Calories in an Egg
72 kcal for a 50 g egg, split 17 for the white and 55 for the yolk. Cooking fat is what changes the number.
72 calories in a large egg
One large egg — 50 g without the shell — carries about 72 kcal, with 6.3 g protein, 4.8 g fat and 0.4 g carbohydrate. Almost all of the fat and half the protein sit in the yolk; the white is mostly water and protein.
| Part | Weight | kcal | Protein | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whole egg, large | 50 g | 72 | 6.3 g | 4.8 g |
| White only | 33 g | 17 | 3.6 g | 0.1 g |
| Yolk only | 17 g | 55 | 2.7 g | 4.5 g |
| Two large eggs | 100 g | 143 | 12.6 g | 9.5 g |
| Three large eggs | 150 g | 215 | 18.8 g | 14.3 g |
What cooking adds
Boiling and poaching add nothing: the egg is cooked in water, so the energy stays at about 72 kcal. Frying and scrambling change the number because of what you put in the pan, not because of the egg.
| Method | Added fat | Total kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Boiled, poached, soft-boiled | none | 72 |
| Fried in 1 tsp oil (5 ml) | ~40 | ~112 |
| Scrambled with 1 tsp butter | ~35 | ~107 |
| Omelette, 2 eggs, 1 tsp oil, no filling | ~40 | ~184 |
| Egg McMuffin (US, as sold) | — | 310 |
The last row is the useful calibration: a fast-food egg sandwich is four times the energy of the egg itself. The bread, cheese, butter and sausage or ham do that, not the egg.
What 72 kcal costs in movement
For a 70 kg adult, one large egg is roughly:
- 1,800 steps — about 15 minutes of ordinary walking
- 6 minutes running at 6 mph
- 17 minutes walking at 3 mph
- 9.4 g of body-fat equivalent (72 ÷ 7,700)
Scale it: a dozen eggs is 864 kcal, or about 21,600 steps. Two eggs plus a slice of toast is 218 kcal, roughly 5,450 steps.
On "does an egg make you fat". No single food does. Weight follows the weekly balance of intake and expenditure, and 72 kcal is 3.6% of a 2,000 kcal day. The body-fat figure above is an energy equivalence, not a prediction of what the scale will do tomorrow.
Questions
Is the yolk or the white the "fattening" part?
By energy, the yolk carries 55 of the 72 kcal, because fat is energy-dense at 9 kcal per gram. The white is 17 kcal. Both are part of the same food; removing the yolk removes most of the fat-soluble vitamins too.
Are egg calories different if the egg is bigger?
Yes. The 72 kcal figure is for a US large egg at 50 g. A jumbo egg (63 g) is about 90 kcal, a medium (44 g) about 63 kcal. Weigh once and the table above scales linearly.
How many steps to burn a dozen eggs?
About 21,600 at 70 kg — but that is not a plan. Burning food off with steps is a poor way to manage energy; the arithmetic is here to show scale, not to prescribe exercise.
Does the calculator count the protein differently?
No. It converts the food's total energy, which already accounts for protein at 4 kcal per gram. If you track macros, use the protein and fat columns above with your own targets.