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Free Printable: Low Carb & Keto Food List
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Despite all the popular terminology surrounding the keto diet, “net carbs” remains elusive. Many nutrition labels don’t clearly label them, but they’re important to keep in mind if you’re tracking carb intake. This begs many questions: How to calculate net carbs on keto, are total carbs vs net carbs the same thing, why should you know how to calculate them (or at least have a net carb calculator for them), and how do sugar alcohols affect them? I have all the answers for you.
Looking for the net carb calculator?
What Are Carbs?
Carbs, or total carbohydrates, are a form of macronutrients that your body uses for energy. On a nutrition facts label, you can find carbs broken down into some combination of these components:
- Sugars, such as glucose or fructose. There is also a separate line for added sugars, meaning those not naturally occurring in the food.
- Fiber, which your body cannot digest (but may help feed “good” gut bacteria).
- Sugar alcohols, which are explained further below.
- Starches, which convert to glucose when you digest them.
On a nutrition label, starches are not listed separately, but they are the remaining carbs that are not any of the other above types. You’ll always see sugars and dietary fiber broken down separately as this is legally required by the FDA [*], but sugar alcohols sometimes don’t get listed separately. Fortunately, most keto products have been listing them separately lately. You may also see allulose listed separately, which we’ll discuss below.
What Are Net Carbs?
These carbs only count the carbohydrates that directly contribute to your body’s energy production. Some carbs, due to their molecular structure, are either not digested or not metabolized in your body and have no energy value or blood sugar impact — so these are not included in net carbs. When comparing total carbs vs net carbs, pay attention to this key difference.
Net carbs do not take fiber or (some) sugar alcohols into account, because your body does not fully digest them and they do not impact your blood sugar.
How To Calculate Net Carbs vs. Total Carbs
Learning how to figure net carbs is easy! You can use a net carbs calculator like the one below, but you don’t absolutely need one. The basic formula looks like this:
NET CARBS = TOTAL CARBS – FIBER – SUGAR ALCOHOLS & ALLULOSE
For example, a keto pancake with 13 grams of total carbohydrates, 9 grams of fiber, 2 grams of erythritol, and 1 gram of allulose would have 1 gram of net carbohydrates. (The math works out to 13g – 9g – 2g – 1g = 1g.)
Examples: How To Calculate Net Carbs From Nutrition Labels
It’s easy to learn how to calculate net carbs on keto, because you can find all this information on your food labels. Here are a couple of examples of how to calculate net carbs from labels:
Example 1 – With Allulose:
The nutrition label below is for Besti Monk Fruit Sweetener. It contains 4g total carbs and 4g allulose. You subtract the allulose from the total carb count.
Therefore, the net carbs per serving is 4g – 4g = 0g grams of net carbs per serving.
Example 2 – With Fiber:
The nutrition label below is for Wholesome Yum Almond Flour. It contains 3g total carbs and 1g fiber. You subtract the fiber from the total carbs.
Therefore, the net carbs per serving is 3g – 1g = 2g grams of net carbs per serving.
Want an easier way to calculate net carbs without doing the math? Just bookmark this page and use the net carb calculator below.
Net Carb Calculator
How Many Net Carbs On Keto?
Staying under 20-25 net carbs on keto is the optimal number to reach the fat-burning state of ketosis quickly and stay there.
However, it varies from person to person. Some people may be able to enjoy up to 50 grams of net carbohydrates and still enter a fat-burning state. People who are more active can usually get away with a higher daily carb limit, while people who are insulin resistant, using net carbs to manage diabetes, or have been eating a carb-heavy diet for a long time might need a lower threshold to start.
The best way to tailor how many carbs to eat is to use a macro calculator.
Use the free macro calculator here! Select keto or low carb depending on the diet you want to follow, as well as your goal of weight loss, gain, or maintenance. The calculator will tell you how many carbs to eat for keto (as well as calories).
Learn more about the benefits of adopting a keto or low carb diet with this guide to starting keto. You can also get handy printable keto cheat sheets that include the most important info about net carbohydrates, foods to eat, keto swaps for carb-filled foods, and more.
Should I Count Net Carbs Or Total Carbs?
Many ketogenic diet followers consider net carbohydrates a more sustainable way to track macros. This method works well for most people.
Counting net carbohydrates also encourages eating more whole foods and veggies (since they contain fiber), which we consider a good thing here at Wholesome Yum. However, some people prefer to count total carb intake to reach ketosis more quickly or to avoid a keto plateau.
My recommendation:
Start with focusing on net carbs, and only switch to total carbs if you have to. This way, you can enjoy plenty of leafy greens, low carb vegetables, and even keto fruit, all of which are filled with fiber.
If you don’t get the results you want, start by reducing sugar alcohols and low carb treats before switching to total carbs. Some people choose to count the carbs in sugar alcohols and sweeteners, but still subtract the fiber from total carbs.
