High protein cereal is making a comeback. Long gone are the sugar and carb infused breakfast. Protein-focused cereals are the talk of the town.
But which ones are the real deal and which ones are just along for the ride. We personally tried dozens of high protein cereals to bring you the truth.
Let’s find out:
The Difference Between Keto Cereal & Protein Cereal
We have covered keto cereal previously. And while many of these brands will overlap the two categories – it’s important to note the difference – and there is a difference.
Not all keto cereal are technically high protein cereal and not all high protein cereal can be considered keto cereal.
The difference is this. Keto looks primarily at the carbohydrate ingredient in a cereal. High protein focuses on the protein quantity of a cereal.
We’ll break down both and rank cereals both by overall choice and then sheer protein content at the end of the post.
What Counts as “High Protein Cereal” vs “Protein Cereal”?
For our definitions here – we’re counting anything over 8g of protein in it as “protein cereal.”
After that, anything over 12g of protein we’re considering “high protein cereal”
For reference – Honey Nut Cheerios has 3g of protein, so our base level of “protein cereal” should have at least 2-3x more protein than the average cereal you’d pick up off the shelf.
Why Choose a High Protein Cereal for Breakfast?
Typically breakfast on a standard American diet is a high carbohydrate meal. If you choose traditional cereal – this can be even more true – as it’s almost entirely carbohydrates. Depending on your lifestyle, it can spike your blood sugar first thing in the morning – which can set your day up for a poor start.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that prioritizing protein can be one of the best things people can do for body composition and longevity. By choosing a high protein cereal – you can make sure you get your day started off on the right foot and make sure that you’re getting at least some protein during a meal where you would otherwise be carb-focused.
The Best High Protein Cereal
When it comes down to it, we think there are basically three players when it comes to “the best protein cereal out there” on the market. Other reviewers might contain a larger number of players, but we try to contain this list to cereal’s wed actually eat on a regular basis. After these 3 primary players, I’ll also include a few options you can pick up in a pinch, but also share why we’d avoid them for nutritional reasons.
Magic Spoon
Protein Source: Whey
Avg Cost: $13.5 for 5 servings
Calories: 140
Protein: 13g
Carbs: 3 net carbs
Base Ingredient: Whey
You can read our entire review of magic spoon here.
Catalina Crunch
11g Protein | Protein Source: Pea Protein
Avg Cost: 12.25 for 7 servings
Calories: 110 calories
Protein: 11g
Carbs: 14g
Base Ingredient: Pea Protein
Catalina Crunch is easily the second biggest player in this space. While we like the flavor and the cinnamon toast in particular throws us back to our childhood – we really, really wish they would use something other than pea protein.
Also, while the protein does exceed 10g, the higher carbs here means the overall macros aren’t that impressive overall.
It’s tasty, slightly expensive, but a good option when you’re in a pinch.
You can read our entire review of catalina crunch here.
Three Wishes
8g protein | Protein source: Chickpea protein & pea protein
Avg cost: 6.29 for 7 servings
Calories: 120
Protein: 8g
Carbs: 20g
Three wishes tastes great. We’re not going to lie. However, the macros on this produce are not impressive – at all – and don’t really even fit our high protein criteria. We’re only including it here because people in general lump this in with other high protein cereals. While it’s tasty, with 20g of carbs it doesn’t qualify as keto cereal either. So, at this point, you might just as well have normal cereal – ha!
We’re not quite sure how three wishes got the reputation here for a healthy version of cereal, but props to their branding & marketing teams – not so much to their nutrition scientists.
The Worst High Protein Cereal – Wonderworks
8g protein | Protein source: Whey
Avg Cost: 8.49 for 7 servings
Wonderworks is a “keto-firendly” cereal that’s got 8g of protein, but we do not recommend it.
At all.
I am almost writing this post just to talk about this. I got this at my local HEB in Austin, Texas when I ran out of Magic Spoon and wanted to grab some protein cereal in a pinch. How bad could it be? After all, I am always down to try new healthy snacks.
I was so wrong.
This didn’t just taste horrible – it downright made me almost sick. I didn’t finish the bowl and threw away the box.
Maybe I got a bad box, I’m not sure what happened – but after hundreds of blog posts and dozens and dozens of product taste tests, this one sticks out as one of the worst foods I’ve come across. I normally would give a second chance to most products, but this was so bad, I will not be buying it again.
Other High Protein Cereal Options
In addition to these brand leaders, there’s a few other options we can recommend you take a look. They don’t stack up quite the same on the taste front, but they are still worth looking at for the protein content alone.
Post Premier Protein
20g protein | Protein source: Wheat Protein Isolate & Pea Protein Concentrate
Avg Cost:
Post premiere does not have the branding of the newer DTC high protein focused cereals, but they punch above their weight when it comes to sheer protein content.
The high protein content here is great, but the protein sources here are not great and there is some concern that wheat & pea proteins are less bioavailable than whey – so this is good in a pinch, but not our first recommendation.
Special K High Protein Cereal
20g Protein | Protein source: Soy Protein Isolate
Avg Cost:
Special K. The cereal of the 90s – anyone else remember this?
Special K actually does a good job on the flavoring of the cereal (they’re a cereal giant – they should be good at this after all!), but they drop the ball when it comes to the nutrition profile.
It’s worth noting that they have a protein cereal and a high protein cereal in their Special K lineup. The protein cereal originally went down from 15g to 10g of protein per serving (we’re not quite sure why). However, they did introduce a high protein chocolate almond version. That’s what this review is about. Make sure your option says “high protein.”
It’s even tougher because for the high protein option, there’s only one flavor and there are 15 total variations of “Special K” – so you need to be careful to pick out the right one
If you’re sensing a theme here, the protein content on here is great. We’ll take it. But again – the protein sourcing is not awesome and we’d love to see them switch it up.
Nature Valley Granola
13g protein. | Protein source: Soy Protein Isolate
Avg Cost:
Technically (in our elite opinion), granola is not cereal. It’s a substitute, sure – and many people will swap them out as substitutes, but if you give a 5 year old granola instead of cereal – they’re going to know the difference.
That said – this is arguably less protein than some of the super-high protein products, but is a better source than something like pea or wheat protein.
If you want to add this to your pantry, you’ll have a nice alternate option that’s still high protein, but slightly different than the other players on this list.
Protein Cereal – Ranked by Highest Protein Content
If you’re looking for just sheer protein content – here’s our ranked list so far. We’ll be adding to this over time.
Please note that some of these protein sources are more bioavailable than others and not all protein sources are created equal. That said, here’s your best protein cereal ranked – by protein content and protein content alone.
- Post Premier Protein – 20g protein
- BariWise Protein Diet Cereal – 15g protein
- Wholesome Provisions Protein Cereal – 15g
- Special K High Protein – 20g protein
- WonderWorks – 15g protein
- Magic Spoon – 13g protein
- Nature Valley Granola – 13g protein
- Catalina Crunch – 11g protein
- Special K Protein Cereal – 10g protein
- High Key Cereal – 10g protein (discontinued)
- Perfect Keto Keto Cereal – 9g protein
- Kashi Go – 9g protein
- Three Wishes – 8g protein
- Seven Sundays Muesli – 8g protein
What did we miss?
Other Related Reviews
If you liked this review of the best high protein cereals, you might like these other product and reviews we’ve done hands-on research with:
