A keto shake is used by people who are trying to lose weight, and work by putting your body into ketosis. This ignites fat loss and helps to shed unwanted pounds.
They also provide a multitude of other benefits, including better brain health and reduced risk for certain cancers.
With a keto shake, it’s important to know:
- Keto shakes require protein, which can help maintain muscle mass when you lose weight
- Keto shakes need to be full of fat, to put your body into ketosis (a powerful weight loss state)
- Keto shakes need to contain zero sugar, and as little carbs as possible so that blood sugar and insulin remain unaffected.
Besthealth’s adept health team has put together a list of the top keto shakes, reviewed and ranked based on all available clinical data.
Our Winners
- Best overall: Team Keto (Keto Shake)
- Best keto shake powder: KetoLogic Keto BHB Exogenous Ketones Powder
- Best keto protein shake: ALOHA Vanilla Plant-Based Keto Friendly Protein Powder
- Best tasting keto shake: Ketologie Collagen Keto Shake
- Best keto shake for women: Top Notch Nutrition Keto Super Collagen
- Best keto shake for men: American Metabolix Keto Meal
- Best keto meal replacement shake: Ample K
Best Overall
1. Team Keto (Keto Shake)
Flooded with MCT powder, coconut oil, grass-fed whey protein, and 100% natural flavors and sweeteners, Team Keto’s Keto Shake is made with only superior ingredients. It also helps to keep you hydrated with 220 mg of sodium.
The amazing taste, quality ingredients, and extra boost in ketosis is why Team Keto is ranked #1.
2. Ample K (Ketogenic Formula)
This keto shake is prepared with 20+ superfoods, premium fats, proteins, fibers, antioxidants, electrolytes, and probiotics.
Its ketogenic food combination is constructed from premium, authentic food ingredients.
3. Ketologie Collagen Keto Shake
Ketologie’s Shake contains powerful ketogenic ingredients, such as organic erythritol & stevia, cocoa, type I & III collagen peptides, coconut oil powder, and sea salt. It’s ideal for an athlete or fitness enthusiast.
If you’re a coffee-lover, this is the perfect keto treat to add to your coffee for a delicious keto creamer.
4. About Time Keto Shake
The elements that consist in About Time’s Keto Shake, such as bovine collagen protein, and MCTs from coconuts, give it its luscious taste.
It’s also low glycemic, gluten-free, and has no artificial colors or flavors.
5. KetoLogic Keto BHB Exogenous Ketones Powder
If you need a boost in energy to get you through your workouts or day, this is the keto shake for you. It includes BHB, which is a molecule that supports your brain, heart, and muscles.
6. Top Notch Nutrition Keto Super Collagen
Top Notch Nutrition Keto Super Collagen is made with 100% fresh cough hydrolyzed marine collagen peptides, avocado powder, pure C8/C10 MCT oil powder, and grass-fed butter powder making it super collagen.
The tri-fat blend with 7,000 mg of high powered fats will push you into ketosis.
7. American Metabolix Keto Meal
This keto shake is blended with the perfect keto ratio of 75% fat, 20% protein, and 5% carbs.
Since this supplement uses egg protein, it digests more slowly preventing an insulin spike.
8. LevelUp Grass-Fed Keto Protein
As a grass-fed protein shake, LevelUp Grass-Fed Keto Protein, only contains the cleanest grass-fed ingredients, such as grass-fed butter, grass-fed collagen protein, and grass-fed Irish whey protein.
This shake has clean MCT to increase ketone production for vigilance, focus, satiation, and a vitalized mind and body.
9. ALOHA Vanilla Plant-Based Keto Friendly Protein Powder
This supplement is crafted with 12 real ingredients with complete amino acid profile, prebiotics, and electrolytes for pure, natural energy.
It has 18g of organic plant-based protein: pea protein, brown rice protein, pumpkin seed protein, and hemp seed protein.
10. Amazing Grass Protein Superfood
With organic pea protein, organic quinoa, organic hemp protein, and chia, this keto shake is packed with protein to promote lean muscle.
