Egg fast ratio


(Diana) #1

I’ve been keto for a long while but curious about the egg fast to drop a few stubborn pounds. Mainly curious about the ratio and why is it that 1 tbs of fat is required per egg? To me that’s just a lot, I’d rather eat more eggs than fat. Does anyone know the rationale behind the high fat? Is it intended to fill you up faster so you don’t eat as many eggs?

What would happen with less fat but still eating only eggs? Anyone have any experience?

I did a 3 day egg fast last week and it worked great (following the strict rules) but curious if it would work better to reduce some of the fat this week to lean out. (I’m likely considered underweight (please don’t get upset with me) so am using this really to just lean out.) just curious as to the science behind it and I know n=1 is best way to find out but if anyone has info I’d rather first read about it then have it backfire on me :slight_smile:


#2

You think just like me… I don’t know the rationale behind these things either but I am sure it wouldn’t work for me. But I want to lose fat. I surely wouldn’t on an egg fast except that I would hate the fattiness enough to just do an EF instead (I would do an egg fast with a multiplicator of zero :smiley: 0 egg, 0 fat).
I can’t imagine that an egg fast would do better to me than a sustainable carnivore woe anyway, even for a few days. What could be the extra magic? It makes no sense to me, honestly.
But if it really does something awesome to stuck people, I am curious to read about that.

But your case is different, not the usual “I am stalling on keto” I’ve read about in egg fast articles. I don’t understand this “lean out”. If you are underweight, gain weight, preferably muscles. Eat lots of protein (I never could eat enough on a fatty egg-fast - maybe if I very much overate but that couldn’t feel good at all) and lift or something.


(bulkbiker) #3

Your question prompted a bit of reading but no-one I can find explains the fat addition.
Someone did link it to previous “fat fasting” as per Atkins to shift weight after stalls so it might well be a hangover from that.
Also satiety and maybe to lubricate the mechanism as eggs are often considered constipatory (if that is even a word)…


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #4

The fat adds calories without stimulating insulin secretion, so it is not likely to be a problem.

I imagine that whoever first came up with the idea of an egg fast had a proportion of protein to fat in mind, and added fat to reach it.

Note that, because of the caloric content of foods, fat averages a little over twice the calories per gram than the equivalent amount of protein, so that equal amounts by weight work out to 69% of calories as fat and 31% of calories as protein. This is a good ratio, nutritionally.


#5

Eggs with a tiny bit fat is a good ratio for me and many others.
Egg fast is over 80% if we ignore the optional cheese and it’s too much for some of us. I could do it using very fatty solids or maybe cream, definitely not added fat with my eggs. 3 eggs are nice with 0-10g fat, 30g fat for the same amount is insane in my world. Yep, we aren’t all the same, many people LIKES mayonnaise… I would need to paid very much to eat that gross greasy stuff…


(Bob M) #6

I’d say if that diet worked, that’s good. There’s no reason not to try a higher protein version, maybe keep some of the yolks for later.

Of course, protein – from an actual fasting perspective – is bad. It stops autophagy. But if you’re doing an egg “fast”, you’re not looking for autophagy anyway.


(Diana) #7

Yeah I’m not looking for autophagy. Mainly to lose the last few minuscule pounds. Where my thought process was going was why can’t dinner be a can of tuna. What is so magical about the eggs?


(Diana) #8

That’s what I thought too. Perhaps they were just trying to reach a macro…

My issue was I felt a bit hungry last week even though calorie wise it was the same as my usual. But it was just way more fat.


(Diana) #9

LOL. Yes I was not a Mayo fan until recently. But that certainly does the trick when trying to reach this macro.


(Bob M) #10

I think it could be tuna. I don’t know what’s magical about eggs (other than they have choline?). Though I guess tuna doesn’t have the fat of eggs. At least when I have tuna, I always think it’s so dry.

When I was about 16, I remember reading body building magazines, and one recommended an all tuna diet. So, I went on an all tuna diet. I remember it was brutal. Looking back, I was high carb at the time (cereal for breakfast), so I went from high carb to zero carb overnight. No wonder it sucked.


#11

Tuna for dinner is fine I would think (if someone can eat like that, I would miss the fat, among others)…
All tuna diet is idiotic, pure protein, that can’t be right. We need fat and it’s either starving or eating insane amounts of protein if we have only that one macro… Must be super boring too. But most of us would have a huge deficit on that diet, sure. I would turn it into EF after or before the first meal :smiley:
Sustainable diets are way better, we usually need more than a tiny time to lose fat anyway.

