Phil from Northampton asked me an interesting question:
Can I scramble eggs with olive oil for weight loss?
Well, olive oil is like any other oil; it’s a fat (100%). Olive oil contains about 820 to 830 calories per 100 ml, which is about the same as sunflower oil or any other cooking oil.
Cooking scrambled eggs using extra virgin olive oil is not a very good idea, mainly because olive oil has a low temperature for burning (called the flash point), meaning that you will easily burn the oil. Much better to use sunflower oil.
As far as using it as part of a weight loss programme, there’s nothing wrong with it. You won’t need to use much oil (max. 5 ml) to scramble two large eggs, which will give you around 230 calories. Most importantly, in my opinion, is that you will avoid too many carbohydrates and take on a good amount of protein.
Overall, your diet should be structured so that you get no more than 40% of your calories from carbs, with 30% from protein and 30% from fat. If you work out how many calories you need for your weight to stay the same and then just ease back a little bit from that (maybe reduce by 300 calories a day), you will lose weight sustainably and your new eating habits will become the norm. If you lose weight too quickly, you will put it all back on again as soon as you stop “dieting”.