It has 2 servings of fruits and vegetables providing your body with the nutrients it needs.
Best Tasting Keto Shake (Our Winner)
1. Ketologie Collagen Keto Shake
This shake is ideal to consume after a rigorous workout, sport, or other physical activity.
Ketologie Collagen Keto Shake takes the top spot for best tasting keto shake because its velvety chocolate flavor that mixes effortlessly with your favorite beverage.
Best Keto Shake for Women (Our Winner)
1. Top Notch Nutrition Keto Super Collagen
This supplement is a keto tri-fat blend with MCT oil powder, avocado powder, and grass-fed butter powder.
Top Notch Nutrition Keto Super Collagen takes the top spot for best keto shake for women since its super collagen gives you flawless hair, skin, and nail health.
Best Keto Shake for Men (Our Winner)
1. American Metabolix Keto Meal
Since this keto shake is mixed with a vanilla cake flavor, it will make staying in ketosis a breeze.
American Metabolix Keto Meal takes the top spot for best keto shake for men for the reason that it provides the ideal ratio of nutrients and contains 75% fats – providing the essential ingredient needed for optimal testosterone production.
Best Keto Meal Replacement Shake (Our Winner)
1. Ample K (Ketogenic Formula)
This keto shake provides a myriad of health ingredients to support optimal digestion and metabolism.
Ample K takes the top spot for best keto meal replacement shake since it’s a comprehensive blend of fats, with minimal carbs (less than 3g), will keep you in ketosis.
Best Fruits or Green Keto Shake (Our Winner)
1. Amazing Grass Protein Superfood
This grass protein superfood contains alfalfa, spirulina, chlorella, acai, and 7 alkalizing greens to support muscle recovery, nourishing energy, and satisfy hunger.
Amazing Grass Protein Superfood takes the top spot for best fruits or green keto shake because it’s calibrated with 9 nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables.
Who Should Use a Keto Shake?
Keto shakes are safe for most people, but are especially helpful for people who are trying to lose weight. This is because keto shakes often contain the right macronutrient ratio to put you into ketosis to furnace fat loss, without the carbs. A low carb diet forces your body to produce ketones to make your body start to use fat as fuel, therefore, burning fat and causing you to lose weight.
Of course, keto shakes can be used by anyone because they provide a myriad of other benefits, including better cardiovascular health and brain health. Many keto shakes contain sufficient protein to further promote weight loss, satiate hunger, and support muscle growth as well.
Some common side effects that occur from going into ketosis include too many ketones in the blood, short-term fatigue, irritability, and weakness. It’s recommended that you have some carb refeed days when you’re consuming lower levels of carbohydrates.
Diabetics should be okay to consume keto shakes as they are often devoid of any blood sugar spiking carbohydrates. That being said, it’s best to speak to your doctor before consuming them. Pregnant and nursing women, as well as children, should avoid keto shakes unless otherwise directed by a medical professional.
Methodology
Ketosis supporting ingredients: The most important component of a keto shake is its ability to put you into ketosis. This allows you to kickstart your metabolic furnace, taking a blowtorch to your excess fat cells. For this to happen, products should contain zero carbohydrates, high-quality fats, and healthy protein to support your metabolism, muscle, and appetite. Team Keto’s Keto Shake provides an extra boost into ketosis, alongside high-quality ingredients – which is why it took the top spot.
Another important factor was the inclusion of BHB’s – which is one of the three energy molecules produced during ketosis. BHB helps protect the cells, making them more resistant to oxidative stress. It also helps to deliver all the benefits of a keto diet, without continuously being one on. As such, we ranked products that included BHB very well.
Healthy Fats: Healthy fats are among another important element of a keto supplement since forcing your body into ketosis requires you to increase your fat intake to allow your body to use it as fuel to burn fat. Unfortunately, not all fats are created equal. For the peak keto experience, it’s best to consume fats that are high in medium change triglycerides (MCTs).
