One thing that a lot of new keto dieters have trouble with is traversing the world of fast food.

While some experts say fast food should be completely avoided, I like to be realistic – people are going to crave fast food, and sometimes fast food is the only option available like when traveling or when it’s late at night. What’s important is knowing how to stay keto when ordering at fast food restaurants.

Wingstop is a fairly common restaurant in the United States, with over 1,250 locations serving up buffalo style chicken wings with a variety of sauces and rubs. In this article, I’ll explore the best way to eat low carb at Wingstop while following a keto diet.

How Many Carbs Are in Wingstop?

The carbs in Wingstop’s menu items can have a pretty wide range, including those with fairly keto-friendly options, and those that are absolutely off limits for keto.

While most of the time chicken is a perfectly accpetable source of protein on a ketogenic diet, when it comes to fast food chicken, there are types of breading and oils that are used that are not entirely keto-friendly, and should be met with caution.

It’s always best to try and recreate fast food items at home, because you’ll be able to more accurately track all of the specific nutrients that go into them, but I get it – we all get busy, and fast food is cheap, convenient, and inarguably delicious.

For a quick comparison to give you a better idea about the carbohydrates between some items and others, standard fried wings with their signature hot sauce have the following nutrition facts for a serving size of ten wings:

• Total Calories – 550
• Total Fat – 30 Grams
• Total Protein – 40 grams
• Total Carbs – 35 grams (5 grams of fiber, 5 grams of sugar)

As you can see, 35 net carbs will easily take most right out of ketosis in one meal, not even considering any drinks or sides that you might be considering. Even if you’re following an intermittent fasting diet, a single serving of regular hot wings from Wingstop would still put you out of the keto safe zone.

Comparatively, a single serving (ten wings) of the keto-friendly lemon pepper wings (without breading) contain the following nutrition facts:

• Total Calories – 180
• Total Fat – 26 grams
• Total Protein – 30 grams
• Total Carbs – 2 grams (2 grams of fiber, zero grams of sugar)

As you can see, I go for lemon pepper every time. Not only are you getting zero net carbs, but you’re also getting fewer calories, meaning you can eat more around the day to curb those hunger cravings more effectively.

But that’s just one example, there are actually a few ways that you can successfully order low carb at Wiingstop. I’ll break down some other easy options next.

How to Order Low Carb at Wingstop

Ordering wingstop is fairly simple, as long as you know to choose your wings carefully. As you saw above, the difference in wing type and hot sauce or rub choice can make a huge impact on the net carbs you end up consuming.

Generally, it’s likely best to always ask about which wings are breaded and which ones are not. If possible, you could always ask for them to use non breaded wings in a sauce of your choice, even if that sauce tends to only come with breaded wings. From my experience, Wingstop has pretty stellar customer service, and they’re always willing to help those with specific dietary restrictions.

When ordering wings, there are essentially three ways that they can be prepared: Classic, boneless, or crispy. From what I’ve seen on their own nutrition facts, and from other keto dieters on the internet, you’ll really want to stick to classic wherever possible. For whatever reason, boneless runs the risk of having higher carb counts for some reason to do with the way they’re prepared, and crispy almost always implies breading that will bump up your net carbs quickly.

After you’ve picked out your type of chicken, the next thing to choose is the sauce. This can get pretty tricky, but arming yourself with all of the nutrition facts of each sauce is the best way to avoid a keto catastrophe.

I took a deep dive on all of the sauces, and these tend to be the most low carb friendly (Under 6 grams of net carbs, chicken included):

• Lemon Pepper Sauce
• Atomic Sauce
• Cajun Sauce
• Garlic Parmesan Sauce
• Mild Sauce
• Lemon Pepper Sauce
• Original Hot Sauce
• Louisiana Dry Rub
• Plain

There’s always the option to hold the sauce and go plain. Chicken wings can be super flavorful just from salt, pepper, and keto-friendly hot sauces too. This also includes dipping sauces. Ranch is generally pretty safe, but it can be on the higher side when it comes to carb counts. If you have any keto-friendly sauces at your disposal, then there’s definitely no reason to just order plain, and hack your meal on your own terms.

When it comes to keto friendly sauces, G. Hughes’ BBQ and Ketchup are some of my favorites – sour cream is another great way to help beat the heat if you’re using anything particularly spicy.

One of the bigger unfortunate drawbacks with Wingstops is the sides. It’s gonna be tough to find any side menu items that are worth fitting into a keto meal. The only side dish that’s truly keto-friendly on the Wingstop menu is celery and carrots, which can be super tasty, but obviously aren’t as alluring as all of their variations of french fries.

