A keto shake is a powderized supplement that you can mix with water to create a high-fat, low-carb meal on the go.
Traditional shakes are incredibly convenient for getting a well-balanced meal with virtually no prep work, no clean-up, and a high nutrient and energy density.
Unfortunately for people on a keto diet, most traditional meal replacement shakes are high in carbs, high in protein, and low in fat.
That’s not what you need when you are on a ketogenic diet. The power of a keto shake lies in its ability to deliver a fast, convenient, and nutritionally dense meal that still meets the needs of the strict keto diet restrictions.
Don’t think that keto shakes are only for people on the keto diet, though: anyone looking to keep carb intake low and replace it with higher fat intake can benefit from a high quality keto shake.
We’ve ranked the best keto shakes on the market right now, plus taken a look at the science behind keto shakes.
Our advisory panel and our research team rank the best health products and supplements based on performance, label accuracy, and the efficacy of the ingredients in the products.
- Best Overall: Team Keto (Keto shake)
- Best for weight loss: Ample K (Ketogenic formula)
- Best with collagen: Ketologie Keto Shake
- KetoLogic Keto Meal
- American Metabolix Keto Meal
Research
Rankings
Last updated: November 4, 2022
Keto shakes considered: 24
Hours of research: 44
Experts reviewed: 6
Scientific papers referenced: 11
| IMAGE | PRODUCT | |
|---|---|---|
Best Overall  | 1. Team Keto (Keto shake)
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Best for weight loss  | 2. Ample K (Ketogenic formula)
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Best with collagen  | 3. Ketologie Keto Shake
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 | 4. KetoLogic Keto Meal
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 | 5. American Metabolix Keto Meal
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 | 6. LevelUp Grass-Fed Keto Protein
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 | 7. Slimfast Keto Meal Shake
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 | 8. Perfect Keto Collagen
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 | 9. Kiss My Keto Keto Protein
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 | 10. Garden of Life Keto Meal
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1. Team Keto (Keto shake)
Prefer your keto shakes to be delicious and well-balanced? Team Keto nailed it with their aptly named Meal Replacement Shake.
Each serving provides 20 grams of healthy fats, 12 grams of grass-fed protein, and only 1 gram of net carbs. You won’t find any sugar alcohols, artificial sweeteners or other corners cut either. That’s music to our keto ears.
In fact, Meal Replacement is 100% natural with the chocolate edition flavored completely with cocoa, stevia and Himalayan sea salt.
If you’re looking for a smooth and creamy keto meal replacement shake that isn’t oily and nails your macros just right, look no further.
2. Ample K (Ketogenic formula)
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Ample K makes it easier than ever to stay in ketosis with its delicious pre-proportioned meal replacement.
They put together an amazing formula of rich fats, proteins, organic greens, prebiotics, probiotics, and targeted micronutrients to keep your body charging through the day with little effort from your part. Just add water or a cold brew coffee and you’re ready to go, no measuring needed.
They managed to do this with only 3 grams of carbs per 400 calorie bottle making it one of the lowest carb pre-proportioned meal replacements on the market today.
It’s gluten-free, soy-free, and has no sugar alcohols that are found in so many keto products. It has a mild, all-natural, sweetness that comes from the coconut, vanilla, and macadamia, spiced up with cinnamon to make it taste great.
Ample K makes eating a keto diet easier and more delicious than ever, which makes it a great choice for anyone with a busy lifestyle.
3. Ketologie Keto Shake
Ketologie Keto Shake is the best keto shake on the market thanks to its super-high fat content, strong fiber content, and lack of any sugar.
The primary source of fat energy in Ketologie Keto Shake is coconut oil, which provides plenty of MCT oils. Protein comes from hydrolyzed collagen powder, derived from cow bones.
Erythritol is the sweetener of choice, along with cocoa and vanilla which gives it a smooth, sweet, chocolatey flavor without any sugar. Thanks to the high nutritional quality and great taste, it’s a great pick.
