Keto Fast Food Breakfast Options
Many fast food chains offer keto fast food breakfast options for those rushed mornings when you don’t have enough time to grab your keto friendly protein bar.
I have researched, tasted, and gathered up as much information as I could to give you all of the best keto fast food breakfast options out there.
Keto Friendly Fast Food Breakfast Options
Keto Taco Bell Breakfast
Fun Fact: “Carl’s Jr. started from a hot dog cart on the corner of Florence and Central in Los Angeles.” – mentalitch.com
Carl’s Jr. Breakfast Hours: 6am – 10:30am
Keto Friendly/Low Carb Options:
1. Mini Skillet Bowl
It comes with seasoned crispy potatoes, scrambled eggs, nacho cheese sauce, and pico de gallo, and you can add steak, guacamole, and bacon. This is a great option because it is a low carb high fat breakfast. Also known as the Taco Bell keto bowl.
How to order: “I’ll take a Mini Skillet with no potatoes & please add steak, bacon, and guacamole.”
What to exclude: potatoes
Optional add-ons: steak, bacon, guacamole
2. Taco Bell Naked Egg Taco With Sausage – No Potatoes
This is one of their newest additions and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. The Naked Egg Taco is a tasty low carb breakfast made for any lazy keto dieters on the go. It’s one fried egg, nacho cheese, sausage, and shredded cheese. That’s it. Simple yet delicious.
How to order: “Naked egg taco with sausage with no potatoes.”
What to exclude: potatoes
Optional add-ons: bacon guacamole, pico de gallo
Keto McDonald’s Breakfast
According to Statista.com, there are 13,905 Mcdonald’s in North America, so you are bound to pass one or two on along your daily path to work or school. This makes it a great option to stop for a quick snack, or breakfast option. It also is a great perk that they have all day breakfast.
Mcdonald’s Breakfast Hours: All day
Keto Friendly/Low Carb Options:
1. Sausage McMuffin with Egg – No Bun
This classic is made with sausage, egg, and cheese and is served Mcdonald’s version of an English muffin, but you don’t want the “muffin” part of this classic on the keto diet.
How to order: “Sausage mcmuffin with egg without the bun.”
What to exclude: muffin/bun
Optional add-ons: extra egg, extra sausage, bacon
2. McDonald’s Big Breakfast
The Big Breakfast comes with scrambled eggs, biscuit, hash browns, sausage patty, and butter. You’ll want to make sure you get this without the biscuit or hash browns to make this a Mcdonald’s keto breakfast option.
How to order: “Big breakfast without the hash browns and no biscuit.”
What to exclude: biscuit, hash browns
Optional add-ons: extra egg, extra sausage, bacon
3. Bacon, Egg and Cheese Biscuit – No Biscuit
The name of this breakfast sandwich tells you everything it comes with. You can have it all on the keto diet… except the biscuit. Get this without the biscuit.
How to order: “Bacon, egg, and cheese without the biscuit.”
What to exclude: biscuit
Optional add-ons: extra egg, sausage, extra bacon
Keto Carl’s Jr. Breakfast
Fun Fact: “Carl’s Jr. started from a hot dog cart on the corner of Florence and Central in Los Angeles.” – mentalitch.com
Carl’s Jr. Breakfast Hours: 6am – 10:30am
Keto Friendly/Low Carb Options:
1. Steak & Egg Breakfast Burrito – No Tortilla
This is a very good keto breakfast option when you need to stop at Carl’s jr. It comes with: Steak, eggs, melted cheese, and pico de gallo.
How to order: “Egg and steak breakfast burrito, low carb.”
What to exclude: tortilla
Optional add-ons: extra meat, extra pico de gallo
Keto Hardee’s Breakfast
Hardee’s Breakfast Hours: 6am – 10:30am
Keto Friendly/Low Carb Options:
1. Low Carb it. – Low Carb Breakfast Bowl
Folded eggs topped with a sausage patty and Swiss cheese, piled with a loaded omelet, and topped with shredded cheddar cheese and bacon bits.
How to order: “I’ll take a low carb breakfast bowl.”
