One large egg contains about 72 calories. That’s for a whole egg weighing roughly 50 grams without the shell, whether it’s raw, hard-boiled, or poached. The number shifts depending on how you cook it and what size egg you grab from the carton.
Where the Calories Come From
Most of a large egg’s 72 calories sit in the yolk. The yolk alone accounts for about 55 calories, while the white adds just 17. This split makes sense when you look at the macronutrient breakdown: a large egg has about 5.3 grams of fat (almost entirely in the yolk), 6.3 grams of protein (split between yolk and white), and barely any carbohydrate at 0.56 grams. Fat is more calorie-dense per gram than protein, so the fatty yolk carries the bulk of the energy.
If you eat only egg whites, you’re looking at roughly 17 calories per egg with almost pure protein and zero fat. That’s useful to know if you’re tracking macros closely, but you also lose most of the egg’s vitamins and minerals by ditching the yolk.
Calories by Egg Size
Egg sizes are defined by weight per dozen. A large egg weighs about 50 grams, but other sizes scale up and down predictably. Since calories track closely with weight, you can estimate accordingly:
- Small (minimum 18 oz per dozen): roughly 54 calories
- Medium (minimum 21 oz per dozen): roughly 63 calories
- Large (minimum 24 oz per dozen): 72 calories
- Extra large (minimum 27 oz per dozen): roughly 80 calories
- Jumbo (minimum 30 oz per dozen): roughly 90 calories
Most recipes and nutrition labels assume a large egg. If your carton says extra large or jumbo, adding 10 to 20 calories per egg keeps your count more accurate.
How Cooking Changes the Count
A boiled or poached egg stays right at 72 calories because you’re not adding any fat during cooking. Scrambled or fried eggs are a different story. Every teaspoon of butter or oil you add to the pan brings roughly 35 to 45 extra calories. A fried egg cooked in a tablespoon of olive oil could land closer to 110 or 120 calories total, though the exact number depends on how much fat the egg absorbs, the type of oil, and the cooking temperature.
There’s no single reliable calorie count for a fried egg because the variables shift so much. If precision matters for your tracking, measuring the fat you add to the pan is more useful than relying on a generic “fried egg” entry in a calorie app.
Nutrients Beyond Calories
For 72 calories, a large egg is unusually nutrient-dense. It delivers 10% of the Daily Value for vitamin D, making it one of the few foods that provides this vitamin naturally. Eggs are also a top dietary source of choline, a nutrient involved in brain function and metabolism that most people don’t get enough of. You’ll also get meaningful amounts of B12, selenium, and riboflavin.
The protein in eggs is considered highly bioavailable, meaning your body absorbs and uses a large percentage of it. Six grams of complete protein (containing all essential amino acids) for just 72 calories is a ratio that’s hard to beat with most other whole foods.
Eggs and Feeling Full
Those 72 calories may do more work than you’d expect. A study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition compared an egg breakfast to a bagel breakfast with the same calorie count in overweight participants. People who ate eggs reported feeling fuller throughout the morning and ate significantly less at lunch. Their total calorie intake for the rest of the day was about 264 calories lower compared to the bagel group. Over the full study period, from breakfast through the following noon, the egg group consumed roughly 420 fewer calories overall.
The combination of protein and fat in eggs likely plays a role in this effect, though researchers noted that the exact mechanism isn’t fully understood. From a practical standpoint, two large eggs at breakfast (144 calories) can keep you satisfied well into the afternoon in a way that a 144-calorie serving of refined carbohydrates typically won’t.