Q & A: Which one is better for me? Whole eggs or egg whites?
A: Egg whites hands down. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t struggle to get enough protein without going overboard on calories, which is why egg whites win.
A large whole egg only has 6.3g of protein for 71 calories. The same number of calories of egg whites would have about 15g of protein.
Too Little Protein Per Calorie
Eggs, like steak, are mostly fat not protein. To be specific, whole eggs are 60% fat by calories.
Most women need ~35 of protein per meal if eating 3 meals per day. Here’s how breakfast breaks down with whole vs egg whites:
Whole eggs
· 5 ½ egg 395 calories
· ½ tbsp oil (which is a very stingy amount) 60 calories
· 1 slice toast (sad, dry toast) 75 calories
· 1 cup strawberries 50 calories
· Total 580 calories
580 calories spent on breakfast (with dried up toast that is thirsting for butter) is a lot for most women. If this is 1/3 of the daily intake, then you’ll end up eating 1,800 calories. Regardless of what you see in magazines or online, 1,800 is a lot of calories for most women.
Egg whites
· 1 1/3 cup egg white 166 calories
· ½ tbsp oil (which is a very stingy amount) 60 calories
· 1 slice toast 75 calories
· 2 pats (2/3 tbsp) butter 70 calories
· 1 cup strawberries 50 calories
· Total 421 calories
In this example we have the same breakfast, except we don’t subject ourselves to the torture of dry toast, and we saved 160 calories. Anytime you can save 100+ calories per meal you are winning.
Bottom Line
As Ben Franklin did not say, a calorie saved is a calorie burned. Obviously my two examples above can’t give you all of the options available to you, but I hope they got you thinking. Maybe you don’t like toast, or maybe you really like yolks. In that case you could drop the toast and butter and use one whole egg (and less whites).
Perhaps you want more fiber in your breakfast, so you could dump (no pun intended*) the butter and toast in exchange for 3 cups of strawberries (~9g of fiber!)…
Here are some more ways to save calories and get more protein for not too many calories.
Lastly, if you are curious about the mythical “healthy fat,” they don’t exist.
*Who am I kidding? The pun was definitely intended. Potty humor is the spice of life.