The ketogenic, or keto, diet is a very low carb, high-fat diet that’s associated with several health benefits, including weight loss. If you’re following this diet, protein bars can be a convenient grab-and-go option when you need a quick meal or a filling snack. However, finding a keto-friendly bar can be difficult, as most protein bars are too high in carbs or too low in fat, or they contain ingredients that don’t fit on a keto diet, such as dairy.
Even protein bars that meet the keto criteria are not always healthy options, as they often contain large amounts of artificial ingredients, additives, and preservatives. Still, if you look carefully, you can find protein bars that are both keto-friendly and nutritious. Alternatively, you can make them on your own.
This article dives into some of the best keto-friendly protein bars available. These bars have been selected based on ingredient quality, taste, nutritional value, price, and customer reviews.
What to Look For in a Keto Protein Bar
When choosing the best keto protein bars, several factors should be considered to ensure that the bar aligns with your dietary needs and preferences:
- Ingredient Quality: Ideally, the bar should be made mainly with whole foods and without added sugar, artificial colors or flavors, or unnecessary fillers.
- Taste: A keto protein bar should be flavorful and should not taste like a block of cardboard. Bars that offer intriguing flavors and have positive reviews for taste are generally preferred.
- Nutrition: The ideal bars should provide 5 or fewer grams (g) of net carbs per serving and contain a minimum of 6 g of protein and at least 7 g of fat.
- Price: These bars are typically sold in multipacks, and most cost $25-$50 per multipack.
- Customer Reviews: Reading through reviews to find out how customers feel about the flavor, texture, and quality of these bars is essential.
Best Keto Protein Bars
Best High Protein: MariGold Protein Bars
- Price: \$\$
- Available flavors: Almond Mocha Crunch, Coconut Rage, Ginger Coconut, Macarooned, Chocolate Mint, Salty Caramel, Pure Joy, Banana Nut, Double Fudge Brownie, Chunky Choco Pecan, Dark & Salty, and Cinnabähn.
MariGold Protein Bars are crafted with a focus on minimal and high-quality ingredients. These bars feature whey isolate from grass-fed cow’s milk, cashews, filtered water, chicory root fiber, L-glutamine, grass-fed ghee, organic flavors, coconut oil, stevia extract, salt, and sunflower lecithin.
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Whey protein is a popular supplement known for its rapid absorption, which may promote increases in strength, muscle mass, and fat loss. MariGold bars are also free of sugar alcohols, which can cause digestive distress in some individuals. Instead, they are sweetened with stevia, with a few flavors containing small amounts of coconut nectar, coconut sugar, and maple syrup.
The nutrition info for the Salty Caramel flavor is:
- Calories: 226
- Protein: 22 g
- Fat: 12 g
- Net carbs: 5 g
- Fiber: 6 g
Best Meat-Based: EPIC Bars
- Price: \$
- Available flavors: Chicken BBQ, Beef Barbacoa, Beef Jalapeño, Beef Sea Salt + Pepper, Chicken Sriracha, and Venison Sea Salt + Pepper
EPIC bars offer a meat-based alternative with simple ingredients. The Venison Sea Salt + Pepper bar, for example, includes grass-fed venison, sea salt, encapsulated lactic acid, water, black pepper, cultured celery powder, onion powder, and garlic powder. These bars are very high in sodium, providing 600-750 milligrams (mg) of sodium per bar, depending on the flavor.
The nutrition info for the Venison Sea Salt + Pepper flavor is:
- Calories: 150
- Protein: 13 g
- Fat: 10 g
- Net carbs: 0 g
- Fiber: 1 g
Best Allergy-Friendly: Keto Bars
- Price: \$\$
- Available flavors: Chocolate Peanut Butter, Dark Chocolate Coconut Almond, and Mint Chocolate
Keto Bars was founded in 2012 and was one of the first companies to create protein bars specifically for the keto diet. These bars are vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, and soy-free. All three flavors have short ingredient lists and are made with a base of unsweetened chocolate, coconut, and nut butter. The brand uses stevia and erythritol as alternative sweeteners to keep the bars sugar-free.
