How Many Eggs Can You Eat Per Day (and How Many Calories in a Boiled Egg)

Calories in a boiled egg by size (S, M, L and XL)

The letter on the egg box is the EU weight grade, now set out in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2465, which replaced Regulation (EC) No 589/2008 with the same grades: S, under 53 g; M, 53 g to under 63 g; L, 63 g to under 73 g; and XL, 73 g or more. That is the weight of the whole egg, shell included. According to USDA FoodData Central, the shell accounts for 12% of the weight, so the edible part is 88%. With 155 kcal and 12.6 g of protein per 100 g of hard-boiled egg (fdcId 173424), the calories in each egg are its edible weight multiplied by 1.55. To compare with any other food, use the calorie table.

What a boiled egg gives you besides calories

• Complete protein: 12.6 g per 100 g, with all the essential amino acids
• Fat: 10.6 g per 100 g, of which 3.3 g is saturated; carbohydrates barely reach 1.1 g
• Cholesterol: 373 mg per 100 g, about 190 mg in a typical M egg
• Choline (294 mg per 100 g), vitamins A, D, E and B12, plus lutein and zeaxanthin
• Cheap, easy to cook and easy to carry: a protein snack that fits in any pocket

How many eggs a day? What the meta-analyses say

The question has been open for decades and the studies do not all say the same thing, so it is worth looking at the figures. The meta-analysis by Drouin-Chartier et al. (BMJ, 2020) combined three large US cohorts, with more than 215,000 people followed for up to 32 years, with the rest of the literature: 33 risk estimates and 1.7 million participants. Eating one more egg a day was not associated with more cardiovascular disease (relative risk 0.98; 95% confidence interval 0.93-1.03), and the authors concluded that moderate consumption, up to one egg a day, is not associated with higher risk. Two years later, Zhao et al. (Circulation, 2022) updated the analysis with 3.6 million participants and did see a small increase: 1.04 for each 50 g egg per day (1.00-1.08), clearer in US cohorts (1.08) and absent in Asian ones, with very high heterogeneity between studies. The umbrella review by Formisano et al. (2025), which assessed 14 meta-analyses published since 2020, rated the quality of the evidence as critically low: it found no association between high or low egg intake and cardiovascular disease or all-cause mortality, and concluded that there is not enough evidence to discourage eggs as part of a healthy diet.

If you have diabetes or high cholesterol

This is the group where the evidence is least reassuring. In the meta-analysis by Shin et al. (2013), with 22 cohorts, eating one egg or more a day compared with less than one a week was not associated with more cardiovascular disease in the general population (HR 0.96), but it was in the studies of people with diabetes (HR 1.69; interval 1.09 to 2.62), and also with more new cases of type 2 diabetes (HR 1.42). These are associations, not proof of cause, but they are enough for you to set the amount with your doctor rather than with the general rule in this article.

How to include them

Boiled as a snack, scrambled with vegetables, in an omelette, poached on wholegrain toast or in a salad. What changes the calories of the plate most is usually not the egg but what comes with it: the oil in the pan, the bread, cured meats or mayonnaise. If you want to know how much protein you need a day and how many eggs fit into it, the protein calculator estimates it from your weight and activity.

Eggs are quality protein that is cheap and easy to carry. Log your meals with Renzy to see how much protein and how many calories they really add up to, with or without eggs.