Egg breakfast restricts subsequent calorie intake

US researchers have found that eating eggs at breakfast time is a great slimming aid – two studies have shown that it can both help cut calorie intake by up to 415 calories per day, and increase weight loss.

Research published in the December 05 issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition [1] followed overweight and obese women to see whether what they ate for breakfast had a bearing on the amount of calories they ate for the rest of the day. The researchers, from the Wayne State University, Detroit, found that when the women were given either an egg or bagel-based-breakfast, of equal calories, the women eating the eggs felt fuller and had less desire to eat other foods within the following 24 hours.

And in a second study, published in 2007 [2], a research team from the Louisiana State University found that by giving two eggs a day for breakfast, overweight and obese women lost more weight than women eating a similar breakfast without eggs.

The women in the study were asked to follow a low calorie diet while eating either a bagel or egg-based breakfast – each breakfast contained equal calories. The researchers believe that it is testament to the satiating quality of eggs that led the egg-eating women to lose 65% more weight than the bagel group. Not only did they lose more weight, but the egg group felt more energetic, too.

This research supports the long-held view of nutrition experts that eating eggs at breakfast time provides a wealth of nutrients and promotes well being.

“These results add to a growing body of research showing that we should all be eating eggs on a regular basis. We used to ‘go to work’ on them and as a nation, we were healthier for doing so, but with cooking skills lacking in most households, pre-packaged foods have taken over from natural, fresh ingredients. This research shows that our grannies knew best and that going back to basics will keep us all healthier, and slimmer,” said Cath MacDonald, nutritionist for the British Egg Information Service (BEIS).

This new research follows good news on both the heart health and food safety front. The Foods Standards Agency has confirmed that there is no limit to the number of eggs you can eat in a week, as part of a healthy balanced diet. And, British Lion eggs are now produced to the highest standards of food safety in the world. Lion eggs come from British hens vaccinated against salmonella and carry a best before date on the egg shell and box as a guarantee of freshness.

  1. Short-Term Effect of Eggs on Satiety in Overweight and Obese Subjects, Jillon S. Vander Wal, PhD, Jorene M. Marth, MA, RD, Pramod Khosla, PhD, K-L Catherine Jen, PhD and Nikhil V. Dhurandhar, PhD, FACN, Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 24, No. 6, 510-515 (December 2005)

  2. Egg breakfast enhances weight loss, Nikhil Vinod Dhurandhar1, Jillon S Vander Wal2, Natalie Currier1, Pramod Khosla3, Alok K Gupta1. 1Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University System, 6400 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge, LA, 70808, 2Saint Louis University, 3511 Laclede Avenue, Rm 228, Saint Louis, MO, 63103, 3Nutrition and Food Science, Wayne State University, Science Hall, Detroit, MI, 48202 (Presented at the Experimental Biology meeting, Washington DC, May 2007)