Eggs are popular. And nutritious. Easy. I still don’t think they are uniquely magical. Meat is more magical as people can live on it alone, it’s easier to eat too, I guess (at least a big amount once. eggs are very versatile but I can sit down and eat a big slab of meat unlike 12 boiled eggs and probably most people are like that)… That can be a positive or a negative thing but I don’t like the attitude where we limit our food intake using food we just can’t stomach much of.
And we are different as some people can eat zillion eggs. I can’t imagine that leading to fat-loss (and especially not if we eat many eggs with huge amount of fat), it would make no sense, at least for a normal body. Especially much in a few days… Or people do this to shake up the body? I don’t know. The restrictions seem not very useful to me but what do I know? My body, a bit so I would never except success from an egg fast. More success than from carnivore as it definitely would be better than eating carbs galore…


(Bob M) #12

Body builders do weird things. Shoot insulin. Take steroids, Go through “mass building” and “cutting” phases. This is why when I hear people (like Ted Naiman) looking at what body builders do and saying, “We should do that”, I get a bit concerned. What’s good for a body builder isn’t necessarily good for someone who isn’t a body builder.


(Diana) #13

Well folks for those that are curious here is the outcome.

Did 2 weeks of egg fast, 3 days each week. First week lost two pounds which I was ecstatic about and was trying to recreate this week. That was the final goal. This weeks’ 3 day fast was only .6 down. Keep in mind I’m very small so perhaps this was to be expected. I’m also very much keto non stop so perhaps this works better for folks that aren’t as strict on carbs and have carb creep.

Now onto the analysis. Just for fun. The diet was very much the same each week with one exception. The first week my added cheese (which was about 3 oz on day 2 and 3 was a goat cheese) whereas second week the cheese was gruyere. Again 2-3 oz. calories were about the same (perhaps difference of 20 cals increase per day this week so nothing). Oh and one caveat as this perhaps isn’t fair but in week 2 on last day I caved and had a can of tuna. My protein was quite low from just the eggs and instead of eating another egg like I should have I started to panic about cholesterol and so instead ate tuna. So…day 3 wasn’t truly a fair assessment.

So fat gram averages per day were near identical, the only culprit could have been cow cheese vs goat. Also I have a massive knot in my neck this week so perhaps some inflammation from that.

I think I’ll give a variation of psfm a try next week but only 2 days, is it recommended back to back days or not? This will cut my calories significantly. It’s saying something like 700 per day.


#14

Oh, thank you. I am curious and thought about making a single meal in egg fast style myself but nope, too boring. I can half-live on eggs forever but not completely for even a short time, it seems.

Fat-loss is so not linear even if you do everything the same and 3 days are so short that it’s hard to figure out things from 2 cases but still, info, I like those :slight_smile:

What. Unfortunately I don’t keep links about these things but read/watch something… Your body should handle cholesterol just fine. We need lots of cholesterol, it’s just not essential and a healthy one may eat 10+ eggs a day, it shouldn’t cause real problems (some numbers may get high but not what matters).

How many eggs did you eat?


(Diana) #15

7 on average. So not even that many…


(Bob M) #16

That brings up the whole A1/A2 protein issue (goat cheese = A2; cows, not sure, unless they say).

I had eggs and cheese yesterday for lunch, with some olives and jalepenos. Not for a fast, but for Fridays during Lent. I ate fewer calories than I would if I ate meat, but I was about as full.

I may have to give an egg fast a try.

As for PSMF for multiple days, I think many people do this for multiple days. But it could work for an alternate day “fasting”, one of the lower calorie varieties. Could be interesting.


#17

The butter chugging bacon grease on everything version of keto can’t be rationalized, don’t try you’ll break your brain. Even when I was a blind card carrying “keto cult” member I couldn’t wrap my head around it.


#18

They work amazing, people do them for 1/2 weeks usually.


(Bob M) #19

So, 3-4 days?


#20

I know fat is satiating to some people and I always heard people doing egg fasts it’s great and working so I guess it’s for some people but still it’s presented as some miracle thing while it’s odd to me, with all that fat… Whatever, I have my own, sustainable, enjoyable method. Even if I won’t lose a ton of fat in little time due to it (similarly to an egg fast. but and egg fast is almost as impossible for me as PSMF so it doesn’t matter).