How many grams of protein are in an egg?

How many grams of protein are in an egg

A large egg contains about 6.3 grams of protein.

That comes from USDA FoodData Central, which lists whole raw egg at 12.6 grams of protein per 100 grams and gives the edible weight of a large egg as 50 grams. Half of 12.6 is 6.3. Both halves of that calculation are USDA's own figures, which is worth saying because most per-egg numbers floating around are somebody's estimate of egg size multiplied by somebody else's nutrition table.

Which part of the egg actually holds the protein

Here is where the usual advice goes wrong.

The familiar story is that the white is the protein and the yolk is the fat you throw away. The USDA data says something more interesting:

| per 100g | protein | fat | cholesterol | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Whole egg, raw | 12.6g | 9.51g | 372mg | | Egg white, raw | 10.9g | 0.17g | 0mg | | Egg yolk, raw | 15.9g | 26.5g | 1,080mg |

Per gram, the yolk is the richer protein source. 15.9 grams per 100 against the white's 10.9.

The white only contributes more to a whole egg because there is more of it. A large egg is roughly 33 grams of white and 17 grams of yolk. Run those through the table and the white gives about 3.6 grams and the yolk about 2.7. The split is closer to 57:43 than to the 90:10 the egg-white-omelette habit implies.

So the practical point: tipping the yolk out removes nearly all the fat and effectively all the cholesterol, and takes roughly 40 per cent of the protein with it. That can still be the right call for someone who has been told to watch cholesterol. It is the wrong call for someone doing it because they think the protein lives in the white.

Every egg size, with the protein worked out

USDA gives portion weights for each size class, so these are not estimates:

| size | edible weight | protein | | --- | --- | --- | | Jumbo | 63g | about 7.9g | | Extra large | 56g | about 7.1g | | Large | 50g | about 6.3g | | Medium | 44g | about 5.5g | | Small | 38g | about 4.8g |

The gap between a jumbo and a small is more than three grams, which is half an egg's worth. Most recipes and most tracking apps assume large. If your carton says medium, every protein figure you read off them is running about 12 per cent high.

Worth knowing how the sizes are set, too. USDA size classes are defined by minimum net weight per dozen, not per egg: jumbo 30 ounces, extra large 27, large 24, medium 21, small 18. A single egg in a large carton can sit either side of 50 grams. The class is a promise about the box.

Does cooking change the number

Not the protein. USDA lists hard-boiled whole egg at 12.6 grams per 100 grams, identical to raw.

What cooking moves is everything around it. Hard-boiled comes in at 155 kcal per 100 grams against 143 raw, because water is lost and the food becomes denser. Fried jumps to 196 kcal and 14.8 grams of fat, because whatever is in the pan joins the total.

There is a separate and real effect: cooking denatures egg protein and makes it easier to digest. That changes how much of the protein your body gets hold of, not how much is in the egg to begin with. Those two questions get blurred together constantly and they have different answers.

Is an egg a good source of protein, officially

This has an actual legal answer, which is more useful than a vibe.

The FDA sets the Daily Value for protein at 50 grams. Under 21 CFR 101.54, a food may be labelled a good source of a nutrient when it supplies 10 to 19 per cent of the Daily Value per serving, and an excellent source or high when it supplies 20 per cent or more.

One large egg at about 6.3 grams is roughly 12.6 per cent of that 50-gram Daily Value.

So an egg is a good source of protein by the federal definition, and it does not reach excellent. Two eggs do, at about 25 per cent. That is a tidier yardstick than most of what gets said about eggs, and it is the bar a manufacturer has to clear before printing the claim on a box.

What this means if you are counting

Six grams is a contribution to a meal, not a meal's worth of protein. If you want eggs to carry the protein in a breakfast, the honest arithmetic is three or four of them, or two plus something else on the plate.

What eggs are genuinely unusual for is not the quantity. It is that the protein contains all nine essential amino acids in proportions the body uses efficiently, and that it arrives alongside choline, vitamin D and B12 rather than on its own. That combination is harder to assemble from a single food than six grams is.

And if you have been separating out yolks for protein reasons rather than cholesterol reasons, the data says to stop.