4. KetoLogic Keto Meal
KetoLogic Keto Meal delivers slightly less fat than some other keto shakes, but it’s got a few distinct advantages.
First, it has several sources of fat energy, including MCT oil, coconut oil, and milk-derived fats. Second, it includes several vitamins and minerals that give it a leg up when it comes to addressing your micronutrient intake.
Many keto shakes, even top-rated ones, don’t provide much in the way of vitamins and minerals, which can already be a concern on a keto diet.
5. American Metabolix Keto Meal
American Metabolix Keto Meal is designed to be a keto-focused entire meal replacement. It’s very energy dense thanks to its use of whole egg powder and dehydrated butter, which provide pretty much all of the caloric, protein, and fat content.
The primary downside is the very high cholesterol content, but recent research suggests that cholesterol may not be the boogeyman it was once thought to be, at least for some people.
6. LevelUp Grass-Fed Keto Protein
Though billed as a keto protein powder, LevelUp Grass-Fred Keto Protein contains a surprisingly large amount of fat.
Protein still dominates the macros, at 10 grams per serving compared to 6 grams of fat, but the ingredients are of particularly high quality.
If you want high-quality grass-fed ingredients, LevelUp Grass-Fed Keto Protein is a great choice.
7. Perfect Keto Collagen
Perfect Keto Collagen is a good keto-friendly source of protein, and provides MCT oil to boot.
However, it can’t function well on its own as a full keto meal replacement unless you’ve got room to spare in your macro ratios for extra protein.
The fat content is fairly low, which is a consequence of using MCT oil as the only fat source.
8. Kiss My Keto Keto Protein
Kiss My Keto Keto Protein is another keto protein source that uses collagen protein and MCT oil as dual fuel sources.
Again, the primary downside is that you’ll need to clear up some space for extra protein in your keto diet.
However, if you aren’t actually aiming to start in ketosis, it’s a pretty solid pick thanks to only three grams of carbohydrates per serving.
9. Slimfast Keto Meal Shake
Slimfast Keto Meal Shake contains a lot of calories from fat, a modest amount from protein, and plenty of vitamins and minerals.
The ingredients list is not quite as clean as some of the other competitors on the market, but it does deliver a very energy-dense meal replacement that’s appropriate for people on ketogenic diets.
10. Garden of Life Keto Meal
Garden of Life Keto Meal uses grass fed butter powder alongside whey protein for its protein and fat contents.
While it doesn’t have quite the same healthy fat profile as some of its competitors, it does have the added bonus of probiotic bacteria, still with only one gram of sugar per serving. Though it is a tiny bit heavy on protein, it’s still a solid pick.
Category winners
Best keto shake overall: Team Keto
Team Keto is tough to beat when it comes to overall quality: its high MCT oil used to provide the bulk of the fat calories and the rock-bottom carbohydrate content make it a simple and effective keto shake that doesn’t skimp on protein.
Best keto shake with collagen: Ketologie Collagen Keto Shake
Beyond being a keto- and paleo-friendly way to get protein, collagen is helpful for joint health, skin health, and more. Ketologie Collagen Keto Shake is the best keto shake on the market that provides collagen without sacrificing the fat content.
Best keto shake for weight loss: Ample K
Using keto to lose weight? Look no further than Ample K. With 400 calories per shake and only three grams of carbohydrates, Ample K functions great as a meal replacement, and won’t jack up your blood sugar levels or leave you hungry only an hour or two later.
Best keto shake with protein: Team Keto
Sourcing their 12 grams of protein from grass-fed whey protein isolate, Team Keto has some of the highest-quality protein out of any keto shake product. Add to that 20 grams of MCT oil and coconut oil and you’ve got a protein-heavy keto shake that still provides the majority of its calories from fat.
Best-tasting keto shake: Ketologie Collagen Keto Shake
Ketologie’s combination of coconut oil, natural cocoa powder, and vanilla extract combine to make a great-tasting keto shake you’ll never get sick of.
