Over the past couple of decades, the popularity of low carb diets has increased significantly. Even the keto diet, which is an extremely low-carb diet initially intended to support patients with epilepsy, has become a rather mainstream weight loss diet.
But what is the difference between low carb and keto? Is keto a no carb diet? How many carbs can you have on keto vs low carb diets?
In this article, we will discuss the benefits and differences between low carb vs keto and answer your question, “how many carbs can you have on keto vs low carb diets?
We will cover:
- What Is a Low Carb Diet?
- What Is the Keto Diet?
- The Difference Between Low Carb vs Keto Diets?
- What Are the Benefits of Low Carb vs Keto Diets?
- What Can You Eat On Low Carb vs Keto Diets?
Let’s get started!
What Is a Low Carb Diet?
The term “low carb diet“ is not as specifically defined as the keto diet. Most health and nutrition experts categorize a diet as a low carb diet if 10 to 30% of the calories come from carbohydrates.
For example, if you consume 2,000 calories daily, a low-carb diet would entail eating no more than 400 to 600 calories from carbohydrates. Because there are 4 calories per gram of carbohydrates, this works out to 100 to 150 grams of carbohydrates per day.
Aside from having specific limits to your carbohydrate intake, a low carb diet is rather loose and undefined. The remainder of your caloric intake can be divided among calories from fat and protein however you see fit.
For example, someone could follow a low-carb diet consuming 30% of their total daily calories from carbs, 35% from protein, and 35% from fat.
Ultimately, this would be a very balanced diet, somewhat akin to the Zone Diet.
Alternatively, a low carb diet could entail the same 30% of the calories from carbohydrates, but the remaining 70% might be split between 50% of the calories from protein and only 20% of the calories from fat. This would be a high protein diet as much as a low carb diet.
The variability in the macronutrient ratios on the low carb diet can become even more disparate when you consider the fact that to qualify as “low carb,“ basically anything that is capped at 30% or less of your total daily caloric intake from carbohydrates counts.
In other words, a low carb diet might entail just 10% of the calories from carbs, leaving the other 90% up to your discretion.
What Is the Keto Diet?
The keto diet, or ketogenic diet, is a high-fat, very low-carb diet initially developed in the 1920s to help treat epilepsy. However, it is now a popular weight loss diet and is used to help manage blood sugar, and insulin levels and reduce inflammation.
It is meant to put the body in a state of metabolic ketosis, in which you are burning ketones for fuel due to a lack of available carbohydrates.
Although there is some flexibility and variations in the specific macronutrient ratios on the keto diet, experts suggest that the keto diet should involve consuming 70–75% of your calories from fat, 20-25% of your calories from protein, and 5–10% of your calories from carbohydrates.
So, for example, if you eat 2,000 calories a day, you could eat 100-200 calories from carbohydrates, which works out to just 25-50 grams of carbohydrates per day on the ketogenic diet.
Other health experts suggest you can also just limit your daily carbohydrate intake to 50 grams rather than focusing on a relative percentage of your total daily caloric intake.
Keto diet meals are built around healthy fats and typically animal proteins, including foods like fatty fish, meat, nuts, cheese, avocados, coconut, seeds, and oils.
the Difference Between Low Carb vs Keto Diets?
One of the major differences between a low carb vs keto diet is in the latitude of the carbohydrate intake. With the keto diet, the daily carbohydrate limit is significantly more restrictive than on a general low carb diet.
Typically, as mentioned, a low carb diet involves any diet wherein carbohydrates comprise no more than 30% of the total daily caloric intake.
This means that if someone consumes 15% of their total calories per day from carbohydrates, they are following a low carb diet, while the same can be said for someone who is eating 30% of his or her daily calories from carbohydrates.
On the other hand, the keto diet can be considered a “very low carb” diet.
In general, the recommendation for carbohydrates on the keto diet is restricting your carb intake to 5-10% of your total daily caloric intake. Some people following the keto diet permit a maximum of 50 grams of carbohydrates rather than worrying about a relative percentage of the number of calories you eat per day.
So, for example, if you eat 2,000 calories a day, you could eat 100-200 calories from carbohydrates, which works out to just 25-50 grams of carbohydrates per day on the ketogenic diet.
