A single large egg contains about 71 calories. That’s for a standard 50-gram egg, the size most commonly sold in grocery stores and used in nutrition labels. Most of those calories come packed with 6.3 grams of protein and a solid dose of vitamins, making eggs one of the more nutrient-dense foods you can eat for under 100 calories.
Where the Calories Come From
The calorie split between the white and yolk is surprisingly lopsided. The egg white contributes only about 17 calories, almost entirely from protein (3.6 grams) and water. It contains virtually no fat or cholesterol. The yolk carries the remaining 54 calories along with the other half of the protein, plus nearly all the fat, cholesterol, vitamins, and calcium. If you’re eating egg whites only to cut calories, you’re saving roughly 54 calories per egg, but you’re also losing most of the nutritional value.
Nutrition Beyond Calories
Eggs punch well above their weight for a 71-calorie food. One large egg provides 28% of your daily selenium, 23% of your daily vitamin B12, and a meaningful amount of vitamin D. It also delivers about 147 mg of choline, a nutrient most people don’t get enough of that plays a key role in brain function and liver health.
The 6.3 grams of protein in an egg is considered “complete,” meaning it contains all nine essential amino acids your body can’t produce on its own. That protein also contributes to how filling eggs feel. On the satiety index, a standardized measure of how satisfying a food is, eggs score 150% relative to white bread at 100%. In practical terms, eating eggs tends to reduce how much you eat at your next meal.
How Cooking Changes the Count
A plain boiled egg stays close to that 71-calorie baseline because you’re not adding any fat during cooking. When you compare cooking methods gram for gram, the differences become clear: 100 grams of hard-boiled egg comes to about 155 calories, while 100 grams of fried egg jumps to 196 calories. That increase comes almost entirely from the butter or oil in the pan.
Scrambled eggs, interestingly, come in at around 149 calories per 100 grams, slightly lower than boiled. That’s because scrambled eggs typically include milk or water, which adds volume without many calories, diluting the calorie density even as butter adds some back. The takeaway: the egg itself doesn’t change much with heat. What changes your calorie count is what you cook it in. A fried egg cooked in a teaspoon of butter adds roughly 35 to 40 extra calories. Poaching, like boiling, adds nothing.
Egg Size Matters
The 71-calorie figure applies to a large egg. Egg sizes are based on weight per dozen, and the calorie differences are proportional:
- Medium egg (44g): roughly 63 calories
- Large egg (50g): 71 calories
- Extra-large egg (56g): roughly 80 calories
- Jumbo egg (63g): roughly 90 calories
If you’re tracking calories closely, this is worth noting. Two jumbo eggs have about 25% more calories than two large eggs.
Duck, Quail, and Turkey Eggs
Not all eggs are chicken eggs. If you cook with other varieties, the calorie counts shift considerably. Duck eggs are larger and richer, coming in at about 185 calories per 100 grams compared to 155 for chicken eggs. Turkey eggs fall in between at 171 calories per 100 grams. A single duck egg, which typically weighs around 70 grams, contains roughly 130 calories.
Quail eggs sit at the other end of the scale. Each tiny egg weighs about 9 grams and contains only around 14 calories, so you’d need five of them to match one large chicken egg. They’re nutritionally similar to chicken eggs on a per-gram basis, just packaged much smaller.
Brown vs. White and Other Common Questions
Shell color has no effect on calories or nutrition. Brown and white eggs come from different breeds of chicken, but the contents are nutritionally identical when the hens eat comparable diets. The same goes for organic versus conventional eggs. The “organic” label reflects how the hen was raised and fed, not a meaningful calorie difference in the egg itself. Some studies have found small increases in omega-3 content in pasture-raised eggs, but the calorie count stays the same.
Raw eggs and cooked eggs also contain essentially the same number of calories. Cooking doesn’t destroy calories. It does, however, make the protein significantly easier for your body to absorb. Your body uses about 90% of the protein in a cooked egg versus roughly 50% from a raw one, so from a practical nutrition standpoint, cooking wins.