MCTs are broken down easy for energy, helping to avoid brain fog and irritability. Furthermore, they’ve been shown to protect the brain and improve your metabolism, helping to support your weight loss efforts. That’s why keto shakes from Top Notch Nutrition and American Metabolix were our winners in specific categories.
Clean Protein Sources: Since many people who take keto supplements are trying to lose weight, protein is a vital component. That’s because when you lose weight a lot of times, you end up losing muscle as well. However, with adequate protein intake, you can prevent your body from losing muscle from your frame while you continue to lose weight.
However, not all protein is created equal. For our rankings, we preferred products that included protein only from grass-fed sources, free of antibiotics, hormones, and other nasty ingredients. While whey was accepted, we preferred collagen as this helped support the healing of skin, nails, and hair, while still properly feeling muscles.
Benefits
A keto shake can support weight loss. There is a plethora of research out there supporting the claim that a keto diet can help you reduce your body weight. Losing weight has been shown time and time again to be a gateway to countless diseases; because being overweight, especially obese, leads to serious metabolic issues. Some of these issues are minor, like being lethargic or having low testosterone, but others, such as cardiovascular disease, can be much more detrimental, leading to an early grave.
Keto shakes contain minimal amounts of net carbs, making it the ideal meal replacement to take for keto practitioners. Depleting your body of carbohydrates forces your body to use fat for energy, thus causing you to lose weight. Cutting your carb intake is the best macronutrient to cut for weight loss; It’s even more efficient for weight loss than reducing your fat or protein intake.
A 2013 meta-analysis examined the difference between a low carb diet vs. a low-fat diet for long-term weight loss. They found that the individuals who participated in the low carb diet achieved a greater weight loss than the low-fat group (1). Another meta-analysis found similar effects, demonstrating low carb diets to be superior to low-fat diets for weight loss (2).
Keto shakes also provide sufficient high-quality protein. Protein blunts your appetite, so you’re full and satisfied with fewer calories when you eat meals that are protein-centric. As you would expect, if you eat fewer calories, you’ll lose more weight. A quality keto shake keeps you satiated enough to replace a whole meal, and most meals contain way more calories than keto shakes.
A keto shake can reduce acne. Acne is common in teenagers because of their raging hormones. However, another common cause of acne is excessive oil production and bacteria on the skin. Skin health isn’t only important for looking good, but it plays a fundamental role in protecting your entire body. Your skin is your body’s first layer of protection, so if your skin health isn’t good, your body will likely suffer. Healthy skin also shields your body from dangerous bacteria.
Research is now supporting the idea that the reduction of carbohydrates may improve your skin health (3). Simple carbohydrates elevate the release of your stress hormone, cortisol, leading to breakouts. Additionally, low-carb diets lower your insulin levels, and high insulin levels raise the production of skin cells, sebum, and androgens – onsetting acne breakouts.
Consuming high-quality keto shakes also provide high amounts of collagen, helping to support the improvement of your skin health.
A keto shake may reduce your risk of cancer. Cancer cells have high levels of mitochondrial-derived reactive oxygen species that result in substantial alterations in your metabolism. These alterations can cause your cells to divide uncontrollably throughout your body.
Evidence is showing switching to a low carb diet can aid cancer cells therapeutic responses to radiation therapy and chemotherapy by increasing metabolic stress in cancer cells versus normal cells, causing them to die (4). Cancerous cells cause your cells to divide abnormally, so if you kill these cells, you get your cells back to dividing normally and stop cancer.
With that being said, consuming low carbs in combination with cancer therapy could prevent or treat cancer. With just a slight change to your diet, you can help get rid of the relentless division of cells to avoid or help fight the heinous cancer disease.
A keto shake may improve your heart health. Cholesterol, specifically the ratio of good (HDL) to bad (LDL), plays an important role in your heart health. It also helps reduce your chances of getting harmful diseases like type II diabetes, one of the most common causes of cardiovascular health issues in adults.
