How much protein is in an egg?
About 6 g in a large egg, roughly 4 g of it in the white and 2 g in the yolk. That makes eggs a good protein food rather than a dense one: two eggs is 12 g, which is a third of a main meal target. Three or four, or eggs plus something else, is what gets a meal there.
Key takeaways
- A large egg is about 6 g of protein. Two eggs is 12 g, which is well short of a main meal target.
- The white holds about two thirds of the protein and the yolk about a third, along with most of the other nutrients.
- Egg protein is complete and highly digestible, so the quality is not the limitation. The quantity per egg is.
- Cooking method does not change the protein. It changes the calories, through whatever the egg is cooked in.
- Eggs are best treated as the base of a protein breakfast rather than the whole of it.
Eggs have a reputation as a protein food that runs slightly ahead of the arithmetic. Both halves of that sentence are worth taking seriously.
The numbers
- 5 gEgg, medium44 g
- 6 gEgg, large50 g
- 7 gEgg, extra large56 g
- 4 gEgg white only1 large, 33 g
- 2 gEgg yolk only1 large, 17 g
- 12 gTwo large eggs100 g
- 18 gThree large eggs150 g
- 11 gLiquid egg white100 ml
The headline figure people carry around is "an egg is a protein". That is true, and at 6 g it is closer to a slice of cheese than to a chicken breast.
Where eggs are strong, and where they are not
Strong: quality. Egg protein carries all nine essential amino acids in useful proportions and is digested about as completely as anything humans eat. It is one of the references other proteins get scored against.2 So none of the caveats that attach to plant sources apply here.
Strong: protein per calorie, if you use the whites. A whole large egg is around 72 kcal for 6 g. The white alone is about 17 kcal for 4 g, which is one of the best ratios available in any food.
Weak: protein per serving. This is the practical limitation. A two-egg breakfast is 12 g, which is less than half of a main meal target. Getting to 30 g from eggs alone means five, which is a lot of egg.
| Protein | Calories | Per 100 kcal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two large eggs | 12 g | 144 kcal | 8 g |
| Three egg whites | 12 g | 51 kcal | 24 g |
| Greek yoghurt, 170 g | 17 g | 100 kcal | 17 g |
| Cottage cheese, 200 g | 22 g | 170 kcal | 13 g |
| 100 g chicken breast | 31 g | 165 kcal | 19 g |
Yolks
Dropping the yolk roughly triples the protein per calorie, and it removes most of the egg's other content: the fat-soluble vitamins, the choline, the lutein, and the flavour.
That is a legitimate trade in a tight calorie budget and a bad default. The historical reason people avoid yolks is dietary cholesterol, and the position on that has moved considerably over the last two decades. If you have a condition where cholesterol intake is being managed, that is a question for the clinician managing it rather than for a page about protein.
A middle path most people land on: whole eggs, plus extra whites when the number needs to be higher without the calories.
Cooking
The protein does not change. Boiled, poached, scrambled and fried eggs all carry the same amount.
What changes is everything around it. A fried egg is the egg plus whatever it was fried in, and scrambled eggs made with butter and cream are a different food from scrambled eggs made with a splash of milk. If you are logging, log the egg and the fat separately or you will get the calories wrong and the protein right, which for tracking one number is the correct way round.
Building a breakfast around them
The realistic use of eggs is as the base rather than the whole.
- Three eggs and two slices of wholemeal toast: about 26 g.
- Two eggs, two egg whites, and a slice of toast: about 24 g.
- Two eggs with 100 g smoked salmon: about 30 g.
Which is the same conclusion as the breakfast page reaches from the other direction: one protein food is rarely enough at the first meal, and pairing two is what closes the gap.
More questions about Protein in food
How much protein is in two eggs?
About 12 g for two large eggs. That is a useful amount and not a high protein meal on its own: a main meal target for most people sits between 25 and 30 g. Two eggs with two slices of wholemeal toast and a pot of Greek yoghurt gets there.
Is the protein in the white or the yolk?
Both, with roughly two thirds in the white. A large egg white is about 4 g and the yolk about 2 g. Discarding yolks raises the protein per calorie considerably and throws away most of the egg's other nutrients, which is a trade worth making deliberately rather than by habit.
Do eggs lose protein when cooked?
No. Heat changes the structure of the proteins, which is what makes an egg set, but the amount is unchanged and cooked egg protein is actually digested slightly better than raw. What changes with cooking is the calories, from butter or oil rather than from the egg.
