The Boiled egg diet plan - What is it, Benefits and how it works?

Who doesn’t like eggs? After all its easy to make fulfilling and keeps you full for long duration. Including eggs in your diet can actually help you lose weight and keep you healthy.

In this Article you will learn about the boiled egg diet plan and how it works.

Let’s take a quick look at list of things that we will be covering.

Table Of Content

Overview

The boiled egg diet plan is a low carbohydrate and high protein diet where you limit the intake of carbs and increase the protein and fat intake. This forces your body to use fat as a source of energy.

Internet is flooded with all kinds of diet which promise to help you lose weight and promote overall wellness. One such diet plan which also promises to do the same is boiled egg diet.

As the name suggests, boiled egg diet focuses on consuming proteins mainly from boiled eggs. In this diet plan you are allowed to have juices, fruits and zero calorie drinks like water.

Also, when on an egg diet you are strictly prohibited to include foods high in carbs like rice, potatoes, pasta, and bread. Almost all kinds of foods with high carbs are eliminated, so that fat reserves can be utilized as a source of energy.

Boiled egg diet plan lasts anywhere from 7 days to 14 days and it’s not recommended to continue this for long duration as it’s not completely a balanced diet.

Boiled Egg Diet Plan

There are several versions of Boiled Egg Diet plan and some are more aggressive and some are close to well balanced.

Consuming only Eggs: This diet plan is considered to be the most aggressive amongst all the other egg diet plans and sticking to this diet for the long run is not recommended at all. This is considered an unhealthy diet, as dieters tend to stick to one food for as long as two weeks. This leaves them fatigued and starved of other vital nutrients needed for healthy body function.
Eggs and Citrus fruits: As the name suggests, in this diet plan you eat eggs and citrus fruits along with other sources of lean protein. There is no hard and fast rule to this, you can eat any citrus fruits of your choice.
Egg, bread, and Zero Calorie drinks: In this diet plan you are allowed to eat only eggs, Bread, and Low-calorie drinks such as water, black coffee, and fruit juices. Having said that, you can also include fruits and boiled veggies in this diet. Some dieters believe that this diet plan works well for them as they don’t feel low on energy. Lastly, it’s not recommended to stick to this diet for more than 7-14 days.
Keto Egg Diet: This diet plan works similar to the conventional ketogenic diet where you force the body to produce ketones and use fat reserves as a source of energy instead of carbs. In this diet plan, the emphasis is to eat more fat and cut down the carbs as much as possible. Eating eggs with tons of cheese and butter is a common practice in this diet.
14 Days Egg Diet plan: No diet with one food item can achieve balanced nutrition. This 14 days boiled egg diet plan tries to provide balanced nutrition by keeping eggs as the center point. Even though it tries to provide balanced nutrition it fails to achieve that as this diet revolves around 1 food item. But when we compare all the above diet plans, this one comes closest to being safe. Having said that, it’s not recommended to follow this diet plan for more than 14 days. Lastly, in this diet plan you are allowed to eat boiled eggs, lean protein, fruits, and zero-calorie drinks like black coffee, bottle gourd juice, and water.

Summary:
While there are many varieties of Boiled Egg diet plans and some are better than the other, none can provide balanced nutrition in long run. The boiled egg diet plan is not recommended to be followed for more than 14 days.

Basic Guidelines

Never follow a diet plan focused on one food for more than two weeks
Talk to your doctor before going after this diet plan
Drink lots of water when following this diet as too many eggs will increase gas and acidity.
Do some sort of exercise when on this diet – At least a 30-minute walk.
Egg diet restricts the calorie, therefore make sure you are sticking to a healthy calorie intake of at least 1200 calories.
Make sure you supplement the egg diet with fruit juices and organic vegetables so that the nutritional deficit can be nullified.
Adopt a healthy lifestyle after finishing the 14 days boiled egg diet plan, so that a healthy weight can be maintained.
Remove the junk food from your existing diet so that the weight that you have lost following the egg diet can be maintained.

Types of Food to Eat

Since egg diet is too demanding and requires discipline, you are only allowed to eat food items that are low in carbs or food items that helps to burn carb faster.

When on Egg diet it’s best to have below food items to fulfill your nutritional gap which eggs alone can’t do.