Ultimately, test different counting methods to decide what works best for you! Focus on results such as how your clothes fit, how you feel, and the scale if you need to, but if you want to test the impact on ketosis specifically, you can use a blood monitor or ketone test strips to check if you’re in ketosis.
Keto Food List With Carb Counts
Sign up here to get a free list of keto foods with net carb counts, so you don’t have to calculate them:
FREE PRINTABLE: LOW CARB & KETO FOOD LIST
GET IT NOWWhat About Sugar Alcohols?
Not everyone agrees about the impact of sugar alcohols on your metabolism. That’s because some sugar alcohols behave differently than others, and they can affect people differently as well. Some of us absorb and metabolize sugar alcohols quite a bit, while others don’t, and the type of sugar alcohol makes a big difference, too.
Sugar alcohols such as erythritol and xylitol have a negligible impact on blood sugar [*][*]. Allulose is classified as a “rare sugar” rather than a sugar alcohol, but also demonstrates minimal impact on blood glucose [*].
Some prepackaged or sugar-free foods claim to be keto, but may spike your blood sugar instead because many food manufacturers use sugar alcohols with a higher glycemic index. (Glycemic index is the measure of how much a certain food will affect your blood sugar. White table sugar or simple carbs, such as white bread, rice, or potatoes, have a high glycemic impact. Foods containing carbs that also contain fiber or protein have a moderate glycemic impact. Foods with very low or no net carbohydrates typically have zero glycemic impact.)
In particular, tread with caution on foods that contain maltitol, sorbitol, or isomalt, all of which have a higher glycemic index. Always check ingredients on food labels to get a better understanding of how foods will impact your goals.
RULE OF THUMB: You can safely count erythritol and allulose as 0 net carbs, and count half the carbs in other sugar alcohols.
However, testing your blood sugar after consuming these sweeteners is the only true way to know their impact on you.
For more information on sugar alcohols, see this guide on sugar substitutes — and try these sweeteners, which all taste like sugar and contain 0 net carbs!
How To Calculate Net Carbs
49 Comments
Bry
0I bought keto friendly snack bars that say 2 net carbs when I scanned the bar code in my app it came up as 8 net carbs. Who to believe??
Wholesome Yum D
0Hi Bry, Are you using the Wholesome Yum App?
Renee
0I have a hydration drink mix with total carbs 5 grams, dietary fiber 3 g and soluble fiber 3 g. Does the soluble fiber make up the dietary fiber or is it something else that needs to be subtracted? I’m thinking the soluble fiber makes up the dietary fiber so the net carb content would be 2grams. Am I right?
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Renee, Yes, the soluble fiber is part of the dietary fiber so this drink mix would have 2 grams net carbs.
Robin
0I would in a NY minute buy your bundle for $49 but I can’t do net carbs. I need total carbs under 20gm for various health reasons. I find it frustrating to see a recipe with, say for example, 10 net carbs and the recipe is loaded with either digestible or nondigestible fibers just to get the net cab count down. It’s just too frustration to have to sift through all your luscious recipes and scroll all the way to the bottom to find total carbs. The new research is showing the total carb count is a better way to go. If you could include net and total carb in you advertisement of recipes, then I am all in.
Please let me know if you can do this.
Robin Lee
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Robin, Thank you for the feedback! I list both total carbs and net carbs in all my recipes. Personally, I’m a big believe in net carbs as this has worked well for me (and many of my readers) and gives me more flexibility to consume plenty of low carb vegetables, which I believe is so important. But I know everyone’s preferences and dietary needs are different, which is why I include both net and total in the nutrition facts. If you use the “jump to recipe” button at the top of any recipe, it takes you right to the recipe card where you can see the total carbs right away.
Gayle
0I have a question…carbs 3.7, dietary fibre 3.7 but it has sorbitol 3.0, maltitol 9.5 glycerol 4.9. What are net carbs please …
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Gayle, Are you located in Europe? On American nutrition labels, total carbs include all of the things you listed, so you’d subtract fiber, allulose, and erythritol. (I don’t typically recommend subtracting sorbitol, maltito, or glycerol because these actually get absorbed significantly.) On European labels, total carbs typically don’t include fiber and sugar alcohols, they are just listed separate. Because for you the numbers add up to more than the total carbs, that sounds like a European label, so for net carbs I’d actually add the sorbitol, maltitol, and glycerol to your “carbs” number to get net carbs.
Phyllis
0What are added sugars and do you subtract them from carbs?
Wholesome Yum D
0Hi Phyllis, Added sugars are not subtracted from carbs.