Best keto shake for women: Ample K
Ample K’s simple formulation, great taste, and ultra-low carb content make it a great choice for women looking for a keto shake. Women with a busy schedule looking for an easy way to keep up with their low carb or keto diet should definitely give Ample K a shot.
Who should buy a keto shake?
One of the biggest inconveniences of the keto diet is the difficulty of finding keto-friendly foods when you are on the go. Keto shakes solve this problem. They’re a great tool for:
People on the keto diet who travel a lot. Almost every pre-packaged food has a substantial amount of carbs, or is designed to be low-fat. This makes it tough to stay in ketosis. A keto shake is an easy way to have access to a keto-friendly meal no matter where you go.
Keto dieters who want to get healthy fats and protein from a single source. A keto shake has a high fat content, often from healthy sources of fats like avocado, coconut, or olive oil. A good keto shake will also supply a moderate amount of protein from a low-carb source, like bone broth, egg white, or collagen powder.
People on low-carb diets who want a meal replacement shake. Even if you are on a non-keto low-carb diet, keto shakes are a great source of protein, fats, and micronutrients that can take the place of sugar and carb-laden snacks. They have a well-controlled amount of calories, and leverage the ability of fats and particularly protein to fill you up to a greater extent than an equivalent amount of carbohydrates.
People who don’t want an energy crash after a carb-heavy meal. Unlike meal replacements that are carb-heavy, a keto shake won’t spike your blood sugar and insulin levels, only to result later in a crash in energy levels and an increase in hunger. Instead, you’ll get a slower, controlled release in calories that will help you go longer before your next meal.
While keto shakes are most attractive for people on a ketogenic diet, anyone trying to cut out carbs can benefit from an occasional keto shake in lieu of their typical carb or sugar-loaded breakfast or lunch. Whether your goal is weight loss or weight maintenance, a keto shake can help you get there.
How we ranked
When we were formulating our keto shake rankings, we valued macro ratios, micronutrient content, great taste, and solid overall formulations.
High fat, moderate protein, and rock-bottom carb content. The first criteria we examined was the overall macronutrient content: if you are trying to stay in ketosis, your total intake of fat, protein, and carbohydrates is all-important.
To make our rankings, a keto shake had to provide the majority of its calories from fat, with protein taking second and only a small fraction of calories from carbohydrates (a few grams of net carbs at the very most).
Even though there are plenty of great meal replacement shakes and protein shakes that don’t meet these strict criteria, they didn’t make our keto rankings due to the importance of macro ratios.
Quality fat sources. After making sure the macros were on point for all of our keto shake candidates, we looked at the specific quality of the fats and protein. For fats, we wanted high-quality sources like MCT oil, coconut oil, or avocado oil.
These provide great medium chain triglycerides that are associated with numerous potential health benefits. These are preferable to cheaper, lower-quality sources of fat calories like palm oil.
Keto-friendly proteins with a full-spectrum amino acid profile. On the protein front, we were looking for keto-friendly sources of protein that provide a robust, complete amino acid profile, like collagen protein, bone broth protein, egg white or whole egg protein.
These proteins provide a better balance of amino acids than you can generally get in a vegan protein powder. For keto shakes in particular, you want to squeeze out the highest quality protein per gram, because too much total protein content can actually pull you out of ketosis, as your body will convert protein back in to carbohydrates.
Great taste with all-natural flavoring. Since adherence to the diet is one of the biggest limiting factors in the ketogenic diet, we also considered the taste and texture of a keto shake.
We wanted to avoid at all costs the stereotypes about keto shakes and meal replacement shakes in general—that they are chalky, gritty, and bland. We looked for smooth, great-tasting keto shakes, but we required that products achieve this taste and texture without excessive amounts of sugar or synthetic sweeteners, colors, and flavoring agents.
