How Many Calories in an Egg?

When it comes to nutrition, it’s very hard to ‘beat’ an egg! Eggs are consumed in at least a few dishes by just about every culture in the world. Eggs can be eaten in a variety of ways, from boiled eggs, to scrambled eggs, to eggs benedict, Toad in the Hole, in potato salad, as an ingredient in cakes and cookies, or even consumed raw. A single chicken egg contains a huge quantity of nutrients, vitamins and minerals, along with a solid amount of protein. But for many of us who are on diets, we also want to know “How many calories in an egg?” We have outlined the calories in an egg on the following list, along with the amounts of protein in eggs of various sizes.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has investigated the nutritional value of thousands of food types, and that is where this information is sourced. So how many calories in an egg? The nutritional chart shows how many calories in eggs of all the most common sizes. If you would prefer to know how many kilojoules in an egg, you can multiply the number of calories by 4.2 to convert calories to kilojoules.

Keep in mind that the how many calories are in an egg will vary depending on the method that is used to cook the eggs (we will discuss the healthiest methods of preparing eggs later in this article.) As we can see from this list, the calories in eggs are only moderate. For most diets, the calories in eggs themselves shouldn’t be a problem, particularly when the high nutritional content of an egg is taken into account. Most of the calories in eggs are from the egg yolk (about 75% in fact), rather than the egg white (also called albumen). The egg yolk is also contains the majority of the fat in an egg. Using egg whites instead of whole eggs will cut back on the calories significantly. Even using 1 whole egg and then 2 or 3 egg whites in whatever dish you are making is a good way to reduce how many calories are in an egg dish.

How Many Calories in an Egg White

This table shows how many calories in an egg white. As we can see, egg whites are a very low calorie source of protein, which is one of the reasons that egg whites are used by athletes and bodybuilders to increase their protein consumption. Egg whites also contain less than 1% fat, which is extremely low for such a highly nutritious food type. Eating some yolks as part of any diet plan is still a good idea however, as an egg yolk contains all of the egg’s vitamin A and E, and the egg yolk is also one of the few foods that contain vitamin D naturally.

How Many Calories are in an Egg

How many calories are in an egg will vary depend on how they are cooked, which is an important consideration if you are eating eggs as part of a low calories or weight loss diet. In fact, how eggs are cooked has a huge effect on how many calories eggs have. How many calories in a fried egg cooked with oil or butter is not going to be the same as how many calories in a poached egg, or how many calories in a boiled egg. So what are the healthiest ways to cook an egg? Generally how many calories in an egg will stay about the same as long as no other ingredients are added to the eggs. How many calories in a hard boiled egg or a soft boiled egg, will be about the same as how many calories in an egg that has been microwaved or poached, as these methods of cooking eggs don’t involve any extra oils or fats. How many calories are in an egg that has been fried in oil or butter will be higher, as these other ingredients tend to be high in fat and calories.

Other ingredients that are often eaten along with eggs will also have an effect on how many calories are in an egg dish. An omelette with 1 medium whole egg and the egg whites from 2 medium eggs will have about 95 calories. If you add a teaspoon of butter, a bit of milk, some bacon, tomatoes, peppers, and cheese to the omelette, then the calories may be significantly higher. If you are on a diet or eating plan that has a strict number of calories that you should be consuming, make sure that you include these other ingredients along with the calculations of how many calories in an egg to make sure the amount of calories you consume is within the correct range. Luckily there are plenty of low calorie egg recipes available.

How Many Calories in Eggs

Once you know how many calories in eggs, it makes planning your nutritional intake significantly easier. You can use this calorie calculator to help you work out “How many calories should I eat a day” Remember however that how many calories you expend in the form of exercise is just as important as how many calories you eat. Reducing the amount of calories that you consume on a daily basis is an excellent start, but increasing the amount of exercise in your regular routine will help you burn calories even faster. Further down on this page you will also find an exercise calorie calculator that can help you calculate how many calories you burn from exercise. Tools like these can take a lot of the guesswork out of planning a diet or exercise routine, and will help you attain the fitness or weight loss results that you want.

Vitamins in Eggs

As well as the protein and calories in eggs, there are also plenty of vitamins in eggs. The list below shows how many vitamins are in two cooked eggs with nothing else added.

• Vitamin C – 0.2 mg
• Vitamin B1 (thiamine) – 0.063 mg
• Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) – 0.533 mg
• Niacin – 0.096 mg
• Pantothenic Acid – 1.229 mg
• Vitamin A – 642 IU
• Vitamin B6 – 0.144 mg
• Folate – 37 mcg
• Vitamin E – 1.33 mg
• Vitamin B12 – 0.94 mcg
• Vitamin K – 4.9 mcg
• Vitamin D – 59 IU

How Many Minerals and Calories in Eggs

Along with the vitamins, protein and calories in an egg, there are also plenty of minerals, particularly in the egg yolk. As with the list of vitamins in eggs, we have included the mineral amounts for two cooked eggs:

• Potassium – 168 mg
• Phosphorus – 207 mg
• Magnesium – 15 mg
• Iron – 1.46 mg
• Calcium – 87 mg
• Sodium – 342 mg
• Manganese – 0.027 mg
• Zinc – 1.22 mg

It’s generally considered that the calories in an egg are not so much that they should be cut from a persons diet, as long as they are consumed in moderation (particularly the egg yolks as they contain almost all the fat in an egg). Make sure that you factor the calories eggs contain into your diet calculations on one of the tools above, as the calories in eggs may account for a reasonable proportion of the calories in your diet. How many calories in an egg is only one consideration though: There are also plenty of vitamins and minerals, along with a huge amount of protein, and these nutrients are necessary for your body to function at it’s best.