Is Duck Egg Good For Weight Loss?

There are many foods to consider when putting together a weight loss plan. Find out whether duck eggs are good for this goal or fattening.

Duck eggs contain a nice amount of protein which will make you feel fuller and help you preserve or build muscle. They could help you lose weight depending on what foods you replace with duck eggs.

That being said, there are also many foods that will be more helpful for weight loss than duck eggs due to their above-average number of calories.

Even regular chicken eggs tend to be better than duck eggs for weight loss unless potentially if you really lack vitamin B12 which plays a role in metabolism and health.

At the same time, even if there are better alternatives. It is generally still possible to eat duck eggs and lose weight. If you really like this food or happen to have it available, it could be a part of your weight loss diet plan.

Micronutrients in duck egg

Micronutrients are basically nutrients that are smaller than the carbohydrates, fats, and proteins in food. These include vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients.

These are involved in many aspects of your health, including weight loss, in one way or another.

100 grams of raw duck egg provides you with some of the following micronutrients (1):

• Vitamin B12: 90% of the DV (Daily Value)
• Selenium: 52% of the DV
• Riboflavin: 24% of the DV
• Phosphorus: 22% of the DV
• Iron: 21% of the DV
• Folate: 20% of the DV
• Pantothenic acid: 19% of the DV
• Vitamin B6: 13% of the DV
• Thiamin: 10% of the DV

And a variety of other vitamins and minerals in smaller amounts. Duck eggs contain nice amounts of vitamins and minerals compared to a lot of whole foods.

Duck eggs alone will likely not be enough to hit your daily vitamin and mineral goals but they can help you a lot with that. This can benefit your health and potentially even weight loss to some extent.

While you should not expect crazy results from it, resolving a vitamin B12 insufficiency could benefit weight loss slightly since this vitamin plays a role in metabolism (2).

Protein in duck eggs

The amount of protein in duck eggs is another detail you want to keep in mind when considering them for your weight loss diet plan.

100 grams of cooked duck eggs contain around 12 grams of protein (3).

On its own, this number may not mean too much to you. To compare, cooked salmon contains around 25.4 grams per 100 grams (4).

Compared to all whole foods, cooked duck eggs still contain nice amounts of protein. However, as you can see, there are definitely also foods that are higher in protein.

This detail is important because protein is a very helpful macronutrient for weight loss.

The first reason for this is that protein helps you feel fuller. Hunger and cravings are common reasons why people do not stick to their diet plan so avoiding or reducing them can be helpful.

Additionally, protein helps you preserve and build muscle. Having more muscle means burning more calories so this is another benefit of protein and thus duck eggs for weight loss.

One thing to note is that you can also overdo it with protein. At the same time, getting to this point is generally challenging for healthy individuals due to how filling protein is.

Calories in duck eggs

The number of calories in food is not the only thing that matters when it comes to weight loss, the type matters too. However, this number does give a better idea about how good certain foods are for losing weight.

100 grams of cooked duck eggs contains around 223 calories (3).

Compared to whole foods, duck eggs are somewhat above-average in calories. Compared to many refined foods, you can consider the number of calories in duck eggs as low to medium.

These calories mostly come from protein and fat so duck eggs can likely fit in low-carb diets like a ketogenic diet.

Will duck eggs help you lose weight?

There are many factors that influence whether or not a routine will help you lose weight.

To make things simple, let’s assume you will keep lifestyle habits besides nutrition the same and that your current routine keeps you at the same weight.

If you simply add duck eggs and eat the same amounts of other foods, you will likely gain weight since you are eating more food than usual.

Next, replacing something like 100 grams of chips with the same weight of duck eggs will likely help you lose weight.

Thirdly, there is a category of more vague/uncertain food swaps.

Someone who lacks protein may lose weight by switching a food that is lower in calories with duck eggs. There are also cases of micronutrient insufficiencies where the effects of food swaps will be hard to predict.

Lastly, these descriptions assume you will eat the same amount of other foods. Since the protein in duck eggs will likely influence how much hunger you feel, you will likely eat different amounts of the other foods.

Additionally, how much you enjoy the foods you eat also influences if or how often you get off the rails.

In short, while there are better options, duck eggs can be considered as a decent food choice for weight loss. Whether you will actually lose weight when eating more duck eggs depends on a lot of things.

Duck vs chicken eggs for weight loss

Many people look into duck eggs as an alternative to regular chicken eggs. Find out how these two foods compare in terms of the most important nutrients for weight loss per 100 grams (3, 4).

As you can see, unless you really have some important micronutrient insufficiencies you need to resolve, 100 grams of chicken eggs will likely benefit your weight loss more than the same weight in duck eggs.