Fatma
0Hi Maya. I live in the Middle East, where not everything comes packaged or fully labeled like in the US. For instance, if Ive understood correctly, even berries in the US come with labels. The box of berries I have only says the weight of the product (125gm), nothing else. I have a few q’s:
1. Are carbs for everything counted in keto (your veggies, fruits, fats, protein)?
2. A keto plate should be 25% protein, 25% fats and 50% veggies. Is only one serving allowed (fill your plate once, finish it, do no refill again)?
3. on above plate, all i ever see for fats when i google are avocados. What if avocados are not available in certain countries? What can be substituted? Google says olive oil, coconut oil etc. You can’t pour these in 25% of your plate and eat it! And cheese doesn’t go with everything. For instance, if i’m having an indian chicken dish like qorma or butter chicken, cheese does not go with this. Would yogurt count as fat?
4. I love salads, but I cook mostly Pakistani / Indian food. How does one do keto with that? In Pakistani cooking, to chicken we will add ghee, spices, onions, sometimes yogurt or tomatoes, sometimes other veggies depending on the dish, a squirt of lemon at the end, herbs. I believe all this is keto but in what amounts? I cook for a family of 4. Does it matter how much of anything I’m putting during cooking, or only the amount I put on my plate?
Sorry to inundate you with so many questions, but I’m not finding answers anywhere. I hope you get the time to answer these.
Thanks!
Wholesome Yum D
0Hi Fatma, Yes, everything you eat would count towards your macros. I have a few articles I suggest you read to help you better understand the keto diet. Here is one on the keto food pyramid to help you better understand what types of food count towards macros. Another great article is calculating your macros so you know how much you should be eating each day. I suggest you also find a recipe calculator so you can put in your ingredients to calculate the nutritional info of the recipes you are creating.
Pam Owens
0Hello. I entered 21g total carbs, 8g fiber, and 6 sugar alcohols, and the calculator returned 10 net carbs. Why wasn’t it 7g net?
Thank you
Wholesome Yum D
0Hi Pam, You can read in the article why not all sugar alcohols are subtracted from carbs.
Antonio Berlanga
0Some foods have more grams of dietary fiber than total carbs. How do you calculate net carbs in those foods ?
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Antonio, This does not happen in the USA, unless there is an error in the nutrition label, because fiber is considered a carb and therefore it’s impossible for fiber to be higher than total carbs. However, in Europe, the carbs listed often already have the fiber subtracted, so you’d only need to subtract the sugar alcohols and allulose, if any.
Sheryll Woods
0If I have 1/2 cup oatmeal and add 2T chia seeds it has 27 carbs from oatmeal minus 4 carbs of fiber. The chia seeds have 20 carbs minus 20 fiber. So am I still ingesting 23 carbs from the oatmeal???
Wholesome Yum D
0Hi Sheryll, Yes, the oatmeal will be 23g net carbs and the chia seeds would be 0g net carbs.
Steph
0Hi, I’m trying to work out net carbs however the packaging for the bread I have shows the fibre is more than the carbs and so I can’t get an answer. Is this even possible?
Carbs 5.85g
Dietry fibres 7.92g
Protein 20.65g
Sugar 0.52g
Any help would be really appreciated.
Wholesome Yum D
0Hi Steph, Are you outside the US? In some countries, the carbs area on the nutrition label already exclude fiber, so in that case net carbs would be the same as the carb amount — 5.85 grams.
Ms
0Hi, I was wondering what the situation was with dietary fiber and soluble fiber? If both say 3g do you add them before subtracting or do they count only once. For example: 4g carbs, 3g dietary fiber, 3g soluble fiber, 0g sugar. What would the net carb be? Thanks.
Wholesome Yum D
0Hi Ms, Soluble and insoluble fiber add up be total dietary fiber so you would only subtract the dietary fiber from total carbs.
Elizabeth Glover
0I’m trying to work out net cars on a protein bar. 64g phd smart plant choc toffee popcorn
Fat 13g, carbs 7.6g, which sugars 2.4g, fibre 14g, no mention of sugar acohols. Manufactured in uk
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Elizabeth, In Europe, the carbs listed often already have the fiber subtracted, so the net carbs in your bar are 7.6 grams.
Deb
0I am just starting to follow the Keto diet. I really need to lose weight and hopefully lower my A1c as well. You have many wonderful recipes on your site, looking forward to trying them! Wish me luck! -Deb
Audrey
0I have been eating a lot of the Atkins food, shakes, and snacks. Is this considered being on a Keto Plan also?
Wholesome Yum D
0Hi Audrey, Usually the Atkins snacks and shakes are dirty keto, because they are low carb but ingredients vary. There are differences between keto and Atkins though, Atkins diet has you gradually increase your carb intake, which will eventually kick your body out of ketosis. Hope this helps!
Kathleen
0Looks yummy- can’t wait to try it.