Organic Vegetables: This includes Kale, Broccoli, Spinach, bottle gourd, Ash gourd, All kinds of cabbage, Cauliflower, Eggplant, Okra, Radish greens, Garlic, Onions, Collard greens, Moringa and bitter gourd.

Fruits: Fruits allowed are Seasonal fruits and fruits from Citrus family, Example: Banana, apples, Orange, Kiwi, avocado, grapefruit, tomato, peach, dragon fruit and Lemons.

Proteins: Only lean meats and high protein veg foods like tofu and cottage cheese are allowed.

Fats: Good quality fats are allowed. Example of good quality fat are Organic butter, Cheese, Almond butter, Sunflower butter, flaxseed and flaxseed butter, coconut oil, Olive oil and avocado oil.

Types of Food to Avoid

You must always try your best to avoid packaged food items
Food items with high Sodium should be avoided
Packaged fruit juices OR Frozen food must be avoided
Acidic drinks such as alcohol, soda, or soda drinks must be strictly avoided
The intake of sugar should be reduced.
Regular tea should be replaced with herbal tea OR Green tea.
Foods with high carb content is a strict No-No for this diet (Example: Potato).
Try restricting fried items.

Sample 2 Weeks Boiled Egg Diet Plan

Since the balanced version of boiled egg diet looks safe and better than the other versions, especially due to the fact that it allows you to eat eggs, lean proteins, fruits and veggies it makes sense to go with balanced version. A sample 2 week boiled egg diet plan would look like below:

Week 1

Sunday

Breakfast: 2 Boiled Eggs, 1 Seasonal fruit.

Lunch: Half a roasted chicken breast and boiled vegetables (Excluding potatoes and other high carb ones)

Dinner: Grilled Tofu followed by 1 cup veggies (Include broccoli).

Monday

Breakfast: 2 Boiled Eggs and Oatmeal with almonds

Lunch: 1 Serving fish and seasonal fruits

Dinner: Grilled chicken and 1 Cup boiled veggies.

Tuesday

Breakfast: 2 Boiled eggs, 1 apple and few pre-soaked almonds

Lunch: Quinoa salad and grilled mushrooms

Dinner: Mixed vegetable soup and 1 boiled egg

Wednesday

Breakfast: 2 Boiled eggs, few almonds and milk

Lunch: 1 Serving fish and green salad

Dinner: Lotus stem soup and 1 Egg

Thursday

Breakfast: 2 Boiled eggs and Whole wheat toast followed by black coffee without sugar

Lunch: Green salad and 1 serving fish

Dinner: Boiled Egg curry with Whole wheat bread.

Friday

Breakfast: 2 Boiled Eggs and green tea

Lunch: Quinoa salad with grilled tofu

Dinner: 2 Boiled eggs followed by green salad

Saturday

Breakfast: 2 Boiled eggs followed by Orange juice

Lunch: Grilled Mushroom followed by green salads and fresh coconut water

Dinner: Grilled chicken and 1 cup butter milk

Week 2

Sunday

Breakfast: 2 Boiled eggs, one seasonal fruit and one slice of whole grain toast.

Lunch: 1 Cup steamed vegetables, yogurt and 1 serving fish

Dinner: Grilled chicken and green salad

Monday

Breakfast: Few presoaked almonds, 2 boiled eggs and 1 seasonal fruit

Lunch: Grilled tofu with green salad

Dinner: Grilled chicken with vegetable soup.

Tuesday

Breakfast: 2 Boiled eggs, 1 Banana ad whole grain toast

Lunch: 1 serving fish with steamed vegetables

Dinner: 1 boiled egg and vegetable soup

Wednesday

Breakfast: 2 Boiled eggs and Oatmeal mixed with almonds and skimmed milk

Lunch: 1 grilled mushroom with kale and kidney beans salad

Dinner: Cauliflower curry with 2 whole grain toast and green salad

Thursday

Breakfast: 2 Boiled eggs and one banana pancake

Lunch: 1 boiled egg sandwich made with whole grain toast and green salads

Dinner: Roasted cauliflower and grilled fish

Friday

Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs followed by black coffee

Lunch: 1 bowl fruit salad and 2 boiled eggs

Dinner: Clear vegetable soup with grilled tofu/cottage cheese

Saturday

Breakfast: Presoaked almonds, 1 cup green tea and 2 boiled eggs

Lunch: Kidney bean salad, 1 boiled egg and grilled tofu

Dinner: 1 bowl chicken soup with green salad.

