Keto Fast Food Guide: What to Order and What to Avoid

Looking for the best keto fast food options? I’ve got you covered with this handy keto fast food guide! Learn what to order and what to avoid at a variety of popular fast food restaurants, plus general keto fast food tips.

Keto Fast Food

You’re short on time and don’t have any keto friendly options available to you… what do you do? Do you A) say “forget keto!” and eat the lone edible option in your pantry/desk at work/car (a definitely-not-keto bag of chips), or B) make a beeline for the closest fast food restaurant and scan the menu for the lowest-carb option you can find?

Option B, of course! While fast food may not be known as the pinnacle of health food, sometimes it’s the only option — and there is no shame in that. If you’re short on time or just too freakin’ tired to cook or shop, keto fast food to the rescue!

In this post, I’m going to lay out a variety of keto friendly fast food options so you can choose a fast food meal, well… fast!

Please BOOKMARK this post right now because I am going to update and improve it as much as possible. I want it to be so comprehensive that you wouldn’t think of going anywhere else!

Help Me Make This the Best Keto Fast Food Guide!

Before we get started, I need your help! 🙂 I want to make this the BEST keto fast food guide by including all of your amazing keto fast food meals. If you want to submit your fast food meal photo and info for inclusion in this guide, click here and fill out the form. Don’t forget to email me a photo of your meal! (Info on the form.) By submitting your information, you’re helping out fellow keto’ers. THANK YOU!

What Keto Friendly Fast Food Can I Eat?

When you eat keto at a fast food restaurant, you’ll want to combine basics (e.g., a burger, bacon slices, or eggs). Sometimes this will happen all in one meal by asking to remove the bun from a burger, and sometimes you may need to mix n’ match some standalone items to create your order.

In general, you’re okay to order the following:

• Plain meat: including burgers, chicken, etc.
  • Ask for a lettuce bun/wrap if you’d like
• Eggs
  • Some fast food restaurants add milk to their eggs, but I have found (via the nutrition guides) that the impact is negligible
• Bacon
• Low carb vegetables: side salads, burger toppings (pickle slices, onion slices)
• Low carb dairy: cheese, sour cream, heavy whipping cream (if ordering a plain coffee or tea — but remember that heavy whipping cream has 0.5g carbs per tbsp because nutrition labels are allowed to round down, so don’t go overboard!)
• Guacamole
• Certain sauces: mayo, ranch dressing (usually)

In other words, think meat, eggs, low carb dairy, and low carb vegetables!

What Fast Food Should I Avoid on the Keto Diet?

In general, you should avoid all of the following (most of which should come as no surprise!):

• All bread: buns, biscuits, wraps, muffins, etc.
• All sauces: ketchup, BBQ sauces, dipping sauces, etc.
  • Mustard and mayo are typically okay
• All desserts
• All fruit
  • A lemon or lime slice in your drink is okay
• Most drinks
  • Iced coffees and teas are often sweetened and/or contain milk; double-check with the restaurant’s nutrition guide
  • An occasional diet soda is okay
• Anything breaded
• Anything sweetened
• Anything flavored
  • Unless you’ve checked the restaurant’s nutrition guide and have verified that the flavoring is low carb, it’s not worth the risk

The #1 Tip for Eating Keto at Fast Food Restaurants

The #1 tip for eating keto at fast food restaurants is to just ask. You never know what a particular employee, manager, or location can do for you unless you ask! With the increasing popularity of keto, many folks know what keto is, and many are willing to create a special order for you if it’s within their means.

Best Keto Fast Food by Restaurant

More restaurants coming soon!

Keto McDonalds — Keto Friendly at McDonald’s

You’ll be happy to know that there plenty of keto friendly choices at the iconic fast food restaurant, McDonald’s! Here are some of the best keto fast food options at McDonald’s:

Breakfast

• Egg McMuffin (skip the muffin) – 3g Net Carbs; 11g Fat; 12g Protein
• Customize the “Big Breakfast” – The Big Breakfast typically comes with hash browns, a biscuit, scrambled eggs, and a sausage patty. Keep the scrambled eggs and sausage patty and ask to customize it by getting another serving of scrambled eggs and/or sausage, or ask to include other options, like cheese, from different breakfast meals. The ability to customize will depend on the particular location.

Lunch/dinner

• Egg McMuffin (skip the muffin) – 3g Net Carbs; 11g Fat; 12g Protein — yep, they serve it all day!
• Quarter Pounder with Cheese (skip the bun and ketchup) – 3g Net Carbs, 25g Fat; 25g Protein
• Double Cheeseburger (skip the bun and ketchup) – 3g Net Carbs; 20g Fat; 20g Protein

What makes McDonald’s so awesome is they have a fully customizable nutrition calculator. You can remove whatever pieces of a meal you don’t want and come up with the exact nutrition values.

For more information on keto at McDonald’s (including a link to their nutrition calculator), hop on over to The Ultimate Keto McDonalds Guide!

Keto Chipotle — Keto at Chipotle

If you’re looking for super fresh keto friendly fast food for lunch or dinner, Chipotle is a great choice. It’s my personal favorite! I love the ability to easily build my own meal based on what I’m craving at the moment.

