As usual, I'm on my dieting grind and hoping to shed a few pounds. I've gained about 12lbs since the beginning of the year, mostly due to not having the time or energy to eat healthy. I had forgotten how hard it is to get back on the wagon after a long sugar filled hiatus. To jump start my weight loss, I tried a short term diet that has been coined as "The Egg Fast." I did five full days on this fast and lost around 7lbs. Sure, most of it was water weight, but what is my favorite thing about a low carb diet? How fast my belly goes flat. See the pic above if you want to admire my bloated gut in all of it's glory the night before I started the fast, along with the after pic.
What is The Egg Fast?
The Egg Fast isn't exactly what it sounds like. It isn't fasting from eggs, but rather fasting from all foods EXCEPT eggs, cheese, and real butter. I would not recommend anyone to do this for longer than a week, as it gets pretty hard to stick to after about 4 full days, and you will only become frustrated, hangry, and will end up at the nearest soft serve ice cream machine. The diet requires that you eat at least six eggs a day, a tablespoon of real butter for each egg consumed, and a ration of cheese, up to 6oz a day. I would NOT recommend eating that much cheese, though. Dairy is known to stall weight loss, but a small amount is fine. I would recommend no more than 3oz a day.
The Science Behind The Egg Fast
Y'all know I'm a scientific gal, so I had to look up the facts behind this diet and why it works. Eggs are, and always have been, a staple food for all low carb dieters. If you follow this diet correctly, you'll consume around 10 total carbs in a day. If you're a new reader, please know that I think the idea of net carbs is bologna and it's just a way to market processed high carb snacks as "healthy." Always count your TOTAL carbs if you want to see faster results on the scale. Anyway, 10 carbs a day is an extremely low carb diet. You probably won't feel great on the first day and may even exhibit some signs of induction flu. These included, at least for me, joint pain, headaches, and bad breath. Just think of it as sugar rehab and you're having withdraw symptoms. The good news is that it goes away in a couple of days. You know what else happens in a couple of days? Your body starts running on its storage of glycogen since you are not giving it any sugar to run off of. What molecule binds to glycogen? That would be good old H2O. You got it, water is bound to glycogen. As your body starts to burn glycogen, you begin to lose water weight and start seeing the scale move pretty fast. I know that I have written multiple posts on what happens to your body when you are on a strict low carb diet, so I won't go into too much additional detail here. Just trust me when I say that your water weight has to come off first before the fat rolls start disappearin'.
In addition to being a low carb food, eggs are a great source of protein. When paired with the cheese and fat, you are ingesting a moderate protein, high fat, low carb meal. Do you know what moderate protein, high fat, and low carb equal? A process called ketosis, aka FAT BURNING!
When your body goes into ketosis, the ketones in your blood stream act as an appetite suppressant, which will only aid in your weight loss. If you're new to low carb dieting and are unsure of how to get into ketosis, you can buy some testing strips on amazon for about ten bucks. When I was fat, I didn't know such a thing existed and I still lost 50lbs, so they are not required.
Would I Do The Egg Fast Again?
Honestly, I think it is a good way to get back into the swing of dieting. If anything, I would recommend it as a stepping stone to drop a few pounds quickly and to give you the motivation and determination to continue with a healthy lifestyle and long term weight loss. I would also recommend this diet if you have hit a plateau and have not lost any additional weight despite maintaining a healthy diet. I don't recommend this diet as a way to lose a ton of weight. It is far too restrictive and far too bland for my taste. I read online that some people did an egg fast for 30 days and did lose a substantial amount of weight. That is just insane to me, but perhaps they had an unrefined palate and didn't miss delicious food. I just know that I am not about to find out if 30 days of eggs would make me a size 2.
I hope this post has been informative and provided some insight into my experiences with The Egg Fast. Should you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email. Until next time.
Xoxo,
Bridget
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