Can I eat chocolate on a Keto Diet?

I Love Chocolate and I eat a Keto Diet.

This site may contain links to affiliate websites, and we receive an affiliate commission for any purchases made by you on the affiliate website using such links.

I. Love. Chocolate.

I love it. I love, love, love it. I always have. And – never say never (blah, blah, blah) – I will never stop, not even on a Ketogenic diet.

Do you feel the chocolate love?

I’m guessing since you’re reading this that you do. We share a bond, you and I. Why should Keto stand between us and our chocolate?  It shouldn’t and it won’t, and I’m going to give you my keto chocolate secrets.

Can I tell you a secret?

Those people that don’t like chocolate…

I don’t get that.

That’s not possible, right?

---

---

Can You Eat Chocolate On Keto?

You can eat chocolate on the Ketogenic Diet while staying in Ketosis if you choose your chocolate carefully. You can easily eat chocolate daily while following a ketogenic diet.

I eat something chocolate every day. Ok, several things chocolate. Every day.

I know there are people that I highly respect in the natural, whole food world that talk about how yes, they love chocolate. So they haven’t given it up, even while eating an incredibly low-carb, ketogenic diet. They eat one small square each day.

One small square. Really? That’s not me.

Chocolate and I have a long and storied love affair.

At one point in my life, it was torrid and decidedly codependent. When I was a sugar-burner, eating a whole-grain based, carb-dependent, insulin roller coaster inducing diet, I would literally sit down and eat an entire package of Oreo’s.

I knew I shouldn’t. I knew I’d regret it.

Sometimes I’d even have the willpower to not buy them when I was at the store. But just like that ex-boyfriend that you know you shouldn’t call because it never ends well, if I brought them home, I gorged on the whole thing.

Sometimes I even dipped them in a mixture of melted peanut butter and chocolate syrup.

Yup.

And regret it I did. For real, as the years went by, I was even starting to notice that my heart would race after a sugar binge like that. And my throat would itch.

And you know that my jeans didn’t fit right.

Then I switched to a lower-carb, Primal-style diet and became fat adapted.

So while I didn’t have the crazy hormone-induced, insatiable cravings for sugar that led me to binge on my beloved chocolate, I’ve still always found ways to incorporate chocolate into my daily life. Now I just do it in ways that enhance my health.

The first step was getting accustomed to darker chocolate. My sweet tooth started to diminish the more I incorporated fat into my diet, so that made it easier.

I got to the point where chocolate bars that are 85% cacao taste much better to me than milk chocolate. But I was still finding that if I ate some every day, it was hard to maintain my weight.

Of course, it could have been the red wine that went so well with the dark chocolate bar, but either way, it wasn’t doing my hips any favors.

Dark Chocolate On A Keto Diet

For me, finding a chocolate bar that tastes great, has a high cacao content, and zero cane sugar was paramount. If I’m going to eat some every day, my body just can’t handle that amount of carbs.

Everybody’s carb tolerance is different, though. And especially if you don’t double down with the red wine, you may find that incorporating a little bit of a dark chocolate bar with very low sugar works for you.

Just because it didn’t work for me doesn’t mean it’s no good for anyone. There is no one right way to Keto.

You will want to find very dark chocolate, with a high cacao content. The higher the cacao, the lower the sugar, and that’s good for Keto. Also, the cacao is high in antioxidants, flavonoids and minerals like magnesium!

I’ve tried quite a few brands of chocolate bars in my day. And I found some really great ones on the way. If you want to see how these fit into your ketogenic lifestyle, here’s the info you need.

The Best Keto Chocolate Bars

I’ve broken these down by category.

The Best Keto Chocolate Bar For Keto Beginners

The best low carb chocolate bar for beginners is the Lily’s 70% Dark Chocolate Stevia Sweetened Chocolate Bar with Sea Salt.

This is the best choice for someone who is new to either Keto or eating dark chocolate.

