One of the coolest things about Keto Chow is you can pick the type of fat and the amount that you, personally, want to use–but that leaves you with an important question:
What fat(s) should I use?
Let’s break down some of the best and the worst fats to use with Keto Chow!
Best Fat to Start With: Heavy Cream or Heavy Whipping Cream
I always recommend people start with cream because it’s one of the easiest to use, and it tastes amazing. You likely will only be able to find heavy whipping cream, not heavy cream, but the difference is small and doesn’t matter to most people.
One thing to be aware of: even if the label says it has 0g of carbs per serving, all heavy whipping cream sold in the United States has the same 0.43g of carbs per tablespoon or 3.34g carbs in 400 calories worth. FDA Labeling requirements force companies to round down on the labels.
Best Fat Overall: Melted Butter
We use acacia gum in Keto Chow and it has a really cool property: it lets fat mix with water. This means when you mix melted butter with warm water (around 100°F or 37.7°C), it stays mixed, even when you refrigerate the mix.
Butter is also cheaper than heavy cream, stores better, has 0.03g of carbs per 400 calories, and gave us the best metabolic results in the 100 days of Keto Chow experiment. Note: ghee and clarified butter also fit into this same category, they just have a little water removed.
Once you’ve figured out mixing Keto Chow with heavy cream and are confident in your skills and the routine, we absolutely recommend experimenting with using melted butter. Butter is also a great choice if you’re experiencing tummy issues with using heavy cream.
You can use the salted or the unsalted varieties, it just depends on personal preference and whether you want the extra salt or not. When you use butter, you’ll likely notice two things: the flavor of Keto Chow comes through stronger and the mixture isn’t as thick compared to heavy cream.
Honorable Mentions
There’s a huge list of different fats you can use with Keto Chow. Here are a few that are less commonly used but are still great:
- Coconut Oil (mix with warm water using a blender)
- Wagyu Beef Tallow (mix with warm water using a blender)
- Avocado Oil
- Peanut Butter (limited use, has to be mixed with a blender)
- Egg Yolks
- Cream Cheese (mix with warm water using a blender)
- Whipping Cream (has a little more carbs compared to heavy cream)
Fats to Be Cautious About: Powdered Fats and MCT Oil
You can get powdered butter and cream that claim 0g of carbs and look like a convenient option for mixing with Keto Chow but they have the same issue with rounding down on labels.
Powdered heavy cream is actually powdered SWEET cream (check the label!) and the manufacturer’s spec sheet will show you that it has 2x the carbs of regular heavy cream. Powdered Butter has 131x the carbs of butter. There are some cases where a powdered fat can be a good choice, but if you’re in your kitchen at home, it likely is not the best idea.
Many people hear they should use MCT oil as part of their keto lifestyle but may not fully understand some of the potential issues with it. Medium Chain Triglycerides are useful for increasing your ketone levels, but they will not cause you to lose stored body fat quicker. If that’s your goal with keto, you have all the info you need and should probably avoid MCT oil.
If you are using a ketogenic diet to treat a neurological condition where higher therapeutic levels of ketones would be beneficial to your brain, MCT oil is one of the most effective ways to increase your ketone levels for an extended period (and it’s far cheaper than exogenous ketones).
MCT oil is also known for causing gastric distress (the technical term is “disaster pants”) and it can cause problems with high triglycerides and low HDL.
Fats to Avoid: Seed Oils or Vegetable Oils
Avocado oil is a fruit oil and actually works really well with Keto Chow. Oils like canola/rapeseed, soybean, vegetable, and sunflower oil do work but are extremely high in polyunsaturated fats and will cause your body oxidative stress and inflammation.
We do not recommend using any of these seed oils in your diet at all, and not in Keto Chow in particular. We tested this kind of oil as part of an experiment and it caused plantar fasciitis to come back after only a few days, despite high blood ketone levels.
Looking for the best deal on Keto Chow?
Then check out the myChow Kit! You can get up to 20% off in savings, and you get to choose how often it’s delivered to your door.