Note that whether you cap your carbohydrate intake to 50 grams or go with 5 to 10% of your calorie intake, this is an extremely limited number of grams of carbohydrates.
For reference, according to the USDA, an average medium-sized banana contains about 29 grams of carbohydrates, so this would be all or more than half of your permissible daily carbohydrates.
It’s also important to bear in mind that many foods contain at least some amount of carbohydrates, even if they are predominantly fat- or protein-based foods.
As such, the number of grams of carbohydrates you eat can rack up quickly, even if you are not eating high-carb foods directly.
The other major difference between keto vs low carb diets is that the keto diet is really intended to be a high fat diet rather than a low carb diet.
Although the carbohydrate intake is actually extremely low, the focus of the diet is really on maximizing your fat intake.
From a practical perspective, how this plays out in terms of distinguishing the keto diet from a general low carb diet, is that the keto diet places specifications on the relative percentage of the number of calories you should be eating from fats and protein.
In contrast, a low carb diet only defines a restricted carbohydrate range with open flexibility to choose how much protein and fat you eat.
Although there is some flexibility and variations in the specific macronutrient ratios on the keto diet, experts suggest that the keto diet should involve consuming 70–75% of your calories from fat, 20-25% of your calories from protein, and 5–10% of your calories from carbohydrates.
Ultimately, keto diet meals are built around healthy fats and typically animal proteins, including foods like fatty fish, meat, nuts, cheese, avocados, coconut, seeds, and oils.
On the other hand, low carb diet meals might center around fat and protein equally rather than weighing heavily towards fat consumption.
Additionally, because you might consume up to 30% of your total daily caloric intake from carbohydrates on a low-carb diet, a low carb meal might actually be relatively balanced between all three macronutrients, as 30% is nearly one-third of 100%.
The purpose of the keto diet is specifically to bring the body into a state of ketosis, which refers to a metabolic state where the body is burning only fat for fuel rather than carbohydrates.
Ketosis is thought to not only promote weight loss and fat loss but also provide additional health benefits, such as providing a neuroprotective function and increasing insulin sensitivity.
On the other hand, a low carb diet is not necessarily intended to induce ketosis. In order to shift the body into a state of ketosis, carbohydrate intake has to be extremely limited and closer to a very low carb diet or no carb diet level.
Therefore, most low carb diets are not sufficient to yield consistent ketosis. There may be periods of time, particularly when you wake up in the morning before having breakfast, where the body is relying on ketones, but the overall metabolic state is typically not one wherein your body is relying on ketones for fuel.
The purpose of a low-carb diet is to restrict carbohydrate intake enough to achieve other potential health benefits, but not specifically to trigger ketosis.
Rather, limiting your carbohydrate intake may be an effective way to lose weight, control blood sugar, improve insulin sensitivity, and promote satiety, as proteins and fats are more satiating and have little to no effect on blood sugar or insulin levels.
What Are the Benefits of Low Carb vs Keto Diets?
There are several potential benefits of a low carb vs keto diet.
Although both diets have been shown to help control blood sugar and may support weight loss, a low carb diet is typically more sustainable in the long term because it is easier to follow, less extreme, and gives dieters more flexibility in terms of what they can and cannot eat without feeling restricted.
Additionally, it is usually easier to adapt to a low carb diet because it is less extreme, whereas many people experience the “keto flu,“ keto diarrhea, or other adverse symptoms when first adopting the keto diet.
What Can You Eat On Low Carb vs Keto Diets?
The following table shows the macronutrient breakdown of low carb vs keto diets:
| Macronutrient | Low Carb Diets | Keto Diet |
| Carbohydrates | 10-30% of total daily calories | 5-10% of total daily calories of 50 grams per day |
| Fat | Up to your discretion | 70-75% of total daily calories |
| Protein | Up to your discretion | 20-25% of total daily calories |
There aren’t necessarily foods that are completely off-limits with either diet, but since the keto diet is so low in carbohydrates, you generally have to limit nearly all fruit, whole grains, added sugars, sweetened beverages, starchy vegetables, and legumes.
These same foods will certainly be minimized on low-carb diets as well, but since the daily carbohydrate allotment is somewhat higher, the ability to eat these high-carb foods in small amounts is typically workable.
For more information on the keto diet, check out our guide: Is The Keto Diet Healthy? 5 Common Mistakes Made When On Keto.