At the end of 2 Weeks, more likely you will feel light and energy levels would have stabilized up to certain extent.

After you are done with the 2 weeks diet, it’s extremely important that you quickly adopt healthy lifestyle as all the weight that you have lost may come back if you start eating junk food OR food with high carbs.

Snacks that goes well with Boiled Egg Diet

Cucumbers
Beetroot Salad
Pumpkins
Watermelons
Carrots
Coconut water
Almonds and Pistachios
Unsalted popcorn
Sunflower seeds
Bottle Gourd Juice and sabji
High Fiber biscuits
Seasonal fruits
Green Leafy Vegetables
Tomatoes
Yogurt
Butter Milk
Ash Gourd Juice
Walnuts
Flax Seeds
Chia Seeds
Melon Seeds

Boiled egg Nutrition Facts

Boiled eggs are loaded with nutrients and essential amino acids that is essential for healthy cellular function. One large boiled egg (50) grams provides (1):

Calories: 77.5
Carbohydrates: 0.6 grams
Total Fat: 5.3 Grams
Saturated fat: 1.6 grams
Monounsaturated fat: 2.0 grams
Cholesterol: 212 mg
Protein: 6.3 grams
Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid): 7% of the RDA
Vitamin A: 6% of the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA)
Vitamin B12 (cobalamin): 9% of the RDA
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin): 15% of the RDA
Phosphorus: 86 mg
Selenium: 15.4 mcg
Calcium: 25.0 mg
Iron: 0.6 mg
Magnesium: 5.0 mg
Potassium: 63.0 mg
Zinc: 0.5 mg

Benefits of Boiled Egg Diet

One single boiled egg packs 77.5 calories and contains tons of health benefits. Some of the well-known benefits of following boiled egg diet are:

1.) Benefits eye Sight

Boiled Eggs contain high amount of Lutein and Zeaxathin, an antioxidant that accumulate in the retina (2,3).

Multiple studies on Lutein and Zeaxathin shows that individuals who consume adequate amount of lutein and Zeaxathin are at much lower risk of developing cataract and macular degeneration as compared to one’s who don’t consume adequate amount of these powerful anti-oxidants (4, 5, 6).

Regular consumption of Egg helps to increase Lutein and Zeaxathin levels in blood. In fact, studies conducted on consumption of egg yolks shows that one’s who consumed 1.3 egg yolks for 4.5 weeks straight, resulted in significant increase in Lutein and Zeaxathin levels in blood (7).

In that study Lutein levels rose by 28-50% and Zeaxathin levels increased by 114-142%.

Lastly, Eggs contain high amounts of Vitamin A which helps to keep eye sight in good shape.

2.) Fast Weight Loss

Since with this diet plan you restrict the calories and carbs, weight loss may happen at faster rate. Even though there are no scientific evidences supporting fast weight loss through egg diet, what definitely works in favor of egg is its nutritional content.

Furthermore, the reason egg is so effective in losing weight is because it contains high protein content. And according to studies, eating adequate protein may help you to lose weight, gain muscles and reduce blood pressure significantly (8, 9).

Lastly, in one of the studies conducted to study the efficiency of egg by replacing it with standard breakfast, it was found that one’s who consumed eggs in their breakfast dropped their BMI score significantly as compared to one’s who did not consume eggs (10).

While it is capable of giving fast results when it comes to weight loss, it’s not good in long run to follow ‘ONLY EGG DIET’ as you may want to stick to balanced diet to fulfill all the nutritional needs.

3.) Fulfilling and Keeps Hunger away

Eggs contains high amount of good quality protein and it is excellent to keep you full for long duration (11).

Furthermore, egg helps to keep hunger pranks away especially due to high satiety index score. Consuming eggs will make you feel full for long time, thereby making you consume less calories (12).

4.) Boosts Metabolism

Since eggs contain high amount of proteins it not only helps to keep you full and lose weight but it also helps to boost metabolism. In a Study conducted in the year 2014, it was found that adequate intake of protein and carbohydrates, boosts the metabolism significantly (13).

Therefore, eat lots of protein in your diet to boost metabolism and lose weight.

Summary:
Boiled Egg diet when followed properly, helps you to enhance your eyesight, lose weight, and boost metabolism in the short run. In the long run, eggs are good but solely following a diet circling around eggs may not be a good idea.

