I follow a low carb/keto diet and love its benefits, from the way it helps me feel l, lose and keep off excess body fat. It’s awesome that it’s a diet that allows me to to eat lots of fatty cuts of red meat.
Since I want to make sure I follow my diet and get enough high quality protein every day, making a keto friendly protein shake is often necessary. I like to drink them to add extra protein to my meal and when I’m too busy to cook and nutritious meal.
Like you I only want to take supplements that contain quality ingredients that will help me stay healthy and feeling great. This need led me to researching and testing dozens of products to determine the best protein shakes for ketosis.
Since you’re reading this article you are looking for the same thing. After reading you’ll know which keto protein shakes are best for ketogenic and low carb dieters like us.
You’ll also learn how to make a good shake even better when being in nutritional ketosis is your goal.
My Criteria For Choosing The Best Keto Shakes
Before doing my research and testing I determined the criteria to use for selecting the best protein shake for a keto diet. Each is listed below for you.
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
[unordered_list]
Now that you see what I use to determine the best keto shake, let’s get on to the winners.
The Best Whey Protein Keto Shake – Quest Protein Powder
If whey protein shakes are your thing, you can’t go wrong choosing Quest Protein Powder as your go to keto shake.
Every scoop contains 22 grams of protein from whey and casein, which are both dairy based. By adding casein, you’ll get a 1-2 punch of slow and quickly digested proteins. What this means to you is that your muscles will receive an infusion if muscle and health building amino Acids over several hours. This is great for keeping your body in a healthy, muscle building state.
Since adding casein slows the digestion of the shake down from 45 minutes to several hours, it will also help you stay full longer than drinking whey alone. You’ll not get a big spike in fat storing insulin either like you do when you drink whey by itself.
Every Quest Protein Powder shake has 3 or fewer grams of carbohydrates per scoop and 0 grams of added sugars. It’s gluten free too and mixes easily in a shaker bottle. This is awesome since other whey and casein shakes I’ve tried require a blender and still usually end up too thick to drink.
Last but still super important is its flavor. This is hands down, the best tasting whey/casein shake I’ve tried and in the top 2 of every protein powder I’ve tested for Stayfitcentral.com. The only other one that compares is the supplement reviewed below.
Every one of the 6 available flavors tastes really, really good. The shakes mix into rich, creamy drink that doesn’t have any nasty flavor or aftertaste.
Vanilla and chocolate peanut butter are my favorites but you won’t go wrong with the others either. There’s also a plain flavor that’s great for making keto pancakes and other low carb recipes. .
Quest Protein Powder – key benefits & features
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
[unordered_list]
The Best Dairy Free Keto Shake – Julian Bakery Paleo Protein
If dairy based protein shakes aren’t your thing, this one is for you. Every scoop of Julian Bakery Paleo Protein has 21 grams of protein from eggs, considered to be the perfect protein because of it has all the amino Acids our body needs in the right amounts.
The chocolate flavor uses grass fed beef as it’s source of protein which is great if you allergic to eggs or want to mix up the types of proteins you’re eating.
There’s only 1 gram of carbohydrates per scoop for each flavor which is the least amount of all of the products I tested. Julian’s doesn’t use artificial sweeteners either, opting for stevia instead which is important to many of us. It’s actually one of the only stevia sweetened shakes I like at all since most companies use too much and make it overly sweet.
There’s also a serving of probiotics in each scoop which helps your digestive system build more healthy bacteria which is very beneficial to your overall health.
Just like the Quest Protein shakes Julian’s Bakery makes an awesome tasting product. It’s available in 6 flavors that are all really good. My favorites are chocolate and coconut cream.
They also make a plain flavor which is great for using to make low carb, protein rich baked foods and treats.
Julian Bakery Paleo Protein – key benefits & features
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
[/unordered_list]
How To Make Your Protein Shakes Even More Keto Friendly
While drinking these shakes alone will help you stay in the fat burning state of nutritional ketosis, there’s a way to make them even more better.
By adding a tablespoon of MCT oil or powder to your shake you’ll further enhance their fat burning and energy boosting properties. This is because MCTs – short for medium chain triglycerides – are used to make ketones once they’ve been ingested. This benefit is why so many people use them to get into ketosis fast. (link)
By increasing the amount of ketones in your bloodstream you’ll get even more fat burning and energy boosting benefits. Adding MCTs also help to keep you full between meals too. I find they eliminate my cravings for sweets completely and give me an energy boost that lasts several hours, without any crash afterward.
Don’t worry about these fats making your keto shake taste bad. MCTs are flavorless and odorless and actually help make things taste better. That’s why they’re often used by the food industry albeit in smaller, non-ketone boosting amounts.
If your going to try adding MCTs to your shakes, and I suggest you do, I recommend using either MCT Edge which is a liquid version of Quest MCT Powder.
Both mix very easily, make your shake taste better, and give them a richer, creamier mouthfeel and texture.
If you’d like to learn more about the benefits of MCTs, I recommend reading this article.
Conclusion
Now you know which keto protein shakes are the best. Whether you eat dairy or not, one of the products on this list will be a great match for your needs and tastes.
I’m personally about to have a chocolate flavor Jonathan’s Paleo Protein shake with a tablespoon of MCT Edge. It’ll keep me full, in ketosis, and burning fat, until I eat dinner again tomorrow.