What to exclude: nothing to exclude – This is a perfect option when you have to settle for keto fast food breakfast.
Optional add-ons: extra sausage, extra egg
Keto Panera Bread Breakfast
Panera is known for their bread and bread is the enemy on the keto diet. I’m only partially kidding.
Bread packs a lot of carbs and affects your blood sugar, so it should be avoided at all cost if you are on the keto diet.
If you are forced to go to a Panera restaurant, there are some keto options for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You will want to take the bread off of all their choices to start.
For breakfast, Panera has a lot of options for you, but I will put my favorite below.
Panera Breakfast Hours: “Breakfast hours vary slightly from location to location, but most bakery-cafes serve breakfast until 10:30 a.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. on weekends.” – Panera
Keto Friendly/Low Carb Options:
1. Bacon, Egg & Cheese – No Bread
Applewood-smoked bacon, egg, Vermont white cheddar, salt and pepper on ciabatta. You will want to make sure you order this without the ciabatta bread to make this low carb and keto friendly.
How to order: “Bacon, egg, and cheese without the bread.”
What to exclude: ciabatta bread
Optional add-ons: extra applewood smoked bacon
Keto Burger King Breakfast
Burger King isn’t really known for their breakfast options, but they do have a keto option available.
Burger King Breakfast Hours: 6am – 10:30am
Keto Friendly/Low Carb Options:
1. Ultimate Breakfast Platter
This meal comes with scrambled eggs, crunchy Hash Browns, savory sausage, baked biscuit, and three pancakes. Make sure you get this without pancakes, hash browns and the biscuit to make this a low carb/keto option. I would not recommend this as a go to item because you don’t get enough food for the money you will be spending.
How to order: “Ultimate breakfast platter with no hash browns, no biscuit, and no pancakes.”
What to exclude: hash browns, biscuit, and pancakes
Optional add-ons: sausage, extra eggs
Keto Jack In the Box Breakfast
Jack in the Box breakfast is higher up on the fast food chart when compared to favorability. It is no wonder why they serve it at all times of the day. Luckily, there are some options for keto meals on the breakfast menu.
Jack In the Box Breakfast Hours: All Day
Keto Friendly/Low Carb Options:
1. Extreme Sausage Sandwich (No Bun)
Breakfast sandwiches with no bun are the best keto friendly options, but the Extreme Sausage Sandwich with no bun will become any keto dieters best friend when they step inside a Jack in the Box. Two sausage patties, a cracked egg, and two slices of American cheese.
How to order: “Extreme sausage sandwich without the bun.”
What to exclude: bun
Optional add-ons: extra sausage, extra egg, add bacon
Keto Starbucks Breakfast
Starbucks isn’t the first place you would think to have a keto friendly breakfast option, but they do. Buyer beware, their keto option is not the cheapest option.
Starbucks Breakfast Hours: All Day
Keto Friendly/Low Carb Options:
1. Bacon & Gruyere Sous Vide Egg Bites
These are made with cage-free eggs cottage cheese, eggs, Monterey Jack cheese, and gruyere cheese. Keto dieters beware: these pack a whopping 9 grams of carbs per serving. If you choose to eat these, you will want to restrict your carbs entirely for the rest of the day.
How to order: “Bacon & Gruyere Sous Vide Egg Bites.”
What to exclude: nothing needs to be excluded
Optional add-ons: sriracha
Keto Chick-Fil-A Breakfast
If it’s Sunday, and you are in need of a fast food keto breakfast option you may not get a chance to eat if you only see a Chick Fil A. But you will be in luck if you are there any other day of the week before 1030am looking for a keto Chick Fil A breakfast option.
Chick Fil A Breakfast Hours: 6am – 10:30am
Keto Friendly/Low Carb Options:
1. Egg White Grill – No Muffin
This tasty sandwich has a piece of grilled chicken with a hint of citrus flavor, stacked with freshly cooked egg whites and American cheese, and is served on a toasted multigrain English muffin. You need to make sure you get this without the English muffin.
How to order: “Egg white grill without the English muffin.”