The 70% cacao content makes it a little less intense, and the stevia sweetener softens it up a bit.

One of the ingredients is inulin, which is an indigestible fiber. It is often added to low-carb products as a way to increase the fiber content, thereby lowering the net carbs.

Everyone reacts a little differently to products containing such “fiber stuffers”, so you may want to watch and see how you react.

I’ve never had any kind of stomach upset from the inulin, and it may even help improve gut health by providing a prebiotic food source for gut bacteria. 

One serving is half a bar, and if you subtract both the fiber and the sugar alcohols from the sweeteners, each serving has 4 net grams of carbs. { Click Here To See On Amazon >>> }

The Best Chocolate Bar For Someone In Ketosis For Awhile

The best chocolate bar for a keto dieter who is used to eating low carb / high fat is the Green & Black’s Organic 85% Cacao Dark Chocolate Bar.

This bar is my favorite for flavor, texture, and that silky, melty feeling in your mouth when you eat it.

It does contain cane sugar, and you will want to experiment to find out what an appropriate serving is for you.

The label says that one serving is 12 small squares. (Each bar has a total of 30 squares.)

For me, 12 squares is way too much.

Each small square has 1.333 net carbs or 9 net carbs for a full serving.

Honestly, I’ve never tried having only one small square because I know myself. If only having one or two is your wheelhouse, let me know how it goes! { Click Here To See On Amazon >>> }

Best Dark Chocolate Chip For Keto Baking

The best dark chocolate chip for keto baking is the Lily’s Premium Baking Chips 55% cacao.

You’ll see these referenced in a lot of Keto dessert recipes around the internet.

They are a much lower cacao content, so they flavor is much closer to milk chocolate than many low carb dark chocolate brands.

The ingredient list is the same as for the bar above, so keep the inulin in mind. One serving is 60 chips and has 2 net grams of carbs. { Click Here To See On Amazon >>> }

---

---

The Chocolate That I Eat On My Keto Diet

Chocolate and I, we’ve come a long way. We’re much healthier and even-keeled now.

I don’t eat extremely low-carb every day, but I do eat exclusively low carb dark chocolate.

While I often have a serving of my Lily’s chocolate bar, the best chocolate treats in my opinion are homemade.

I make my own chocolate treats now, with little to no sugar at all. My daily chocolate is made with incredibly nutrient dense, real foods.

My Keto Chocolate nourishes my body in the way that chocolate nourishes my soul. Bonus.

My two very favorite recipes, I make weekly as part of my meal prep, so I always have them on hand.

Creamy, smooth Chocolate Avocado Mousse and Chocolate Coconut Fat Bombs are essential to my keto diet success.

I always know that I have a chocolate treat, made with real, wholesome ingredients, with zero added sugar and all the chocolate goodness that I crave.

Those two recipes aren’t the only treats I make, though! Here are a few more that you might like.

The following recipes are geared toward very dark chocolate taste. If you want it sweeter, adjust the sweetening to your own level.

For most of these recipes, I use no sweetener at all or a small amount of Swerve, an erythritol-based, Keto-friendly sweetener.

The Best Chocolate Keto Dessert Recipes

---

#1 – Avocado Chocolate Mousse Recipe

---

#2 – Keto Peanut Butter Cups Recipe

---

#3 – Keto Chocolate Shake Recipe with Collagen

---

#4 – Keto Mint Chocolate Pudding Recipe

---

Enjoy, and let me know in the comments if you still eat Chocolate on your keto diet, and what your favorite ketogenic friendly chocolates are.

~Angela

Disclaimer: While I have been keto for over a decade and have guided thousands of people through starting a keto diet, I am neither a licensed nutritionist nor a medical professional. I never prescribe diets.  I only share my personal experiences and those of my clients for informational purposes only.  Nutrition details are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be considered medical nutritional data. You should consult your medical professional before making any major changes in the way you eat.