Keto bars and low carb protein bars are not exactly the same thing. If it’s a ketogenic meal replacement bar, it needs to have a lot of fat and hit perfect keto macronutrient ratios with each bar. Like with keto meal replacement shakes, the fat content and source, and the keto macros are the key factors to making a keto bar great.
All these bars are 100% vetted and worthy of being called real keto meal replacement bars (except for #10 which is more like a delicious keto snack. But it’s special as you’ll see, so it had to be on this best keto bars list). Each has a good amount of fat, low net carbs and uses ONLY natural ingredients. You won’t find soy or chemical additives in these. That’s why I call these the best keto bars of 2022…
Table Of Contents:
The Best Keto Bars Of 2023
They vary in protein amounts from low to high capping off around 11 grams, so you can choose either protein amount with a lot of fat easily. These keto protein bars all have perfect macros and more fat than your usual low carb bars. The fat is the key. It’s why these are not just low carb protein bars.
Try To Avoid These Ingredients In Your Keto Bars
Here are some of the ingredients you want to AVOID. Some are obvious, but some might be sneaky like the tapioca starch.
9 bad yet common ingredients in keto products to avoid:
- Corn fiber: GMO, it creates a lot of gas
- Maltodextrin: Glycemic index is over 100
- Dextrin: Synthetic sugar
- Dextrose: Synthetic sugar
- Polydextrose: Synthetic sugar
- Maltitol: Very high in the glycemic index
- Soy protein isolate: GMO
- Splenda: Aspartame, or any other artificial sweeteners
- Tapioca starch: Extracted from cassava root (hard to avoid in natural keto bars. It is natural.)
In the following video, Dr. Eric Berg, the man we all know for his helpful informational videos, shares more about these 9 ingredients to avoid. I like Dr. Berg because he shares good information about fasting and the ketogenic diet. He’s an advocate to both.
This article from Bulletproof shares great information on additives often hidden within “healthy” food.
And did you hear the news?
USDA Organic labels will now include food that use GLYPHOSATE. This is very unfortunate. You really have to be extra vigilant when buying any packaged products. Here’s an article from the blog Live Love Fruit that shares more about this latest travesty of the USDA Organic certification now allowing glyphosate tainted foods.
Before going into each keto bar, here’s them listed out with a unique factor that helped me decide to put them on this top 10 list:
- Perfect Keto Bars: fat content, taste, ingredients
- Bulletproof Bars: ingredients
- MariGold Bars: ingredients! And taste (my fave)
- Stoka Bars: many people love them
- The Original Keto Bars: good ingredients
- Dang Bars: vegetarian friendly keto bars
- IQ Bar: another plant based option
- Kiss My Keto Bars: decent ingredients, taste
- Peak Performance bars: ingredients (grass fed collagen)
- Just The Cheese Bars: ingredients and taste!
Now onto the 10 best high-fat, low carb keto bars currently available to easily buy online, starting with Perfect Keto (but #2 on this list are my favorite):
#1. Perfect Keto Bars – Keto Chocolate Bar (12 Pack)
Looking for a keto chocolate bar? These are highlighted on Amazon as the #1 New Release in the Sports Nutrition Protein Bars category. They advertise that they spent a whole year formulating this keto bar which I fully believe because it’s not easy to create a good consistency, great flavor and include proper keto macro ratios. Paleo bars too being 100% dairy free, the highlight ingredients on the Perfect Keto bars are the organic almond butter, cacao butter, collagen protein, organic cocoa, stevia, and sea salt. The “natural flavors” are from the cacao, however, it does contain soluble tapioca fiber.
Each bar weighs 45G or 1.58OZ and has 230 calories. This is the standard amongst all the keto bars. But each bar is packed with great nutrients from superior ingredients and is a wonderful new product amongst a growing list of some of the highest keto products out there. These Perfect Keto Bars don’t crumble and fall apart like some others have been known to do, so they’re safe to eat while driving. In my book, Perfect Keto has replaced Bulletproof as my go-to company for all keto related products, including their bars.
Perfect Keto Bars Macronutrient Ratios:
- 19g fat per bar (This makes them true “keto bars”)
- 3g net carbohydrates (12g total carbs)
- 10g protein (which makes them a great keto protein bar too)
No products found.
#2. Bulletproof Bars, Keto Bars with MCT Oil
These are touted as “collagen protein bars” and “the perfect keto snack bar” as well. If you love yourself some good ol’ home baked apple pie, then you might fully agree with them. At the time of this writing, there is only 1 Apple Pie box flavor left in stock, so I hope they’re restocking them and not discontinuing! However, they do have other great flavors as well; cookie dough, fudge brownie, lemon cookie, mint chocolate chip, pumpkin spice, vanilla shortbread. Not a bad set of flavors. Browsing the reviews, I see that the taste is not loved by everyone. MOST feedbacks do say they have nice flavor, but around 20% of the reviews say “yuck” or something along those lines.