Here are some great keto fast food options at Chipotle:

• The “ultimate fat bomb” bowl: carnitas, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, romaine lettuce: 5g Net Carbs; 51g Fat; 33g Protein (I often like to make it a salad bowl, like in the photo above, which adds another 1g net carbs from the extra romaine lettuce…  totally worth it, in my opinion!)
• Keto vegetarian order: romaine lettuce, cheese, sour cream, guacamole — 5g Net Carbs; 39g Fat; 10g Protein

Chipotle has an awesome nutrition calculator that allows you to build your ideal keto meal from scratch so there is no guessing.

For more information on keto at Chipotle (including a link to their nutrition calculator), hop on over to The Ultimate Keto Chipotle Guide!

Burger King Keto — Keto at Burger King

Even though Burger King is best known for its definitely-not-keto Whopper, the fast food chain is shockingly keto friendly. With the simple removal of the bread and sauce from most menu items, you can have yourself a keto feast fit for a (burger) king. Here is a sampling of some of the best keto friendly fast food at Burger King:

Breakfast

• Sausage, Egg & Cheese Croissan’wich (skip the croissant) – 1g Net Carbs; 24g Fat; 14g Protein
• King Croissan’wich with Double Sausage (skip the croissant) – 2g Net Carbs; 43g Fat; 28g Protein
• King Croissan’wich with Sausage and Bacon (skip the croissant) – 2g Net Carbs; 33g Fat; 20g Protein
• Ham, Egg & Cheese Croissan’wich (skip the croissant) – 2g Net Carbs; 8g Fat; 12g Protein

Lunch/dinner

• Grilled Chicken Sandwich (skip the bun) – 0g Net Carbs; 16g Fat; 37g Protein
• Hamburger (skip the bun and ketchup) – 0g Net Carbs; 8g Fat; 9g Protein
• Cheeseburger (skip the bun and ketchup) – <1g Net Carbs; 11g Fat; 11g Protein
• Bacon Double Cheeseburger (skip the bun and ketchup) – <1g Net Carbs; 21g Fat; 20g Protein
• Double Whopper (skip the bun, ketchup, tomatoes, and onion) – <1g Net Carbs; 71g Fat; 59g Protein

And those are just some of your choices. There are so many tasty menu items that you can “keto-ize” at Burger King! They also have an excellent nutrition calculator that allows you to remove whatever ingredients you want from menu items.

For more information on keto at Burger King (including a link to their nutrition calculator), hop on over to The Ultimate Burger King Keto Guide!

Is Chick-fil-A Keto Friendly? — Keto Friendly Fast Food at Chick-fil-A

If you’re craving chicken on keto, Chick-fil-A is the place to go! They have a wide variety of chicken-based keto meals, including grilled (not breaded!) chicken nuggets. Here are a few of the best keto options at Chick-fil-A:

Breakfast

• Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit (skip the biscuit) – 0g Net Carbs; 23g Fat; 16g Protein
• Sausage, Egg & Cheese Biscuit (skip the biscuit) – 1g Net Carbs; 46g Fat; 22g Protein

Lunch/dinner

• Grilled Chicken Sandwich (skip the bun) – 2g Net Carbs; 6g Fat; 29g Protein
• Grilled Chicken Club Sandwich (skip the bun) – 2g Net Carbs; 16g Fat; 38g Protein
• Grilled Nuggets – 2g Net Carbs; 3.5g Fat; 25g Protein (these are great paired with one of the dipping sauces listed below)

Something that I really like about Chick-fil-A is their dipping sauces. They actually have two that are totally keto friendly:

• Zesty Buffalo Sauce – 1g Net Carbs; 2.5g Fat
• Garlic & Herb Ranch Sauce – 1g Net Carbs; 14g Fat

One thing I don’t like about Chick-fil-A is they don’t offer a customizable nutrition calculator, but just a guide. It’s pretty easy to figure out the keto calculations for most menu items, but not all. Anyone a Chick-fil-A insider who can help a keto friend out?! 😉

For more information on keto at Chick-fil-A (including a link to their nutrition guide), hop on over to The Ultimate Keto Chick-fil-A Guide!

Wendys Keto  — Keto at Wendy’s

Wendy’s has a nice selection of low carb items! Here are some of the best keto options at Wendy’s:

Breakfast

• Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Biscuit (skip the biscuit) – 1g Net Carbs; 12g Fat; 10g Protein
• Bacon, Egg, and Swiss Croissant (skip the croissant) – 2g Net Carbs; 15g Fat; 13g Protein

Lunch/dinner

• Jr. Cheeseburger (skip the bun and ketchup) – 1g Net Carbs; 12g Fat; 12g Protein
• Jr. Hamburger (skip the bun and ketchup) – 1g Net Carbs; 8g Fat; 10g Protein
• Grilled Chicken Sandwich (skip the bun) – 4g Net Carbs; 7g Fat; 29g Protein (vs. 35g Net Carbs)
  • Note: Can be reduced to <1g net carbs if you remove the Smoky Honey Mustard.

For more information on keto at Wendy’s (including how to access their nutrition information), hop on over to The Ultimate Wendys Keto Guide!

More restaurants are coming soon — check back often!

What’s Your Favorite Keto Fast Food Meal?

What’s your favorite keto fast food meal? Leave a comment and let me know!

Want to be Included in this Low Carb Fast Food Guide?

Don’t forget, I would love to include your photo showcasing your meal! If you want to submit your fast food meal photo and info for inclusion in this guide, click here and fill out the form. Thank you!