What to exclude: english muffin
Optional add-ons: extra egg, add sausage
Nutrition Facts from Chick Fil A: Without the English muffin, this meal has 1 g net carbs which hardly affects carb counts.
2. Sausage, Egg & Cheese Biscuit – no biscuit
How to order: “Sausage, egg, and cheese without the biscuit.”
What to exclude: biscuit
Optional add-ons: add chicken, extra sausage
Nutrition Facts from Chick Fil A: Per serving: 360 calories, 32 g fat (13 g sat), 900 mg sodium, 1 g net carbs, 18 g protein.
3. Hash Brown Scramble Bowl with Grilled Chicken or Sausage – no hash browns
This may be a stretch, but it certainly is keto friendly. Taking out the hash browns from a hash brown scramble bowl means you are taking the major part of the breakfast option out, but have no fear because you are able to replace it with grilled chicken or sausage as an add on.
How to order: “Hash brown scramble without the hash browns and add chicken and sausage.”
What to exclude: hash browns
Optional add-ons: grilled chicken, sausage
Nutrition Facts from Chick Fil A:
Per serving (chicken): 260 calories, 15 g fat (6 g sat), 870 mg sodium, 2 g carbs, 1 g fiber, 1 g sugar, 28 g protein.
Per serving (sausage): 340 calories, 27 g fat (11 g sat), 670 mg sodium, 2 g carbs, 1 g fiber, 0 g sugar, 20 g protein.
4. Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit – no biscuit
This is a classic option for someone on the keto diet. Just remember to not get the biscuit.
How to order: “Bacon, egg, and cheese without the biscuit.”
What to exclude: biscuit
Optional add-ons: add sausage, or add chicken
Nutrition Facts from Chick Fil A: Per serving: 130 calories, 9 g fat (5 g sat), 570 mg sodium, 1 g net carbs, 12 g protein.
Keto Sonic Breakfast
Sonic was a surprise and delight when searching for the best keto options for breakfast. Their burritos are served in their hotdog serving dishes and they make it incredibly easy turn their meals into keto friendly options, and best of all, sonic breakfast is served all day long.
Sonic Breakfast Hours: All Day
Keto Friendly/Low Carb Options:
1. Sausage Egg & Cheese Burrito – No Tortilla
Sonic chooses to serve their sausage in small slivers instead of sausage patties making it a very unique item when compared to other keto fast food breakfast options. Don’t forget to leave out the tortilla essentially making this into a burrito bowl.
How to order: “Sausage, egg, and cheese burrito without the tortilla.”
What to exclude: tortilla
Optional add-ons: add bacon
Is fast food breakfast on the keto diet ok?
Look, fast food is not healthy, but sometimes you may not be able to avoid it unless you choose to intermittent fast as an alternative until you can find a better option.
That would take a lot of discipline depending on how hungry you are.
If you are like me, you like to make sure you get a nice breakfast in.
I will normally front load with my healthy fats to satisfy my hunger, but I have found myself in plenty of predicaments where I had to settle for a
Fast food for breakfast is ok if you choose the right things to eat, but do not make this a habit since most of the food at fast food restaurants come with some harmful effects if eaten consistently.
Keto or Low Carb Fast Food… What’s the Difference?
Alright, so most people that have been trying keto know that there is a very big difference between strict keto, lazy keto, and the low carb diet.
Not all low carb foods are keto friendly options.
The main thing that qualifies if something is keto friendly or not is the number of carbs and the effects the food item has on blood sugar levels.
All of the keto options above also qualify as low carb options, but not all low carb options qualify as keto friendly.
This is simply because there is a limit to the number of carbs you have during keto diets. On a strict diet, you may not have the option to try any of the best low carb meals because it’ll just be too many carbs for a single day.
Fast Food Breakfast Items to Stay Away From on the Keto Diet
There are some items to stay completely away from when you are on a low carb or ketogenic diet. Here are foods to absolutely stay away from:
- Buns
- Muffins
- French fries
- Onion rings
- Taco shells
- Tortillas
- Burritos
- Rice and beans
- Fried chicken