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The nutrition info for the Mint Chocolate flavor is:
- Calories: 240
- Protein: 6 g
- Fat: 20 g
- Net carbs: 4 g
- Fiber: 6 g
Best Organic: BHU Keto Bars
- Price: \$
- Available flavors: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, White Chocolate Macadamia Cookie Dough, Double Dark Chocolate Cookie Dough, Chocolate Coconut Cookie Dough, Snickerdoodle Cookie Dough, Caramel Peanut Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, and Mint Double Dark Chocolate Cookie Dough
BHU Keto Bars are known for their fudgy texture and are made without any artificial sweeteners or preservatives, requiring refrigeration. These bars contain organic tapioca flour, which provides prebiotic fiber that supports digestion, immune system health, and heart health.
The White Chocolate Macadamia Cookie Dough bar contains: cashews, white chocolate, red palm oil, tapioca fiber, pea protein, macadamia nuts, medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil, baobab, vanilla, sunflower lecithin, sea salt, monk fruit, and water.
The nutrition info for the White Chocolate Macadamia Cookie Dough flavor is:
- Calories: 250
- Protein: 11 g
- Fat: 20 g
- Net carbs: 0 g
- Fiber: 11 g
Best Vegan: Dang Bars
- Price: \$
- Available flavors: Lemon Matcha, Toasted Coconut, Crazy Rich Chocolate, Almond Cookie, and Peanut Butter
Dang Bars are a great option for those following a plant-based keto diet. The ingredients include nuts, pea protein, and chia and sunflower seeds.
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For example, the Lemon Matcha flavor contains: almonds, chicory root fiber, cocoa butter, pea protein, sunflower seeds, coconut, chia seeds, natural flavors, lemon oil, sunflower lecithin, matcha green tea, citric acid, sea salt, stevia extract, and mixed tocopherols. These bars contain chicory root fiber, which is an excellent source of gut-healthy prebiotic fiber. However, it’s also high in short-chain carbohydrates called FODMAPs, so these bars may not be the best option for individuals with digestive conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
The nutrition info for the Lemon Matcha flavor is:
- Calories: 210
- Protein: 9 g
- Fat: 15 g
- Net carbs: 5 g
- Fiber: 6 g
Best High Fiber: No Cow Dipped Bars
- Price: \$-$$
- Available flavors: Chocolate Sprinkled Donut, Chocolate Sea Salt, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup, Chocolate Salted Caramel, Chocolate Mint Cookie, Cinnamon Roll, Key Lime Pie, and Chocolate Coconut Almond
No Cow Dipped Bars stand out with their high fiber content, offering 11-15 g of fiber per bar. These vegan and keto-friendly bars are made using plant-based ingredients. They’re also certified gluten-free and kosher, soy-free, and Non-GMO Project verified.
The Chocolate Sea Salt bar contains a brown rice and pea protein blend, soluble corn fiber, chocolate coating, glycerine, almonds, palm oil, natural flavors, cocoa powder, salt, water, and a sweetener blend of monk fruit, stevia extract, and erythritol.
The nutrition info for the Chocolate Sea Salt flavor is:
- Calories: 200
- Protein: 20 g
- Fat: 7 g
- Net carbs: 3 g
- Fiber: 15 g
Best-Tasting: CanDo Keto Krisp Bars
- Price: \$\$
- Available flavors: Butter & Salt, Almond Butter Blackberry Jelly, Chocolate Raspberry, Almond Butter, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk, Maple Salted Caramel, Dark Chocolate Almond Sea Salt, and Chocolate Mint
Keto Krisp bars offer a unique crispy and chewy texture. All varieties are gluten-free and sweetened with stevia and erythritol to maintain low sugar content. With the exception of the Butter & Salt flavor (which contains collagen), they’re also plant-based.
Keto Krisp bars also contain MCT oil and fiber.
The nutrition info for the Butter & Salt flavor is:
- Calories: 240
- Protein: 10 g
- Fat: 19 g
- Net carbs: 4 g
- Fiber: 9 g
Best with Probiotics: CORE Keto Bars
- Price: \$\$
- Available flavors: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Dark Chocolate Sea Salt, and Peanut Butter Chocolate
CORE Foods offers keto bars made with probiotics, which may be beneficial for gut health. They contain the strain Bacillus coagulans GBI-30 6086, which may help your body absorb protein more effectively. These bars should be refrigerated because they contain live probiotics and no preservatives.
