eggs for breakfast

I was travelling Dec 25-Jan 1. During that time the best lowcarb food for breakfast was … eggs. I ate eggs and bacon for breakfast each day, a reasonable lunch (well, ok, one day lunch was enormous and involved macademia nuts and coconut milk, but I didn’t even eat dinner that night!).

I lost 5 lbs! I walked a lot each day and got a short (3 mile) and regular (5mile) run in. I am now really suspicious of “breakfast cereal”.

But I bet I’ll get sick of eggs for breakfast at some point (despite the bacon, which I would always be happy to eat). Any other breakfast ideas that are NOT cereal and are low carbish? Sweet potato pancakes? Anything else?

I have had great success with 1 whole egg + 5 egg whites. I just slice up a half a lettuce (a big one) plus one tomato sliced, and may be I add some chopped almonds in the mix. So I simply put the salad on a dish (it will fill it completely) and then after frying the omelette I just put it on top, and dig in.
.
You can add spices to the omelette and try some variants but thats in essence what worked wonders for me.
.
There is a BUT here though. You might need to add some thing like sweat potatos or plain potatos to this (one potato should do fine) if you are doing some active training.
.
To save time it is best to mix up the eggs in a bowl the night before, and have the greens all chopped up and ready to be mixed. So then lack of time in the morning will not me a factor because an omelette takes no time to bake through.

PS For lunch:
If you own a jucer I can also recomend juicing up half a lettuce of similar size as before with about 250 grams of carrots. Its an absolute nutrition bomb!
.
Later in the day you can improvise but you will have made an excellent start to the day if you would do some thing like this. (And use fruits and vegetables as snacks, and dont worry about the quantity, just eat as much as you want.)

I used to have eggs everyday for breakfast. Usually 1 or 2 whole eggs plus 4 to 6 egg whites cooked up in the form of an omelette. but at some point i just snapped. Just the thought of another egg for breakfast made me want to puke. After a while i starting skipping breakfast so i didn’t have to eat eggs. It was actually the thing that caused me to give up on Tim Ferris’s diet!

Is there a rule about having eggs for breakfast? I have discovered they are just as useful at lunch time or dinner. I usually have mine with bacon. If anyone else here does this what would you suggest for breakfast if i were to have my egg fix in a different part of the day?

Cheers!

I eat whole eggs and consider the yolk almost better than the white, and wouldn’t make an omlette with only the whites!

I don’t want to eat cereal for breakfast… so what else if not eggs?

I was asking for things other than eggs for breakfast since I’m probably going to try eggs 4 days a week for breakfast (I usually eat oatmeal if I’m going to run 4-5 miles).

@mac_runs
What do you want out of your breakfast?
.
Energy to work out? Do you want to lower your BF%? You want to gain muscles? For health? … Or just the ‘perfect’ breakfast? :)
.
Nutrition stats:
Egg yolk: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and-e…
Note the inflammation factor and the amount of omega-6 (if you don’t know why it is an issue, you can probably find some material on omega 6:3 ratios online).
And egg whites (for completeness – basically pure complete protein): http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and-e…

Arnthorla- the inflammation issue is not as simple as the 6:3 ratio. In fact, several studies indicate that diets HIGHER in whole eggs actually reduce inflammation significantly in people on carb-restrictions.This is due to a decrease in C-recative proteins associated with yolk intake. From Nutrition & Metabolism 2008, 5:6 (“Eggs modulate the inflammatory response to carbohydrate restricted diets in overweight men”); have a read:

“A CRD with daily intake of eggs decreased plasma CRP and increased plasma adiponectin compared to a CRD without eggs. These findings indicate that eggs make a significant contribution to the anti-inflammatory effects of CRD, possibly due to the presence of cholesterol, which increases HDL-C and to the antioxidant lutein which modulates certain inflammatory responses.”

http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/5…

Detopoulou P, Panagiotakos DB, et al.(American Journal of Clinical Nutrition) also found that the choline content found in the yolks created levels of inflammatory markers at least 20% lower those who had signifcantly lower choline in their diets.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18258634

-EK

Arnthoria, the data you linked to looks reversed. Egg yolk (1 c) has 27g protein. Egg white (1 c) has 36g protein in the stats I’m used to (http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/Egg_Yolk….). That’s reasonably matched and a reason to eat the yolk too for its protein. The yolks has vit A, D and choline.