This same drawback also applies to beverages. All sodas, teas, and fruit juices are more likely than not to contain crazy high amounts of sugars, and even the sugar-free and unsweetened teas can have high glycemic index sweeteners like sucralose, dextrose, and maltodextrin – all of which are a little problematic when trying to stick to a low carb diet. It’s best to just bring your own keto beverage, or rely on the best keto drink available – water.

Off Limits Wingstop Food Options for Keto

As I’m sure it’s starting to become pretty clear, most of the Wingstop menu is unfortunately off limits for keto dieters, but that’s okay. There’s still a lot of good you can get out of the meals here, and as far as fast food goes, it’s definitely one of the easier ones to hack into being keto-friendly.

That being said, one of the best defenses against losing your state of ketosis is knowing exactly what to watch out for. I’ve taken a look through the entire available nutrition facts for each menu item, and compiled a list of the absolute off limit items if you’re trying to maintain a state of ketosis. These include:

• All sweetened drinks (Soft drinks, sweet teas, fruit juices)
• Mango Habanero Sauce
• Hickory Smoked BBQ (Ken’s)
• Hickory Smoked BBQ (Renfros)
• Hawaiian Sauce (Ken’s)
• Hawaiian Sauce (Renfro’s)
• Spicy Korean Q Sauce
• Hot Cheddar Cheese Sauce
• Honey Mustard
• Fresh Baked Rolls (Yeast Rolls)
• All boneless (breaded) wings
• All fried corn dishes
• Triple Chocolate Chunk Brownie
• All french fries (Sweet Potato, Cheese Fries, Buffalo Ranch Fries, Luisiana Voodoo Fries)
• All crispy chicken tenders

While this might seem like a lot, the more you get used to a keto diet, the less you’ll crave foods like this, and the more in tune with detecting low carb foods you’ll be. It’ll start to get easier to know exactly when and how to order to stay in ketosis, and you’ll have a few more tricks up your sleeve to help you hack any fast food meal and make it more flavorful, and still perfectly healthy on keto.

Since Winstop is just one of many fast food chains you might be tempted to encounter when following this diet, I decided to include some general rule of thumb tips for all fast food restaurants to help you be confident when ordering low carb.

Keto Fast Food Quick Rules to Follow

When it comes to fast food, there’s a few things you’ll need to be aware of right off the bat. These include:

• Plan ahead of time

This one is key for really any restaurant, fast food or otherwise. Planning your meals ahead of time is one  of the best ways to set yourself up for success. I know most fast food choices tend to be due to not having enough time at all, but even reading this article and arming yourself with the knowledge of Wingstop’s most keto-friendly options is a great first start.

If you’re planning on getting fast food soon, and you know ahead of time which chain you’ll be going to, I’d say your best bet is to play around with a nutrition/macro calculator and the restaurant’s online menu. This way you can test out different options, and see for yourself just how keto-friendly your potential next meal could be.

• Go for fat over protein

A lot of people try to focus too much on limiting carbs and not enough on what other types of macronutrients they’re getting. On a keto diet, you generally should should to consume more fat than protein, because that’s what your body is adapted to for burning fuel and creating energy.

This is important for a couple of reasons. Many people don’t know this, but eating too much protein can actually kick you out of ketosis. This takes place through a process known as gluconeogensis, and while it’s hard to induce, not paying attention to your protein count is a sure way to end up with it.

The other reason is because your body really needs those Omega-3s wherever it can get them. Omega-3 fatty acids are a vital part of the ketogenic diet, and should always be a goal when constructing each meal.

• Watch out for deep fried options

This one can throw a lot of people off. Certain deep fry oils, while not inherently full of carbs, can still promote inflammation in the body, which actively works against the state of ketosis that you’ve worked so hard to achieve. Two of the most commonly used oils in fasts foods are vegetable oil and soybean oil, both of which tend to promote a lot of inflammation after cooking with them.

• Balance your other meals for the day

If there’s one fast food rule to remember, it’s this one. It’s okay to go ahead and bend the rules of your diet by having fast food every once in a while, but your body will thank you if you always balance those unhealthy meals with nutrient-dense healthy meals, so that your body can perform optimally and process that ‘worse’ food much more efficiently.

This makes another great case for using a nutrition/macro calculator, so that you know ahead of time what nutrients you’ll need to best balance out a ‘cheat’ meal like Wingstop.