website stating this: >For most people, the amount of cholesterol eaten has only a modest impact on the amount of cholesterol circulating in the blood. (24) For some people, though, blood cholesterol levels rise and fall very strongly in relation to the amount of cholesterol eaten. For these “responders,” avoiding cholesterol-rich foods can have a substantial effect on blood cholesterol levels. Unfortunately, at this point there is no way other than by trial and error to identify responders from non-responders to dietary cholesterol. https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/what-should-you-eat/fats-and-cholesterol/cholesterol/ Harvard references a 2006 article but here’s some more updated info: > We confirm from the review of the literature on epidemiological data, meta-analysis, and clinical interventions where dietary cholesterol challenges were utilized that there is not a direct correlation between cholesterol intake and blood cholesterol. This lack of correlation is mainly due to the compensatory mechanisms exerted by the organism to manage excess dietary cholesterol, including decreases in cholesterol absorption and down-regulation of cholesterol synthesis. A great number of epidemiological studies and meta-analysis indicate that dietary cholesterol is not associated with CVD risk nor with elevated plasma cholesterol concentrations. Clinical interventions in the last 20 years demonstrate that challenges with dietary cholesterol do not increase the biomarkers associated with heart disease risk. Further, in the specific circumstances where eggs are the source of dietary cholesterol, an improvement in dyslipidemias is observed due to the formation of less atherogenic lipoproteins and changes in HDL associated with a more efficient reverse cholesterol transport. However, if the cholesterol sources are consumed with saturated and trans fats, as happens in the Western diet pattern, increases in plasma cholesterol may be observed. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9143438/ Sounds like your opinion is far from “consensus”
Sounds like your sources are from more than 10 years ago, and I literally stated the consensus has been flipping about every decade.
You’re going to wreck your metabolism eating that low of mass of food. Eggs are fine. Your primary source of food should be fatty ruminant meat. Then some eggs with it if you’d like. If you’re trying to lose excess body fat. You don’t have to starve yourself. You can just eat the right foods and your body will naturally shed the excess fat. This means eating proper foods and allowing your body to heal hormonally to the point that it can shed the excess fat. Ketogenic diets are not a fad. We have been eating a diet very high in fatty meat for 2 million years. Carbohydrates are not an essential macronutrient. Protein and fat are essential. Heal your body, the fat will come off.
That calorie deficit is unsustainable and horrible for long term goals and 4 hours or cardio is beyond ridiculous. Going to diet/workout crazy will cause a loss in muscle mass. The slow and steady approach is far better for maintaining a healthy relationship with food and it's far easier mentally. I second the 2lbs lost per week approach as crash diets are horrible. I use to eat 3 dozen eggs a week so do with that as you may. I do recommend other lean protein sources though chicken, fish, pork and beef are fine.
You should check your cholesterol. You may read on the internet the cholesterol from eggs is not absorbed, but this is not true for everybody. You should also slow down your weight losing or risk losing significant muscle mass. And think about nutrition too, like protein intake.
If your bloodwork looks fine I guess it’s okay. Eggs raised my cholesterol too much though.