Side effects of Egg Diet

While boiled egg diet offers multiple health benefits, it’s important that we do not oversee the side effects that may come along with boiled egg diet. Just like any other diet plan, egg diet too has some cons. Some of the known side effects of boiled egg diet are as below.

1.) Gas and Nausea

While Egg diet looks promising for weight loss in short run, it’s also known to produce certain side effects in form of gas, Nausea, bad breath, constipation and lack of appetite. Therefore, it’s important that you include lots of veggies, juices and green salads in your diet when you are on Egg diet. Fibers from vegetable and alkalizing nature of juice will help you to fight gas and bloating.

2.) Lack of energy

When on egg diet, you are putting your body on high protein-low carb diet, which means your body not does not get the amount of carbs it used to get. This at times can bring in fatigue and reduce the energy levels. Having said that this effect is mostly seen in few days of starting egg diet. It tends to stabilize after the initial phase when our body starts adjusting with the change.

3.) Hard to Maintain Weight and Difficult

While Egg diet can give you fast results in two weeks, the only drawback is that it’s not repeatable.

Meaning, you cannot keep up with this diet forever, 2 weeks is maximum recommended. Furthermore, when you come back to your same old diet, you tend to put on the same weight again.

Therefore, in order to have sustainable weight loss you must focus on balanced diet and exercise after you have achieved the results with 2 Weeks boiled egg diet plan.

Also, boiled egg diet can be extremely difficult to follow for 2 weeks straight as it does not allow you to eat any other food items apart from Eggs and few high protein foods. Furthermore, hunger, lack of energy and discomfort due to urge of eating may be overwhelming at times.

4.) Increases Cholesterol

Eggs contain high amount of cholesterol and the response to these high cholesterol levels varies from one individual to other (14). Some may end up elevating their cholesterol levels due to excess intake of eggs (Scientifically controversial though).

Summary:
Boiled eggs too have pros and cons. Therefore, considering the side effects, it’s a wise idea not to follow the egg diet for more than 1 or 2 weeks max.

Is Boiled Egg Diet Safe?

In general, boiled eggs are good for health as it provides much needed nutrients for healthy cellular function.

Having said that, diets that circle around one specific food items are definitely not safe in long run. Ideal food or Diet should be one that provides balanced nutrition and variations.

In short run, it may not affect you but in long run the side effects may be serious as you are starving your body of key essential nutrients and anti-oxidants.

Furthermore, the major reason why egg diet works in short run for losing weight is because it restricts the calorie intake.

Given the fact that, if you follow an average diet plan where you only eat eggs and proteins, the average calorie intake in that case will be roughly around 1000 to 1200 calories at max.

And According to Harvard Medical School, it’s unsafe to consume less than 1500 calories for men and 1200 calories for women for long period of time.

Also, one of the major reason why high protein-low carb diet is not good in long run is that, it affects our cardiovascular system negatively. Studies conducted on low carb high protein diet shows that those who are following this diet for long run are at higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases compared to one’s who are following a well-balanced diet (14).

Summary:
Eggs are excellent for health, provided you are supplementing them with other balanced meals in form of fresh veggies and fruits. Solely relying on eggs to fulfill all the nutritional needs may be potentially dangerous and unsafe in long run.

4 Best Boiled Egg recipes

When on boiled egg diet, things can get boring as you strictly stick to one food item. But guess what, you can make it little bit more exciting by preparing it in different way. Different recipes means varieties in flavor, more palatable and makes the diet plan easier to follow.

Here are some of the top Boiled Egg recipes that will help you to stick to the boiled egg diet.

1.) Plain boiled egg with Salt and Pepper

As the name suggests, this recipe is extremely easy as you don’t need any other ingredients apart from the three below.

2 Eggs
Salt to taste
Pepper

Once you have all the above ingredients ready, simple follow the below steps.

Pour water in pressure cooker
Add some salt to the water
Put the eggs in cooker.
Close the lid and cook it until one whistle
Now move the boiled eggs to cold water
Remove the shells
Cut the boiled eggs into pieces
Sprinkle salt and pepper according to the taste.
Your boiled egg is ready.

2.) Fried Boiled Egg

Making boiled egg in fried form is easy and it is an extension of the recipe above. To make this you simply need below ingredients.