Healthy fats are excellent for your heart health, and a keto shake is prepared with monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats to improve your cholesterol, therefore improving your heart function. In one study, ketogenic diets showed an improvement in cardiovascular risk factors, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and HDL cholesterol (5).
Healthy green vegetables like kale have also proven to improve your risks of developing coronary artery disease. In one study, 32 men with hypercholesterolemia consumed 150 mL of kale juice per day for 12 weeks. Overall, they had a significant increase in serum selenium levels and glutathione peroxidase activity, which helps vastly reduce your risk of heart disease (6).
A keto shake can support and protect your brain. Your brain controls many organs within your body, and ketones supply a major portion of your brain’s energy. Growing research is examining the possibility of a keto diet, improving diseases like Alzheimer’s disease (7).
Healthy fats are good for your brain health, and keto shakes are jammed with healthy fats. In 2012, a study proved that consuming more omega-3 fats decreases your risk of Alzheimer’s disease and improves your cognitive performance (8).
Keto shakes can also get rid of beta-amyloid, plaques that form in the brain from protein stacking on top of each other. This compound interferes with your brain’s neural signal, which can lead to Alzheimer’s.
A keto shake can flood your body with essential nutrients. Some keto supplements, like Amazing Grass Protein Superfood, are abundant in fruits and vegetables, which are stuffed with beneficial nutrients that help improve blood flow and cardiovascular health.
Studies show that nitric oxide is important for good blood flow, and blood flow supplies your body with oxygen and other important nutrients. According to one review article, “flavonoid-rich apples and nitrate-rich spinach can independently augment nitric oxide status, enhance endothelial function, and lower blood pressure acutely (9).
Another study showed that fruit consumption, especially pomegranates and berries, are packed with antioxidants that fight off bacteria and diseases such as cancer (10). Both of these studies circle back around to the notion of how beneficial keto supplementation is to improving your cardiovascular health and lowering your risks for cancer.
A keto shake could reduce your chances of getting a seizure. Eliminating carbs from your diet gets rid of the simple sugar you’re consuming. Sugar has a high glycemic index, so they’re rapidly absorbed into your body.
If you eliminate simple sugars, your only choice is to eat more whole, natural foods, which are much more nutrient-dense. Eating a nutrient-dense diet keeps your energy levels high and provides your body with the essential nutrients to work properly. These types of dietary changes have been noted to improve seizure control.
In this 2019 study, a ketogenic diet was linked to treatment for epilepsy (11). Keto diets are high-fat diets, and many foods labeled “low-fat” contain certain artificial ingredients that can onset seizures.
A keto shake might be able to reduce your risk or lessen the effects of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). PCOS is a common hormonal disorder in childbearing age women. It can cause women to release excessive male hormones, which can cause them to omit menstrual periods and have trouble getting pregnant.
Women who are affected by this disease have a higher risk of insulin resistance, obesity, glucose intolerance, diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. Nevertheless, women who go on a keto-based diet can reduce their insulin resistance, which has a positive effect on preventing or helping women with PCOS.
Of course, if women improve their hormonal health, their overall health will vastly improve. Hormonal health in women is responsible for numerous tasks, including mood and weight management.
A keto shake, packed with protein, can prevent muscle mass loss when you’re losing weight. A 2010 article published in Medicine And Science In Sports And Exercise established that protein helps you keep lean muscle mass when you’re losing weight. In the study, 20 young and healthy resistance-trained athletes, participated to show the correlation between muscle mass and diet. It was found that athletes who consumed higher amounts of protein maintained more muscle after losing weight (12).
Since many keto dieters are in the process of losing weight, it is common for them to lose muscle mass as well. However, many keto supplements contain adequate amounts of protein, so they can help you lose weight and keep muscle.
Recap
A keto shake is an important supplement to take if you want a quick and effective meal that sheds weight and flood your body with a myriad of health benefits.
Depending on the ingredients included, it can also help support proper blood pressure, as well as healthy skin, hair, and nails.
For Besthealth.org’s #1 recommended keto shake, click here.