Are Mangoes Keto-Friendly? (& Substitutes)

Fruits are typically not great for ketogenic diets. Find out whether mangoes are one of the exceptions that are keto-friendly anyway.

100 grams of mangoes contain around 13.4 grams of net carbohydrates which means total carbs minus fiber.

This amount of carbohydrates in combination with the rest of your diet will typically be enough to kick you out of ketosis. In turn, you can say that mangoes are not that keto-friendly.

There are still situations where you could implement tiny amounts of this fruit but it is likely not worth using so many of your daily carbs on such a small amount of food.

In any case, there are a few lower-carb substitutes for mangoes that will generally be better choices for ketogenic diets.

Total and net carbs in mango

Learning how many total and net carbs mangoes contain makes it clearer that this fruit is typically not keto-friendly.

100 grams of mango contain the following amounts of carbs (1):

• Total carbs: 15 grams
• Of which fiber: 1.6 grams
• Net carbs: 13.4 grams

If you eat other foods in reasonable amounts, the 13.4 grams of net carbohydrates in 100 grams of mangoes is often enough to kick you out of ketosis.

One mango is about 210 grams and contains the following amounts of carbs:

• Total carbs: 31.5 grams
• Of which fiber: 3.4 grams
• Net carbs: 28.1 grams

As you can expect, eating more grams of mango will also increase the number of carbohydrates you consume.

You can also take this in the other direction and consume smaller portions of mango.

However, even then, this fruit adds a lot of carbs to your diet. Likely too many to consider mango while trying to stay in ketosis.

Other nutrition information mango

There are cases where it can be worth implementing foods that are somewhat higher in carbs in your ketogenic diet because of all the valuable nutrients they contain.

Fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals can also influence whether you stay in ketosis and how good mango will be for your general health.

100 grams of raw mango contain the following nutrients (1):

• Calories: 60
• Protein: 0.8 grams
• Carbs: 15 grams
• Part of the carbs that is fiber: 1.6 grams
• Fat: 0.4 grams
• Vitamin C: 61% of the DV (Daily Value)
• Vitamin B6: 6% of the DV
• Copper: 6% of the DV
• Vitamin E: 5% of the DV
• Thiamin: 2% of the DV

And some other vitamins and minerals.

Besides being relatively high in carbs, mangoes are not that impressive when it comes to other nutrients.

You should be able to find more nutritious foods that are more keto-friendly at the same time.

Why mango is sometimes keto-friendly

Even though it is often not a great idea, it is sometimes possible to fit small amounts of mango into a ketogenic diet. Going over the keto basics can help you understand why this is the case.

You can describe any way of eating where you get and stay in ketosis as a ketogenic diet. Ketosis is a state where your body mainly uses fat as an energy source (2).

To do this, you have to keep your carbohydrate consumption below a certain level. Details like your weight, body composition, genes, and exercise habits influence exactly what this carbohydrate level is.

That being said, there are also still general keto guidelines. These are not perfect for every individual but they do give you some idea of how many grams of carbs and in turn, mango fits in your keto diet.

A typical recommendation is to get 55%-60% of your macronutrients from fat, 30%-35% from protein, and 5%-10% from carbohydrates on a ketogenic diet.

If you do the calculations for your calorie intake, you will likely conclude that you can eat around 20 to 50 grams of carbs a day.

Even if you consider that you don’t include fiber in these amounts of carbohydrates, it should become clear that it will be challenging to combine mango with ketogenic diets.

More keto-friendly mango substitutes

You are likely interested in mango because you want to eat something with a sweeter taste on your ketogenic diet. Luckily, there are still more keto-friendly ways to achieve this goal.

There are a variety of fruits that are lower in carbs than mango. It will be easier to stay in ketosis while eating these.

The numbers next to these substitutes are the amounts of net carbohydrates per 100 grams (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8):

• Blackberries: 4.9 grams of net carbs
• Raspberries: 5.4 grams of net carbs
• Strawberries: 5.7 grams of net carbs
• Watermelon: 7.1 grams of net carbs
• Cranberries: 7.6 grams of net carbs
• Cantaloupe: 7.9 grams of net carbs

As you can see, these substitutes still contain somewhat big amounts of carbs. Similar to mango, you may need to keep your portions of these fruits small on a ketogenic diet.

How to avoid eating too much mango on keto

Another way to approach mango is really paying attention to keeping your portions small.

If you want to do this successfully, you likely don’t want to slice up a few big mangoes and just hope you won’t eat too many carbohydrates.

Instead, you can follow some of these tips so that you don’t eat too much mango on a ketogenic diet:

• Estimate in advance how many grams of mango would allow you to stay in ketosis
• Put these grams of mango aside and leave the rest somewhere out of sight
• Don’t eat unlimited amounts of mango while doing other things like watching TV
• If you really like mango and crave it too much, you may have to buy smaller or no portions

Keep in mind that the initial estimations about how many carbs you can eat on keto are not always optimal. You may need to eat smaller portions of mango over time.

What to do if you ate a mango on keto

Some people get in a situation where they ate mango on keto before realizing it is high in carbs. There are a few things you can do if this is the case.

First of all, it is worth mentioning that getting kicked out of ketosis every once in a while is not the end of the world for many people.

More specifically, if you just want to lose weight and get healthier, mangoes can be good and decent. Even if they kick you out of ketosis.

That being said, there are still a few actions you can take to make it less likely that this happens.

First of all, exercising (both cardiovascular and strength training) tends to be beneficial (9).

Doing bodyweight squats, running, and even walking to some extent should reduce to what extent the mango will raise your blood sugar.

Secondly, protein and fiber tend to reduce how much the carbohydrates you ate in the mango spike your blood sugar (10, 11).

The downside of consuming fiber is that it also tends to come with extra carbohydrates. That means you likely want to stick to the exercise and protein.

Related posts:

• Are Pears Keto-Friendly? (& Substitutes)
• Are Kiwis Keto-Friendly? (& Substitutes)
• Are Grapes Keto-Friendly? (& Better Substitutes)

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