We had a strong preference for keto shakes that used stevia, cocoa powder, and other natural sources of sweetness and flavor.
Micronutrient content. Finally, we looked to see which products had added perks, like extra vitamins and minerals. These can make a difference if you are relying on a keto shake as a meal replacement shake on a regular basis.
If you are swapping out a full meal for a keto shake and you aren’t replacing the vitamins and minerals that you would’ve gotten in real food, you could put yourself at risk for a deficit over the long run.
After weighing all of these factors and sorting the remaining products by overall score, we were left with our final list of the top keto shakes on the market.
FAQ
Q: What is the best kind of keto shake?
A: The best keto shakes are those that provide high fat content, moderate protein content, and minimal or no carbohydrate content.
These were the most important criteria that our research team used when formulating our rankings of the top keto shakes on the market.
According to our team, the best keto shakes out right now include Team Keto, Ample K, Ketologie, and Top Notch Keto Super Collagen, as these all meet this most important criteria.
Q: How many calories are in a keto shake?
A: Most keto shakes, by design, have around 250 to 450 calories per serving. The aim with this caloric content is to replace the calories you would be getting in a meal, perhaps slightly undershooting to help with weight loss.
If you are specifically trying to bulk up while staying in ketosis, you may need to make some custom modifications to your keto shake (or just take more servings of it)—the vast majority of people who take keto shakes are trying to lose or at least maintain their weight.
Q: What should you look for in a premade keto shake?
A: Macro ratios are by far the most important aspect of a keto shake. If the proportion of calories from fats, protein, and carbohydrates aren’t around the magic 75:20:5 ratio, the product likely isn’t worth your time.
A keto shake works best when it uses high quality sources of fats and proteins: great sources of fat include coconut oil (and its derivative, MCT oil), olive oil, and avocado oil. Avoid products that rely on palm oil or other low-cost oils.
For protein, you want a complete amino acid source: that’s usually going to be an animal-product protein source like collagen powder, bone broth, whole egg or egg white, or milk protein derivatives (such as whey or casein protein).
Our research team preferred collagen, bone broth, or egg white proteins when we made our rankings, because the protein content is very high and these proteins contain all of the essential amino acids.
Finally, don’t neglect flavor and texture: if a keto shake tastes awful, it doesn’t matter how good the nutrient quality is; you aren’t likely to drink it on a regular basis.
Q: What can you mix with a keto shake?
A: Keto shake go great with green superfood drink powders, as these powders add a huge amount of antioxidants but almost nothing in the way of carbohydrates.
These can help get some of the nutrition quality you would get in a traditional smoothie made from fruits and vegetables, but without the high carbohydrate content.
A keto shake is also a great way to incorporate a fiber supplement like psyllium husk. Because traditional sources of dietary fiber, like fruit, oatmeal, and whole grains, are restricted on the ketogenic diet, many people doing keto have lower than optimal fiber intake.
Because fiber supplements aren’t digestible, they add practically nothing in terms of carbs, but can really help with some of the gastrointestinal side effects that cause people trouble when adjusting to keto.
Related articles
- Protein for weight loss
- MCT oil
- Coconut oil
- Meal replacement shake
- Paleo protein powder
- Low carb protein powder
- Carb blocker
- Exogenous ketones
- Keto bars
Recap
A keto shake is a pre-made powder that you mix up in water to replace a meal while still staying within the boundaries of what is allowed on the ketogenic diet.
These keto shakes provide the lion’s share of their calories from high-quality sources of fat, with a judicious amount of protein as well.
They are great for staying in ketosis when you are not able to make your own keto-friendly meals at home, and are beneficial for both weight loss and for long endurance performance.
Keto shakes themselves are very well-tolerated, but you do have to watch out for potential side effects from ketosis.
In all, though, many people find that ketosis is well worth it for the benefits, and a keto shake is a great way to ensure you stay in the confines of the ketogenic diet.
For BodyNutrition‘s #1 keto shake recommendation, click here.
