Are Egg Whites Keto-Friendly? Discover the Ultimate Guide to Keto Egg Whites!

For those following a ketogenic diet, understanding which foods align with their macros is crucial. Eggs are a popular choice, but what about egg whites specifically? This article delves into the keto-friendliness of egg whites, their nutritional benefits, how to use them in keto recipes, and tips for baking with them.

Egg Whites and the Keto Diet: A Perfect Match

Egg whites are indeed excellent for keto. They are minimally processed, free of harmful ingredients, and very low in net carbs.

Low in Net Carbs

Egg whites contain very few net carbs, approximately 0.61g per 100g serving. To stay in ketosis, it’s important to limit your net carb consumption to 20g - 30g per day, and egg whites fit easily into this allowance. You can calculate your ideal daily net carb allowance by using a keto macros calculator.

Low in Fats

Since egg whites are low in fat, it’s important to supplement them with foods high in healthy fats, such as virgin olive oil, grass-fed butter, and MCT oil. Your body uses fat as energy while on ketosis, so including healthy fat sources is vital.

Whole Food

Whole foods are packed with nutrients and should be a staple of a healthy keto diet. Eating whole foods lowers the risk of cancer, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. You can both lose weight and improve overall health by eating mostly low-carb whole foods on keto.

Read also: Easy Low-Carb Cheese Crackers

Minimally Processed

Egg whites are minimally processed and free of harmful ingredients like non-keto sweeteners, highly refined oils, and food additives. It is important to check both macros and ingredients of your foods to achieve a healthy weight loss on keto.

Nutritional Benefits of Egg Whites

Besides being keto-friendly, egg whites offer several nutritional advantages:

High in Protein: Egg whites are almost pure protein, making them an excellent choice for those needing to increase their protein intake without adding significant carbs or fats.
Versatile: They can be used in various recipes, from breakfast cups to desserts, adding structure and lightness.
Low Calorie: Egg whites are low in calories, averaging about 15 calories per egg white, with 3 grams of protein.

Using Leftover Egg Whites: Delicious Keto Recipes

Got leftover egg whites? Don’t throw them away! There are many delicious keto-friendly recipes to make the most of them. If you love to bake and cook, you are bound to end up with leftover egg whites on occasion. Many wonderful recipes, such as keto chocolate pudding, require only the yolks, leaving you with a bowl of lonely whites. The great news is that you have many delicious options. A wide array of healthy, low carb recipes use extra egg whites. From classic angel food cake to delicious keto focaccia bread, these egg white recipes will get your creative juices flowing. If you have too many egg yolks, there are solutions for that too!

Storing Egg Whites

Not quite ready to bake with those egg whites? No problem! Sock them away until you’re ready to use them. You can keep them in the fridge in a sealed container for up to 4 days safely. But you can also freeze them for up to 3 months. I like to put my leftover whites in small glass jars in the freezer, leaving some space at the top for expansion as they freeze. I am prone to forgetting how many are in each jar, so I label them with some masking tape. You can also freeze the individual whites in ice cube trays. Once they’re solid, pop them out and place them in a freezer bag or other freezer-safe container. That way, you know exactly how many you have at any given time.

Frozen egg whites thaw easily and bake up just as well as when they are fresh. And you can still whip them into stiff peaks for cakes and meringues! In fact, the freezing process helps break down the proteins so that they whip even more easily than fresh whites.

Keto Recipes Using Egg Whites

Here are some ideas to get you started:

