If you have a weight loss journey under your belt, you probably know how complicated diet can be. Working out aside, nutrition is the single most important factor when it comes to losing weight. You can sweat buckets doing intense cardio or weightlifting, but all efforts fall short if you cannot calibrate your diet.
As we grow past our early 20’s, the long term approach to healthy eating gains paramount importance. Taking responsibility for our body will pay dividends down the road, so why not put it on autopilot, setting the course for the next 20 years or so. Patience can be a virtue, so it is wise to accept a steady pace.
But what happens when you need the results of a healthy lifestyle now rather than later? Six months of healthy eating can do wonders indeed, but what if you want to see changes in one month or less?
Adopting and practicing the philosophy of long term healthy eating, I still love to experiment with viable shortcuts. Shuffling through diet fads can take a lot of energy, and I’ve seen my fair share of trial and error. This article, therefore, is a guide of sorts. Walking you through one of the most popular weight loss methods, it will tell you everything you want to know about the hard boiled egg diet. From daily dose recommendations, to benefits and side effects, you will learn how to follow the meal plan, losing pounds without starvation or unnecessary restrictions.
Hard boiled egg diet versus dieting fads
Looking at the meal plan below, you will notice a variety of foods, consumed in reasonable quantities. It is safe to conclude, therefore, that the hard boiled eggs diet is not restrictive but instead wholesome. This is not the case with most diet fads out there.
Fasting, lemon diets, pills and supplements, juicing… While many of these can slim your waist down, they come with a garden variety of health risks. Some are safe when you follow them for a day or few, but even then hormonal imbalance can easily occur.
How does the hard boiled egg diet work?
The egg diet differs from other dieting fads by including nutrition packed healthy ingredients. Plenty of vegetables, fruit, and lean meat, all consumed regularly, as part of a three-meals-per-day regimen.
Easy to follow, it is less likely to be abandoned quickly within the first couple of days. It will satisfy your cravings, lower them after few days, and supply your body with all of the necessary nutrients.
The eggs are there to replace fats, and of course supplement protein. The white of the egg is packed heavy with protein, while the yolk is a reasonably healthy source of fat, with only 5 grams per whole egg, 1.7 of which are saturated.
When it comes to vitamins and minerals the yolk supplies vitamin B-12, vitamin D, vitamin A, and vitamin B-6 – not bad, huh? It also includes minerals like Iron, Calcium, and Magnesium.
Recent advice from the medical community insists on lifting the caution from yolks, since they are not really dangerous. Although they contain a bit of cholesterol, it is not cholesterol from food that heavily impacts blood cholesterol. If the rest of your diet is healthy, there is really no need to worry (unless, of course, you have a medical history with high blood cholesterol and have to eat a medical diet).
The schedule, as you will notice, excludes carbohydrates altogether. Combined with plenty of protein and healthy greens, it is how it slims you down considerably during the period of 14 days. But let’s look at the meal plan, shall we? While there are many varieties of the boiled egg diet – with grapefruit only, combined with a fast, eggs only etc. – we followed the traditional boiled egg diet as described on the Lifestyle Updated magazine.
Monday –day 1
- Breakfast: Two boiled eggs with half a grapefruit (squeezed)
- Lunch: Two slices whole grain bread and apple (you can try boiled quinoa instead of bread)
- Dinner: Grilled chicken with green salad
Tuesday – day 2
- Breakfast: Two boiled eggs and fruit (any fruit of your choosing)
- Lunch: Grilled chicken and green salad
- Dinner: Two boiled eggs, orange, and green salad
Wednesday – day 3
- Breakfast: Two boiled eggs with fruit
- Lunch: Low fat cheese, one tomato, and one slice of bread
- Dinner: Grilled chicken and salad
Thursday – day 4
- Breakfast: Two boiled eggs and fruit
- Lunch: Fruit (only fruit this time)
- Dinner: Boiled or steamed chicken
Friday – day 5
- Breakfast: Two boiled eggs
- Lunch: Two boiled eggs with steamed veggies
- Dinner: Grilled fish with green salad
Saturday – day 6
- Breakfast: Two boiled eggs
- Lunch: Fruit (eat as much as you like)
- Dinner: Steamed chicken with green salad
Sunday – day 7
- Breakfast: Two boiled eggs and fruit
- Lunch: Grilled chicken, tomato, and green vegetables
- Dinner: Steamed veggies (lots of it!)
Monday (start of the second week) – day 8
- Breakfast: Two boiled eggs
- Lunch: Grilled chicken with green salad
- Dinner: Two boiled eggs, grapefruit, and green salad
Tuesday – day 9
- Breakfast: Two boiled eggs with half a grapefruit
- Lunch: Two boiled eggs and steamed veggies
- Dinner: Grilled fish and green salad
Wednesday – day 10
- Breakfast: Two boiled eggs and fruit
- Lunch: Chicken and green salad (as much as you like)
- Dinner: Two boiled eggs, grapefruit and green salad
Thursday – day 11
- Breakfast: Two boiled eggs and fruit
- Lunch: Low fat cheese, two boiled eggs, and steamed vegetables
- Dinner: Steamed chicken with green salad
Friday – day 12
- Breakfast: Two boiled eggs with some fruit
- Lunch: Canned tuna plus green salad
- Dinner: Two boiled eggs with green salad
Saturday – day 13
- Breakfast: Two boiled eggs and fruit
- Lunch: Grilled chicken and salad
- Dinner: Fruit (only fruit)
Sunday – day 14
- Breakfast: Two boiled eggs
- Lunch: Steamed veggies and steamed chicken
- Dinner: Veggies
Why go with the boiled egg diet?
Looking at the schedule above, the reasoning is fairly simple. Wholesome and nutritive, this diet won’t jeopardize your health even though it is a quick fix to losing weight.
Ditching the carbohydrates, you will start losing weight at a rapid clip, and you won’t feel hungry thanks to the increased fiber intake, as well as other nutrition dense foods (eggs!).
The protein-fat ratio is perfect for keeping you out of a catabolic state, so you won’t be losing muscle mass while on the boiled egg diet. Light exercise and daily walks are recommended, though avoid intense training since you are not dietary equipped to cope with the requirements of a strenuous workout.
Folding up this letter, I urge you to return back to normal eating once the diet ends, and restrain yourself from trying different weight loss methods during the course of two weeks. The egg diet is not restrictive, but it is still a fixed regimen that excludes a lot of other nutrients. As such, it is not an answer to long term healthy eating. And as it goes with these types of articles, make sure to consult with a medical professional, or a certified nutritionist, before you start with any dietary changes. This guide is for informational purposes only, so make sure to do your own due diligence.
Bon appétit!