Each bar weighs the exact same as the Perfect Keto bars above; 158g or 45OZ. The collagen protein is from grass-fed cows and contains the SAME amino acids as does a bowl of overnight slow-cooked bone broth. Being the well-known Bulletproof brand, over course they use premium fat sources, Brain octane oil & XCT oil. It has no dairy, no grains, it’s non-GMO and gluten free. The only red flag might be the tapioca dextrin if you prefer to avoid tapioca, but some don’t mind tapioca.
Bulletproof Keto Macros:
- 14g (saturated fat 7g)
- 11g protein
- 5g net carbs (13g total carbs)
No products found.
#3. MariGold Bars – My Personal Favorite Keto Bar! (12 pack)
Someone asked the company why they use protein isolate over the concentrate. I had no idea that the protein concentrate promoters were hucksters using marketing to give them an edge. Marigold says that it’s a myth that the concentrate is better than whey protein isolate which is actually the most pure form of whey. The cold processed protein isolate is more expensive to produce, thus the premium price tag on these keto bars. If you go for quality over quantity, then these are the best on the list. Better than Perfect Keto’s bars even. They’re not dairy free. So they’re not Paleo bars. However, their grass fed whey isolate protein has the lactose and casein removed, meaning that these are OK if you’re lactose intolerant.
Each ketogenic bar weighs 2.4oz (67g) – This is half the size of the Perfect Keto and Bulletproof bars above, BUT it still has MORE fat and protein than both of them.. Half the size and double the price, but keto dieters are loving them. MariGold Keto Bars are made homemade fresh. They ship fresh. And they have the freshest reviews of them all on online marketplaces like Amazon. These are the best I’ve come across, so here’s a bit more on them, followed by their keto macros:
Why Marigold keto fat bomb brownies are a great go-to #1 choice:
- Bloat free: Most protein powders and bars use cheap whey concentrate. This form of protein is known for its digestion-related side effects. MariGold Bars use grass fed isolate whey protein. It is clean and gives off no side effects, unlike the concentrate, even though it is technically a dairy product.
- No peanuts or peanut products in the ingredients or used within manufacturing facilities
- The whey protein used is derived from certified disease-free, pesticide-free, chemical-free, hormone-free and GMO-free USA cows.
- ZERO tapioca (the fiber used is an organic ingredient called chickory root), no dextrin and gluten-Free
- High protein: these are technically “keto protein bars” at 21 grams per bar.
MariGold Keto Fat Bomb Macros:
- 15g fat (7g sat fat)
- 7g protein
- 7g net carbs (8g total carbs)
1 Serving = 1 Brownie (31g)
5 servings per bag.
No products found.
#4. Stoka Bars (8 pack)
These bars come in a “variety box” with a mix of vanilla almond and coco almond flavors. Just like the Marigold bars, these are also hand made. These, in Texas. They are crunchy, too, so if crunchy, homemade keto bars are what you’re looking for, these are a high quality, clean ingredient option to go with.
Each bar has 260 calories and weighs 54g or 1.9oz. Stoka Bars ingredients include non-GMO roasted almonds, butter powder, psyllium husk (great for digestion), and it’s sweetened by stevia leaf extract. They have no soy, zero sugar and are gluten-free.
Stoka Bars Keto Macros:
- 23g fat (but only 2.5g of saturated fat)
- 9g protein
- 4g net carbs (19g total carbs)
No products found.
#5. The Original Keto Bars (10 ct.)
These are some of the best value keto bars on Amazon. And they have some of the best flavors, Mint Chocolate, Chocolate Peanut Butter, and Dark Chocolate Coconut Almond. Each bar weighs 1.65oz or 47g. They’re not the biggest bar on the list at that size and with 21g of fat, but these are a very clean and simple food bar that are pack great ingredients and enough fat to make them a true keto bar.
They’re a newer product, but they are highlighted as the #1 New Release in their category.
Honest By Design Keto Macros:
- 21g fat (11g saturated fat)
- 8g protein
- 3g net carbs (13g total carbs)
No products found.
#6. Dang Bars – Plant-Based Keto Bars (12 per box)
If you like Pea Protein, then check out Dang Bars. They don’t have that much fat, but the macros are keto friendly and they are a tasty option from the looks of it after seeing the great taste feedbacks from many happy customers. These plant based keto bars that come in a variety pack of 3 great flavor choices: almond vanilla, chocolate sea salt, and lemon matcha. Each bar weighs 40g and has 200 calories.