These bars are also non-GMO, plant-based, and sweetened with allulose and monk fruit extract.
Here’s the nutrition info for the Peanut Butter Chocolate flavor:
- Calories: 170
- Protein: 7 g
- Fat: 12 g
- Net carbs: 3 g
- Fiber: 7 g
Most Widely Available: think! Keto Protein Bars
- Price: \$
- Available flavors: Chocolate Mousse Pie, Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie, and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough
These keto-friendly protein bars from think! are available at many grocery store chains, including Walmart. They’re available in dessert-like flavors and are highly rated for taste. They’re also gluten-free and sweetened with erythritol and stevia. However, these bars are made with milk protein, so they’re not vegan-friendly.
Here’s the nutrition info for the Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie flavor:
- Calories: 180
- Protein: 10 g
- Fat: 14 g
- Net carbs: 3 g
- Fiber: 3 g
Homemade Keto Bars
Homemade keto bars are ideal if you want to carefully control the ingredients used or simply enjoy making your own foods. A simple recipe can yield bars with approximately 319 calories, 7 g of protein, 28 g of fat, and only 4 g of net carbs. These bars are rich in almonds, pecans, and almond butter. Research has shown that regular nut intake may aid weight loss and benefit heart health.
To make these bars, you’ll need: coconut flour, a protein powder of your choice, peanut butter, a sticky sweetener of your choice, and chocolate chips. To keep these bars keto-friendly, the recipe recommends using monk fruit syrup because it’s carb-free. You may want to double-check that both your protein powder and your chocolate chips are keto-friendly as well.
Additional Considerations
Macronutrient Content
There are several versions of the keto diet, though the most popular one encourages getting at least 70% of your daily calories from fat, 20% from protein, and no more than 10% from carbs. If you’re following a standard keto diet, you’ll want to stick to this macronutrient breakdown as closely as possible. For a 200-calorie bar, this ratio would equal 16 g of fat, 10 g of protein, and no more than 5 g of net carbs.
Ingredients to Avoid
Try to avoid bars with a long list of ingredients you don’t recognize, such as artificial sweeteners or preservatives, as these indicate that the bar is more heavily processed. Research suggests that diets high in ultra-processed foods are linked to an increased risk of chronic health conditions such as cancer, heart disease, and obesity. Instead, choose bars made mostly from whole foods such as oils, spices, natural sweeteners, nuts, and seeds. Because the keto diet is high in fat, you should also look for healthy fats such as nuts and nut butter, MCT oil, avocado oil, and flax, chia, or hemp seeds.
Blood Sugar Levels
Low-carb protein bars are more than just the sum of their ingredients. Even though many protein bars are low in net carbs and touted as keto, they can still raise your blood sugar levels. Tracking your blood sugar can help you narrow down which foods work better for your body. Everyone has a different baseline. The more you do this, the easier it’ll be to track which foods are keto-friendly for your body.
Synthetic Fibers and Sugar Alcohols
Protein bar manufacturers are notorious for misleading consumers by using synthetic fibers and sugar alcohols that are only partially indigestible. They often subtract every gram of carbohydrate from the net carb count, listing a number that is much lower than it actually is.
Common synthetic fibers to watch out for include:
- Isomalto-oligosaccharides (IMO): This synthetic fiber has been shown to contain about 50% digestible carbohydrates.
- Soluble Corn Fiber (SCF): While there’s not much scientific research available on Soluble Corn Fiber yet, anecdotal evidence based on blood glucose testing suggests that it’s almost entirely indigestible and has a low glycemic index.
Common sugar alcohols to avoid include:
- Malitol: This is the most common sweetener in sugar-free candies and has a glycemic index of between 35 and 60.
- Erythritol: With a glycemic index of zero, erythritol is the best option of the sugar alcohols.
- Allulose: Allulose is a new synthetic sugar that was created by QUEST Nutrition.
Tapioca fiber is one of the best soluble fibers for keto, is considered safe from a net carb counting standpoint, and is a prebiotic fiber.