An omelet can make you gain weight. 3 eggs have fewer than 220 calories. But, many omelet recipes use butter, vegetable oils, cheese, and bacon, which are very fattening foods.
How many calories in an omelet?
A 2-egg omelet has about 150 calories, while a 3-egg omelet has fewer than 220 calories. Hence, It won’t make you gain weight if consumed as part of a well-balanced diet.
On the contrary, omelet supports weight loss because it promotes the feeling of fullness for many hours. Also, omelet is one of the most nutritious snacks you can have. It’s packed with compounds that burn belly fat and increase metabolism.
Can I gain weight by eating an omelet?
However, many people gain weight by eating omelet because they prepare it by adding high amounts of fattening foods.
Vegetable oil or butter
Certainly, vegetable oil and butter add flavor to food recipes. But, these are among the most fattening foods you can eat. Both are almost 100% fat. Just 1 gram of fat has 9 calories! In fact, a tablespoon of any vegetable oil has about 125 calories.
Hence, just by adding 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil to your frying pan, you increase the total calorie content of your omelet by more than 110%.
Sauté vegetables in a non-stick pan in order to use the minimum amount of vegetable oil to prepare your favorite omelet if you want to lose weight.
Don’t add cheese
In addition, you shouldn’t add cheese to your omelet if you want to lose weight. Cheese has many calories. Most favorite cheeses have 60–70 calories per slice! Only two types of cheese have relatively a few calories: cottage and ricotta cheese.
Moreover, instead of cheese, you could use nutritional yeast. It has only 20 calories per a 2-tbsp serving. Most noteworthy, this vegan cheese substitute has no saturated fat, and it has negligible amounts of sodium.
Don’t eat omelet with bacon or any other fatty meat
Another favorite ingredient that can make you gain weight is bacon. Just a small slice of cooked bacon has about 32 calories.[1]
Cooked bacon has 500 calories per 100g! It’s one of the most fattening and unhealthy foods you can eat, as it has 12.6 grams of saturated fatty acids per 100g. That’s the maximum safe daily dose of saturated fat, according to the American Heart Association, on a 2,000-calories diet.[2]
Don’t add too many ingredients
In addition, an omelet can make you gain weight if you add too many ingredients. Even if they’re healthy.
For instance, adding high amounts of mushrooms, onions, tomato paste, ketchup, mustard, nutritional yeast, oats, rice, seeds, beans, avocado, olives etc. can make a very fattening and difficult to digest meal.
Use spices instead of salt
Moreover, adding too much salt to your omelet can make you fat. High salt intakes have been associated with increased risk of obesity.[3]
It’s better to use spices to add flavor to your recipes. In addition, spices are packed with powerful antioxidants that fight oxidative stress and chronic low-grade inflammation, which is a common cause of obesity.
How many calories can a fattening omelet have?
Typically, a 3-egg omelet made of full-fat cheese, bacon, avocado, butter etc. can have more than 700 calories. The total calorie content depends on portion sizes, though. But, it can certainly make you gain weight.
How to eat omelet for weight loss?
As a rule of thumb, you should prepare an omelet with vegetables and herbs if you want to lose weight. They provide flavor and promote appetite with only a few extra calories.
Also, you could add small amounts of quinoa, chia seeds, or oats to your favorite omelet recipe. These are nutrient-dense foods. They provide key compounds for a lean body.
Eating omelet before bed can make you gain weight
The worst time of the day to eat an omelet for weight loss is right before bedtime. At that time, even a healthy, 2-egg omelet can make you fat. Eating right before bed increases the risk of gaining weight 5-fold.
