A large chicken egg contains about 71 to 74 calories. That number applies to a plain egg with nothing added, whether you eat it boiled or poached. The calorie count changes based on egg size, how you cook it, and what you add to the pan.
Calories by Egg Size
Most nutritional references use a “large” egg (about 50 grams) as the standard, which comes in at roughly 71 calories. A medium egg runs closer to 63 calories, while an extra-large egg hits around 80. Jumbo eggs can reach 90 calories. If you’re tracking calories and eating multiple eggs at a meal, the size you buy matters more than you might expect. Three jumbo eggs have nearly 60 more calories than three medium ones.
How Cooking Changes the Count
A boiled or poached egg stays close to that baseline of 71 to 74 calories because you’re not adding any fat. Once oil or butter enters the picture, the numbers climb.
Frying an egg in a tablespoon of butter adds roughly 100 calories. Even a light coating of cooking spray adds a small amount. The exact increase depends on the type of oil, how much you use, and how long the egg sits in the pan. A fried egg cooked in a well-seasoned cast iron pan with a thin layer of olive oil will be meaningfully lower in calories than one swimming in butter.
Scrambled eggs tend to be the highest-calorie preparation because most recipes call for both butter in the pan and milk or cream in the mixture. A two-egg scramble with a pat of butter and a splash of whole milk can easily reach 220 to 250 calories, compared to about 142 for two plain boiled eggs.
Yolk vs. White
The white and yolk are nutritionally very different. A single egg white provides about 17 calories and 3.6 grams of protein, with virtually no fat or cholesterol. The yolk carries the remaining 54 or so calories, along with most of the egg’s fat, cholesterol, vitamins, and calcium. It also holds about 2.7 grams of protein.
If you’re eating egg whites only, you cut calories by roughly 75% per egg. The tradeoff is that you lose most of the vitamins and minerals. For people focused purely on protein intake with minimal calories, whites make sense. For overall nutrition, the whole egg delivers far more.
Protein and Nutrient Breakdown
A large egg provides 6 to 7 grams of protein and contains all nine essential amino acids, making it one of the most complete protein sources available. That protein-to-calorie ratio is hard to beat: you get a gram of protein for roughly every 11 calories.
Beyond protein, a single egg supplies meaningful amounts of vitamin D, vitamin B12, choline (important for brain function), and selenium. The fat content sits around 5 grams per egg, most of it in the yolk. About 1.6 grams of that is saturated fat.
Duck and Quail Eggs
Not all eggs are chicken eggs. Duck eggs are larger and richer, with more protein and more cholesterol per 100 grams. Quail eggs are tiny, so while each one has fewer total calories, they’re actually more nutrient-dense gram for gram than chicken eggs.
Comparing the three per 100 grams of egg: chicken eggs contain about 12.8 grams of protein, duck eggs about 15.1 grams, and quail eggs about 15.3 grams. Fat content is nearly identical across all three, hovering around 13 to 13.5 grams per 100 grams. Duck eggs have the highest cholesterol at 537 milligrams per 100 grams, compared to 374 for chicken and 423 for quail. A single duck egg weighs roughly 70 grams, so one duck egg has about 130 calories. A single quail egg weighs around 9 grams and contains only about 14 calories.
Eggs and Heart Health
For years, eggs had a reputation as a cholesterol risk. That guidance has shifted significantly. The American Heart Association’s most recent dietary statement notes that dietary cholesterol is no longer a primary target for heart disease risk reduction for most people, and that moderate egg consumption can be part of a heart-healthy diet.
The bigger concern, according to that guidance, is what people eat alongside their eggs. Bacon, sausage, and buttered toast add far more saturated fat and calories than the eggs themselves. Two eggs with vegetables and whole-grain toast is a fundamentally different meal from two eggs with processed meat and white bread, even though the egg calories are identical.