Full disclosure: I will never eat at Dairy Queen while I am on keto. It’s not that they don’t have options, the same as any other fast food restaurant. It’s because my weakness is ice cream. I used to have Dairy Queen ice cream cakes for my birthday every year. So the question is can we do keto at dairy queen?
When I was pregnant, the only food I could eat was ice cream and I went to Dairy Queen every day. Because it was all I was able to keep down, I only gained baby weight. But, of course, I wanted Bill to come with me. He gained more weight during my pregnancy than I did! I love ice cream.
I had an off-plan day about a year ago. My daughter and I ate everything carb related. I had poutine, I had pizza, I had real Pepsi, and I had a Dairy Queen Skor Blizzard. It made me so sick afterwards, but it helped me get over the cravings I was experiencing. So, just for fun, while I was looking at the nutritional information for this blog, I looked up how many carbs were in the Skor blizzard I ate. I almost fell out of my chair.
Keto at Dairy Queen is not in a Blizzard
A large Skor blizzard has 1130 calories and 162 carbs. That’s a little over 8 days’ worth of carbs in one ice cream treat! Wow. While I was there, I looked up what ice cream treat has the most carbs in it. Their large Oreo dirt pie blizzard has 222 carbs. That’s over 11 days worth of carbs on keto in one dessert. That’s incredible.
So, to avoid those temptations, I will not eat at Dairy Queen. I’ve never been a big fan of their food, just their ice cream. But that is just my personal opinion. If you want to go there, there are some options for you.
Their nutritional information is available online. Like most places, it doesn’t break down the bread part of the meal option from the other parts. According to My Fitness Pal, a hamburger bun at Dairy Queen has about 30 grams of carbs. I used that to figure out the carbs for the food options if you didn’t get the bun.
Keto Options
If you get all the regular toppings and just no bun (this would include the sugar-filled ketchup and relish if it’s a usual topping) you would take in the following carbs:
- Cheeseburger (1 patty, cheddar cheese, pickles, ketchup, mustard) – 5 grams of carbs
- Bacon 2 Cheese Deluxe (2 patties, sharp american and white cheddar, bacon, tomato, onion, lettuce, pickles, ketchup, mayonnaise) – 4 grams of carbs
- Flamethrower (2 patties, Flamethrower sauce, pepper jack cheese, jalapeno bacon, tomato, lettuce) – 3 grams of carbs
- Mushroom Cheeseburger (2 patties, mushroom sauce, swiss cheese, mayonnaise) – 2 grams of carbs
- Original Cheeseburger (2 or 3 patties, sharp American cheese, pickles, ketchup, mustard) – the double is 3 grams of carbs. The triple is 4 grams of carbs.
- Two Cheese Deluxe Burger (2 or 3 patties, sharp American cheese, white cheddar, tomato, onion, lettuce, pickles, ketchup, mayonnaise) – The double is 4 grams of carbs. The triple is 5 grams of carbs.
That doesn’t seem too bad for carbs. The only caution I would have is that there are so many calories in each of these burgers! It’s fine for a treat, but I wouldn’t eat there (or at any fast food restaurant) consistently.
Dairy Queen has a grilled chicken sandwich as well. If it is the same bun as the hamburgers use, and I would assume it is, there are 14 grams of carbs in one sandwich. It comes with lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. Honestly, I have no idea how that is possible, but their nutrition says it contains 44 grams of carbs with the bun. If (as above) we assume that the information is correct that the bun has 30 grams of carbs, that leaves 14 grams of carbs in the grilled chicken sandwich. So, I would avoid that.
Best Option for Keto at Dairy Queen
The rotisserie style chicken bites have only 3 grams of carbs for the regular or the large. This looks like a great option! You can also get a side salad with them for 3 net grams of carbs. Or, if you want to put it all together, you can have the salad bowl with rotisserie style chicken bites for 8 net grams of carbs.
What’s a chicken bite without a sauce to dip it in? You can have the creamy Caesar dressing, Flamethrower dipping sauce, ranch dressing or zesty queso dipping sauce, each for 2 grams of carbs. Their calorie wise zesty Italian dressing also has 2 grams of carbs, but only 1 gram of fat, so still okay, but maybe not the best option.
If you love the food at Dairy Queen, they definitely have options for you. Like I said, I won’t be going there because the temptation of their ice cream treats is just a little too much for me to handle!
Wendy