Susan
0I’m questioning the daily protein guide in the cookbook I just purchased. It said to divide weight by 2 to. Get total daily protein. Mine came out to 80 grams which is just over 2oz. Doesn’t seem like much protein per day. Is this correct?
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Susan, You are calculating protein as 100% pure protein. Whole foods are not pure protein. For example, a ribeye steak is 7 grams of protein per ounce. So if you consumed all your protein in one sitting, that would be an 11.5 oz steak. I hope this helps!
Sebrina
0Hi Maya,
My weight has always been a challenge, and I have tried just about every diet, and weight loss program out there. I have had some successes and lots of failures over the years. My problem is not eating enough, and eating the wrong things when I do eat. I am back to my highest weight (195) and now I just want to get to a healthy weight and maintain it with a healthy life style. I have been doing a lot of research, and I have decided to give keto a try. I will admit that I am very nervous. I have calculated my macros (F=23%, P=72%, C=5%), and I think I understand how to calculate net carbs also. It seems like a lot of calories to eat, but I am willing to give it a try. I just need a basic plan of action, i.e. eat breakfast at ______, eat lunch at ________, and eat dinner at ________. This will ensure that I eat enough food. Any suggestions on a reasonable schedule?
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Sebrina, You can eat at the same intervals that you are already eating at. If you eat 3 meals a day or 2 meals a day, then you can continue to do so. Check out this post on 15 Best Keto Diest Tips & Tricks. Plan easy meals and snacks to keep in your fridge. If you want a plan done for you that you can customize, check out my Easy Keto App – complete with custom meal plans, grocery lists, and more.
Nikki
0Hi Maya. Are sugars already added into total carbs? Does bad sugars count as carbs? TIA
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Nikki, Yes, sugars are already added to total carbs. Subtract the sugar alcohols or allulose if you are calculating net carbs. I hope this helps!
Amy
0Hi Maya! Love your site and recipes. I’ve been strict keto for 2 weeks now and am loving it. I’m having no difficulty mostly due to your tasty recipes and substitutions. I am looking for the best macro counting app to keep track of my daily carbs, fats, and proteins, and wonder if you have any suggestions. I’ve been guessing up until now, but want to be more precise until I get better at this.
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Amy, Sounds like you are doing great! I use my Easy Keto App to track my macros. It’s easy to keep track of what you are eating when using the meal plans on the app! I hope this helps.
Melody Perry
0I eat over my net carbs
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Melody, Do you have a copy of the Keto Food List? Try incorporating more lower carb and zero carb foods into your day to keep you under your net carb goals. I hope this helps!
Gaynor
0Hi,I live in England and I’ve been told that we don’t have to do any of that it’s all been done for us is this true .
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Gaynor, The fiber is already subtracted from carbohydrate counts on UK labels. You will only need to subtract the polyols (if present in the product) to get the net carb counts. Of course, if you buy a product from the US, you will need to subtract the fiber and sugar alcohols to get the net carb count. I hope this helps!
Jennifer
0I am new at this and I am still a little bit confused. I understand to get the net carbs, you need to minus the total cabs, fibers and allulose. What about the add sugar? Am I supposed to minus that also?
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Jennifer, Net carbs are total carbs – fiber – sweetener. If the recipe has any added actual sugars, those are not subtracted.
Renae
0What about sugar content vs alcohol sugar content? Are these the same in calculating net carbs?
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Renae, Sugar alcohols can come from keto-friendly sweeteners and are subtracted from the carbs (along with fiber) to give you a net carb count. Sugar is actual sugars from table sugar, natural sugars like coconut or maple sugars, or fruit-sweetened items. Actual sugars do not get subtracted from the carb counts. I hope this helps.
Tee
0This is absolute amazingly helpful! I watch YTber Khem yesterday where she talked about Net Carbs and honestly I felt so relieved because I was counting grams of carbs and though I am an overweight endomorph, I need a few carbs to be able to push thru these intense workouts I have started. So this was right on time.
Susan
0Hi Maya,
I’ve been interested in the use of MCT oil
I purchased a product containing collagen and MCT oil I put in my coffee each morning. Defintately feel a huge surge of energy after drinking and no hunger.
How else is MCT oil used in a keto diet?
Thanks,
S Brooks
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Susan, MCT oil has a low smoke point, so I wouldn’t use it for cooking applications. It can be used for things like salad dressings, aioli, and other cold oil uses.
Aamna
0Hi Maya, live your site for low carb recipes. I want to know more about carb calculator I have a confusion : my mixed berries label says total carbs 5g, fiber 3.5, and sugars 5 g . Please guide how much would be net carbs ? 2g or 5g ? Please guide . Thanks
Wholesome Yum M
0Hi Aamna, SUbtract the fiber from the carbs to get net carbs. So in this case, your berries are 2.5 grams of carbs.