Dang Bars Keto Macros:
- 15g fat (4.5g saturated fat)
- 9g protein (from pea protein)
- 2g net carbs (11g total carbs)
No products found.
#7. IQ Bar Brain Keto Protein Bars (12ct.)
This IQ Bar is formulated for “mental performance” with the addition of brain supporting nutrients, including Omega-3s, Lion’s Mane, and Magnesium. The IQ Bar is a newer to market keto bar that has 16g of fat in each bar. 1 IQ Bar weighs 45 grams, so it’s not the largest bar on this list, but it does have some unique ingredients that no other keto bar on this list has. This is a vegan keto bar that’s 100% plant based, like the Dang Bars. The downside to their vegan friendliness is that their plant based fats (Based off almonds and flax seed), have no healthy saturated fats.
IQ Bar Keto Macros:
- 16g fat (1g saturated fat)
- 6g protein (almond, walnut)
- 4g net carbs (18g total carbs)
No products found.
#8. Kiss My Keto Bars (12 pack)
Kiss My Keto bars are a popular keto snack for many as their overall triple digit number of reviews are pretty good. Some people end up not enjoying keto bars because they’re not used to a bar with keto macros. Overall, the majority of reviews mention that they love the flavor on these Kiss My Keto protein bars, but there’s the one every so often that does not like them. Each bar weighs 50g, so they’re bigger than the majority of the bars on this list, and their keto macros are great. With only 3g net carbs, 20g of fat and almost double digit in grams of protein. It’s one of the best ketogenic diet bars out there and has a high chance of satisfying your on-the-go meal replacement needs.
Kiss My Keto Macros:
- 20g fat (14g saturated fat)
- 9g protein (egg whites, milk protein isolate)
- 3g net carbs (16g total carbohydrates)
No products found.
#9. Peak Performance Grass Fed Collagen Keto Bars (12 pack)
The highlight of these keto bars is the grass fed collagen and cashew butter. The bar is the standard bar size (45g) and the fat amount is only 14g per bar. It’s enough to make it a nice keto friendly snack that has all natural ingredients, no GMOs, and zero fillers. Each natural ingredient serves a purpose and you can spell it out easily which is always a good sign. They do use nuts and Non-GMO soluble Tapioca fiber. So if you can’t do nuts for allergy reasons, then these you’ll want to avoid. But if you’re on a brownie fix, and are looking for a keto brownie specifically, Peak Performance Grass Fed Collagen Bars are a great brownie snack with clean ingredients and keto macros to suit your needs. Plus, they have a lot of protein too.
Peak Performance Bars Keto Macros:
- 14g fat (4.5 saturated fat)
- 11g protein
- 7g net carbs (15g total carbs)
No products found.
#10. Just The Cheese Bars – Grilled Cheese Bars (12ct.)
Keto cheese bars? These grilled cheese, and aged cheddar bars had to be included in this list. With over 1,500 mostly positive reviews, these can be the greatest option on this list if you’re a fellow cheese head.. not a Packers fan, but a lover of cheese. These do use Wisconsin cheese though, not fake cheese made with chemical ingredients. And they’re baked to give them an appropriate crunch. There are 3 flavors in total:
- Aged Cheddar
- Jalapeno
- Grilled Cheese
Size-wise, each bar weighs only 11g, so it’s a quarter of the size of a normal keto bar. At 12 cheese keto bars per box, the main downside to these might be that you’ll blaze right through the box. If you anticipate you’ll enjoy the natural Wisconsin cheese in these keto grilled cheese and aged cheese bars flavors, then you may want to order 2. The serving size is quoted at 2 bars due to their small size.
Just The Cheese Bars Keto Macros (1 serving is 2 bars):
- 12g (8g saturated fat)
- 8g protein
- <1g total carbs
No products found.
Conclusion: The Best Keto Bars
I like numbers 1 through 4 and then #10, the grilled cheese bars, on this list the best. But I have yet to personally try half of them and judged them based off what I would buy for my next box of ketogenic diet meal bars. I read all the online reviews and then analyzed the ingredients, followed by the value per box and the fat amounts per serving. I’m a creature of habit and prefer to stick with what I already like, but when I venture out next past my go-to MariGold bars and I try them all, I will post updates on this list. We’re also working on perfecting our own keto bars recipe, so come back to view our future recipe or sign up to the newsletter and we’ll let you know when it’s published!
Thanks for coming by the Nutrition Adventures blog!
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Akash says
Nice post, thanks for the list. The video you included was very helpful
Nutrition Adventures says
Thank you, Akash.