Keto Angel Food Cake: This keto angel food cake represents an absolute triumph for keto baking. Perfectly light and airy, sweet and delicious, just as it should be. It takes 10 egg whites and has only 2.4g net carbs per serving.
Sugar-Free Meringue Cookies: Meringues are another tasty way to use up egg whites. These sugar free meringue cookies have a swirl of peppermint flavored chocolate. So tasty around the holidays, but also great any time of year. This recipe uses 4 egg whites and has only 0.7g net carbs per serving.
Easy Keto Drop Biscuits: I use egg whites in my easy keto drop biscuits to give them a lighter consistency. They are amazingly tender and chock full of cheese and garlic, and they go perfectly with soup or chili. They make great breakfast sandwiches too! These biscuits use 3 egg whites and have 3g net carbs per serving.
Keto Coconut Bundt Cake: Love coconut desserts? Then this Keto Coconut Bundt Cake is for you! It’s easy to make, and it’s so light and airy, it’s like biting into a fluffy coconut cloud. And it’s completely nut-free, too. It uses 4 egg whites and has 4.4g net carbs per serving.
Keto Lemon Meringue Pie: Another classic dessert made keto-friendly! The lemon filling is both tart and sweet, and the meringue is crisp on the outside, tender in the middle. This keto pie uses 4 egg whites and has 5g net carbs per serving.
Coconut Flour Cake: Using some egg whites in place of whole eggs makes white cake whiter! This delicious coconut flour cake quickly became one of my most popular. It features layers of vanilla whtie cake with fresh berries and a rich chantilly cream frosting. It uses up 4 egg whites and has 4.2g net carbs per serving.
Keto Blueberry Bread: This sweet keto quick bread is lighter and airier because it uses some egg whites. It’s a tender coconut flour bread bursting with fresh blueberries and makes a delicious breakfast or snack. This recipe uses 3 egg whites and has 4g net carbs per serving.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream: Egg whites make the best keto frosting! This swiss meringue buttercream is silky smooth and perfectly pipe-able. It is hands down the best sugar free frosting I’ve ever made and is worth the effort. And it’s practically carb-free! This recipe takes 4 egg whites and has 0.1g carbs per serving.
Chewy Coconut Macaroons: Chewy coconut macaroons use egg whites to help bind them and give them texture. These chewy cookies have some of my sugar-free dried cranberries too! I like to dip mine in dark chocolate for an extra special treat. They use 2 egg whites have have 3.4g net carbs per cookie.
Keto Focaccia: Using some egg whites, rather than just whole eggs, makes this focaccia lighter and more like the real thing. Dipped in olive oil and a bit of sea salt, and you will swear you are at your favorite trattoria back in your high carb days! It uses 2 egg whites and has 2.5g net carbs per serving.
Keto S’mores Bars: Egg white meringue can look and taste a lot like toasted marshmallows! And these keto s’mores bars are like your best childhood memory in a delicious sugar-free package. The recipe uses 3 egg whites and has 2.9g net carbs per bar.
Keto Marzipan: Traditional marzipan recipes take egg white to give the almond paste some structure and help it bind together. Keto marzipan is easy to make and so fun to play with. It’s a holiday classic in many countries and can be used in cookies, cakes, and candy.
Keto Churro Waffles: Keto churro waffles - tasty breakfast or low carb dessert? No matter what, these crispy keto cinnamon waffles are sure to please! I used egg white to make them extra crispy, like real churros! This recipe takes 1 egg white and has 2.6 carbs per serving.
Keto Tortilla Chips: I created a low carb tortilla chip recipe with pork rinds, egg white, and cheese. They are super crisp and stand up to all your favorite low carb dips and salsas. And they really satisfy that need for crunchy snacks! This keto chip recipe takes 2 egg whites and has 0.6g of carbs per serving.
Keto Cake with Blue Frosting: This is perhaps one of my most stunning keto cake recipes. I used egg white to keep the cake very pale so that it stood out with the blue frosting. It’s a must make recipe for spring and Easter! It uses 5 large egg whites and has 2.3g net carbs per slice.

Breakfast Egg White Cups: A Keto-Friendly Start to Your Day

These Breakfast Egg White Cups are very delicious, and a simple way to have a quick breakfast. They are made from egg whites and you can add anything you like to them. They are so compatible with your Low Carb/Keto diet plans. You can also make them with whole eggs too.

These Egg White Muffin Cups are so easy to make and you can add so many different ingredients in them so that they always taste different. Sometimes you feel like meat or cheese. Sometimes you feel like veggies. Bacon and scallion are also one of my favorites. Egg Muffin Cups are a great breakfast, especially an “on the go” breakfast.

Ingredients to Include

Sausage: Any breakfast sausage will do. Jones’s sausage is a great option.
Bacon: Bacon is a perfect Keto ingredient for so many recipes because of the protein and fat it has, and 0 net carbs! Oscar Mayer Thick Cut Bacon is a popular choice.
Cheese: Any of your favorite cheeses will work in these Egg White Cups, cheddar or feta are two favorites, so use whatever one that you would like to. Try a different one every time.
Eggs: Eggs are a food that’s good for most diets and is certainly a good choice for Keto. They are a “go-to” food with a lot of yummy varieties.

Making the Egg White Cups

These Egg Cups are very easy to make and very quick too. And you can make as many or as few that you want to make. In order to get your Breakfast Egg White cups to stick to your pan, you can spray the muffin pan with a non-stick cooking spray, like Pam. It works great for a lot of things and this is just one of the many things that you can use it on.

What to Fill Egg Cups With?

There are so many things that go so well inside your Egg White Muffin Cups, which makes these so much fun to make and eat. You can make them every day and never have the same combo twice for a while unless you want to. If you are looking for a different version of these Breakfast Cups, you can use whole eggs instead of just whites. All of the same ingredients will go well with them too.

Read also: Magnesium Supplements for Keto

Whole Eggs on the average have about 77 calories with 5 grams of fat and 6 grams of protein. Egg whites are on the average 15 calories per egg with 3 grams of protein. So if you are focusing on low calorie then egg whites should be your choice. Once again you can use whole eggs whipped up or use the whole eggs from a carton. Either way is fine, whatever your preference. Whole eggs and egg whites are both available in liquid form if you are in a hurry.

The ratio is about half veggies, meat, and cheese, and half egg. You obviously want to make your Egg Breakfast Cups with whatever you want and whatever quantities that you want, but you just want to make sure that you put enough egg in there to hold all your other tasty ingredients together.