I’m looking to lower BF%, sure, and gain muscle, sure. Eggs — including the yolk — are really healthy and I eat well overall. I get free range/pastured eggs either from my own chickens (5 chooks for a family of 5!) or from a good supplier.

What I’m mostly asking about are low-carb breakfasts that are not eggs. Any ideas?

@Mac_runs – how about Fage or some other Greek yogurt?

@Mac-runs
What about cottage cheese?

I can’t image getting tired of eggs. :)

How about protein pancakes? Greek yogurt is also a good suggestion. Look for brands with at least 14 g of protein (some have as little as 6 g) per serving.

@ericknight74
I will read those articles at the first opportunity (when I have a little more time).
.
I´m not exactly sure what goes into this inflammation factor at this page, but its one of the best IMO. I pointed out the omega – 6 thing as a separate issue. The ratio has much to with inflammation, but also other things, as you probably know well.
.
I am sure there are plenty of good things about egg yolks. And eat one or two each day, so I am not against yolks. :) But eating 5-6 egg yolks each day for many weeks and months and yes years. Sounds a little much, but so do 1-2 in that context.

@mac_runs
This is actually a really good page on nutrition, and you can change the dosages to compare them better. I think it defaults to one cup of every thing. I would personally prefer to compare all things in doses of 100 grams, and I think you can do that easily there, or in other doses. ;) Trust me this is a very good site.

Breakfast is very much necessary for better health and fitness , if you want to maintain a healthy life then you should take breakfast daily ,it depend at you what you want in the breakfast …
hrt

Protein pancakes sounds like a good idea too — I’ve seen some recipes with coconut flour too. I’ll check that out.

I’m not sure about the site arnthorla because anything that says saturated fat is bad makes me suspect. I eat a lot of saturated fat and my cholesterol, etc are all low. I don’t think there is good evidence of the sat fat/heart disease model.

So far I’m barely hungry at lunch from 3 eggs fried in butter or coconut oil.

If I got myself organized to throw in something like red bell peppers/bacon/spinach/cheese/etc then it would be less having EGGS AGAIN vs having stuff with eggs where the stuff varies.

@mac runs. I am curious as how do you combine all the different ingredients together? In my experience i find that mixing stuff in with the liquidized egg makes it too hard to cook an omelette. Even when simply placing the ingredients on one half of the omelette before flipping the other half on top. I prefer to just put the ingredients on the side of the plate and cook the omelette plain. What do you do?

Also how do you prepare the ball peppers (are they cooked or raw)?

@mac_runs
Did the site say that saturated fats are bad?

@arnthorla the site noted, for egg yolks:

The bad: This food is high in Saturated Fat, and very high in Cholesterol.

I really don’t think this is bad. I think Americans were sold a load of horsesh*t with this fat is bad, cholesterol is bad, starve yourself eating healthy-whole-grains and being hungry all the time while still being overweight.

I used to be like that.

To answer @Kesa, I scramble. Cook the veggies in some butter or coconut oil. Set aside. Add more butter or oil. Really.

Anyway, then scramble the eggs and when they are nearly done add back the veggies. I had to make a second batch this morning because my daughter wanted what I made!

I adore whole milk greek yogurt — the Trader Joe’s stuff is wonderful. That should work great before a run too, since it has more carbs and I add honey/almonds/coconut.

I think Saturated Fats and Cholesterol being bad varies from person to person just like anything else we eat or do. If my husband has more than what the DRI of either or a combination of those in a day the next day (or that evening if the amount was excesive) he gets a terrible headache. Doc said he’s one of few people who actually feels symptoms for high cholesterol. So it does affect him. He gets the same reaction to high levels of salt and his blood pressure.
I on the other hand can eat bacon, egg yolks, coconut everything until it’s coming out of my ears and i’ve never had a problem (get tested about every 6 months or so due to family history and husband nagging).
I also eat only whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies, minimal processed foods and i am never starving. It’s all balance.
So I really don’t think anyone can say cholesterol and saturated fats are good or bad, it just varies and we need to find what works for us.

@mac_runs
Ah… I did not notice that. I never i just look at the objective info and that is very good. I don’t need a site to tell me what to eat anyways. But for stats it is very good.

i eat a hard boiled egg, greek yogurt and a piece of fruit in the morning for breakfast..works pretty good for me. Besides the yogurt easy to grab and eat in the car on the way to work