2 Boiled Eggs
Salt to taste
Pinch of red chilli powder
Pinch of turmeric powder
Pinch of coriander powder
Chaat masala
Finely chopped coriander leaves
Finely chopped onions
Finely chopped red chilies

Procedure:

Boil the eggs and remove the shells.
Cut the egg into 2 pieces, if you are using 2 eggs then you will have 4 pieces.
Now heat the pan and add some oil
Start adding red chilli powder, turmeric, coriander powder and salt
Mix it well and then add the eggs and cook both the sides well.
Once its mild brown, turn off the flame, move the eggs to a plate.
Sprinkle chaat masala, onions, green chilies and coriander leaves for garnishing.
Your fried boiled egg is ready

3.) Boiled Egg Bhurji

Just like scrambled egg bhurji you can make boiled egg bhurji too in 15 simple steps. To make boiled egg bhurji you will need below ingredients.

2 Large Chopped Onions
One large tomato (In puree form)
2 Green chillies
2 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
Chopped coriander leaves
1 teaspoon turmeric
One teaspoon cumin Seeds
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1 Teaspoon Coriander powder
Half teaspoon Garam masala
Cooking oil
Salt to taste
2 Boiled Eggs

Procedure:

Heat the pan, add some oil
Once it starts to crackle, add chopped onions.
Saute the onions for few minutes
Add ginger garlic paste
Saute the onions until its mild brown
Start adding the spices (Turmeric powder, red chili powder, garam masala and coriander powder)
Mix it well and cook it for 30 – 40 seconds.
Add the tomato puree and mix it well.
Cook this for 2 minutes and keep sauting it.
Now chop the boiled eggs into pieces and add it to this mixture.
Mix it well
Add some water so that spices mix well with the eggs.
Add some salt to taste and let it cook until the water content drops.
Add some coriander leaves for garnishing.
Your boiled egg bhurji is ready.

4.) Boiled egg Curry

This recipe is little bit different as compared to the one’s above. In this recipe you will learn how to make boiled egg curry so that you can have it with full grain bread during your 14 days egg diet plan.

To make this curry you will need below ingredients.

2 Boiled Eggs
3 finely chopped green chilies
4 tablespoon cooking Oil
2 Medium sized Cinnamon Stick
3 cardamom
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 Bay leaves
1 Stone flower
1 Inch grated ginger
4 cloves chopped garlic
3 chopped onions
Salt to taste
7 – 8 Curry Leaves
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 Teaspoon coriander powder
Tomato Puree made from 3 tomatoes
Half Cup coconut Milk
2 Boiled eggs

Procedure:

Start by adding oil in the pan
Once the oil heats, add cinnamon stick, cardamoms, fennel seeds, bay leaves and chopped green chilies (Should be in the sequence).
Add Ginger and garlic and saute it for 40 seconds.
Now add chopped onions and saute it until its slight brown.
Add some salt to taste.
Pour all the spices in followed by curry leaves and mix it well for 30 seconds
Add tomato puree, mix it well and let is cook for 12 minutes on low flame (Keep stirring)
Put some water and cook it for another 2 minutes
Add coconut milk, mix it well and let it cook for 30 seconds
Now cut the boiled eggs into two slices (it will be 4 slices if you are using 2 eggs)
Add it to the curry and let it cook to 2 – 3 minutes.
Your delicious boiled egg curry is ready.

This dish is extremely tasty, it not only pleases your taste buds but also helps you to stick to egg diet for long time since it does not makes you feel that you are on egg diet.

Shopping list for boiled egg diet

28 – 36 Boiled Eggs (For a month)
Fresh Seasonal Fruits and Veggies (Buy it fresh always)
Tofu and Cottage cheese (Buy it fresh and don’t refrigerate it)
Chicken (Non Refrigerated ones)
Mushrooms (Buy it fresh i.e. at the time you want to eat)
Kidney Beans, Quinoa and Green Leafy vegetables.
Almond Milk
Almonds
Other low carb snacks if you cannot control hunger in between meals.

Conclusion

Boiled Egg diet is simply a crash diet that works well in short run and not so good in long run. In long run you will have to do much more in order to maintain the weight.

Weight lost following this diet plan is not sustainable as you will end up adding weight back when you start following your regular diet and stop the egg diet.

Best way to get maximum out of this diet is by changing your lifestyle when you start this diet. Include exercise and practice healthy eating habits so that once you switch back to your regular diet you eliminate bad stuff and include good stuff to sustain the results.