Tips for Perfect Egg White Cups

There are many reasons your Egg Cups could deflate. They are always going to deflate a little when they come out of the oven and start to cool off, but one important thing to remember is to cool them at room temperature slowly. Another trick to keep your Keto Egg White Cups from deflating too much is not to add too much liquid. Cheese is also heavy so don’t add too much. Also, another way to keep your Egg Cups from deflating is to not overcook them.

Dietary Compatibility

Yes, you can eat these Egg Breakfast Cups if you are on the Keto diet or eating low carb. Also, a good choice if you have to be gluten-free.

Storage and Reheating

You will be happy to note that for the short term you can store these Breakfast Egg White cups in an airtight container in your refrigerator for a few days. That way you can take one or two every day and eat them for breakfast or take them to work with you and eat them for your break. Yes, you can freeze these, as noted above, as long as you properly wrap them so they don’t get freezer burn. An airtight plastic container would work well.

They make such a good choice for a quick but also healthy breakfast or a mid-morning snack or mid-afternoon snack. Another option is to pop them into your toaster oven for 5-10 minutes also depending on what temperature that you put it on, whether it’s just in there on a warm setting or on a high temp. You may also add egg yolks to these Breakfast egg muffin cups if you don’t want just egg whites, which will add some extra protein to your breakfast, without adding a lot more calories. If you want your Egg White Cups to be a little spicy add some hot sauce to each one.

Nutritional Information for Egg White Cup Variations:

Sausage and Scallion Egg White Cups: 1.4 NET Carbs (Serving Size 4 Cups)
Sausage, Mushroom and Cheddar Egg White Cups: 1.6 NET Carbs (Serving Size 4 Cups)
Spinach, Tomato and Feta Egg White Cups: 1.9 NET Carbs (Serving Size 4 Cups)
Don’t add too much liquid such as milk or it may not cook properly
Cool at room temperature before putting any extra ones in the refrigerator.

Eggs Beyond Breakfast: A Keto Staple

It’s clear: Eggs are not just for breakfast anymore. While they can be a great way to start your day, hard-boiled eggs have become a suitable grab-and-go snack, a fried egg sits perfectly atop a veggie bowl, and scrambled eggs can also work for dinner in a pinch. For those on a keto diet, eggs have also become a staple food.

Egg Nutrition Facts

Egg is a protein, so it is not a carbohydrate and not starchy. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for one whole large egg. This pertains to a large hard-boiled egg. If you cook your eggs differently (e.g., scrambled, fried), the nutrition will change depending on what type, if any, of fat you’re cooking the egg in.

Carbs in an egg: 0.5 gram (g)
Net Carbs in an egg: 0.5 g

Net carbs are not an official macronutrient (like carbs, fat, and protein), but people following a keto diet often use this number as a guide to help them stay in their carb range.For eggs, since there is no fiber in an egg, total carbs is equal to net carbs in this case.

Fat in an egg: 5 g
Protein in an egg: 6 g

Other Nutrients in Eggs

Not only does the yolk contain the fat in the egg, it also packs nutrients such as choline and selenium, according to the American Egg Board. Choline plays a role in memory regulation and mood, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Selenium is an antioxidant that protects cells from free radical damage, per the NIH. The yolk also provides lutein and zeaxanthin, antioxidants linked to eye health, notes the American Optometric Association.

Whole Eggs vs. Egg Whites on Keto

While egg whites are a great option, whole eggs also fit nicely into a keto diet. Whole eggs offer the benefit of healthy fats and additional nutrients found in the yolk.

Concerns About Saturated Fat

Eggs do contain saturated fat (1.6 g per egg), and even on a high-fat diet, it's recommended to remain mindful of saturated fat. Namely because you may not be getting a lot of fiber on a keto diet, which, among other functions, helps your body clear LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, notes the National Lipid Association. Saturated fat raises your LDL and increases your risk of heart disease, per the American Heart Association. The American Heart Association recommends sticking to one whole egg per day.

Balancing Whole Eggs and Egg Whites

Many keto dieters balance their intake by consuming whole eggs for their nutritional benefits and using egg whites to increase protein without significantly increasing fat or calories.

The Science Behind Stabilizing Egg Whites for Keto Baking

If you’ve ever tried whipping egg whites for a keto dessert and ended up with a soupy mess, you’re not alone.

What Happens When You Whip Egg Whites

Egg whites are mostly water and proteins.

Why Sugar Helps in Traditional Baking

In conventional recipes, sugar slows the unfolding of proteins, giving them more time to form a stronger network. Sugar is off-limits on keto, so you can't rely on it to stabilize your egg whites. Egg whites collapse without sugar because sugar stabilizes protein foams.

Keto-Friendly Ways to Stabilize Egg Whites

Add an Acid: Adding a bit of acid can help stabilize egg whites.
Use Collagen Peptides: Collagen is a protein that reinforces structure.
Incorporate a Sugar-Free Sweetener (Optional): Some sugar-free sweeteners may help.
Don’t Overwhip: Stop at stiff peaks.

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