Plain meat, fish, and eggs are the foods that come closest to containing only fat and protein with no carbohydrates. In practice, almost no whole food is absolutely zero-carb, but many animal-based foods contain so little (under half a gram per serving) that they round to zero on a nutrition label. Knowing which foods truly qualify and which carry hidden carbs can make a real difference if you’re tracking macros closely.
Meat and Poultry
Unprocessed cuts of beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, and duck are the most reliable sources of fat and protein with negligible carbohydrates. A plain steak, pork chop, or chicken thigh contains virtually zero carbs per serving. The small amount that does exist comes from glycogen, a stored form of sugar naturally present in muscle tissue at roughly 1 to 2% of fresh meat’s weight. That translates to well under a gram in a typical portion, which is why meat labels list zero.
Organ meats are the notable exception. Liver is the body’s main glycogen storage site in any animal, so beef or chicken liver carries measurably more carbohydrate than a regular cut of meat. If you’re eating liver regularly, it’s worth checking the label rather than assuming zero.
Watch for Hidden Carbs in Processed Meat
Bacon, sausage, deli slices, and jerky often contain added sugar, dextrose, or other sweeteners as part of the curing process. A typical sugar-cured bacon, for example, lists sugar right in the ingredients alongside salt and water. Some sausages also include breadcrumb fillers or corn syrup. The carb counts are usually small (1 to 3 grams per serving), but they add up if you eat these foods daily. Check ingredient lists for sugar, dextrose, corn syrup, and maltodextrin. Uncured, unseasoned versions tend to be cleaner.
Fish and Shellfish
Most fin fish is effectively zero-carb. Salmon, tuna, cod, sardines, mackerel, trout, halibut, and tilapia all provide fat and protein with no measurable carbohydrate. Fattier fish like salmon and mackerel also deliver a substantial amount of omega-3 fats, making them especially nutrient-dense.
Shellfish is where it gets more nuanced. Shrimp, crab, and lobster are very low in carbs but not always zero. Oysters carry the most: a 3-ounce serving of raw farmed eastern oysters has about 4.7 grams of carbohydrate, and breaded fried oysters jump to nearly 10 grams. Scallops, mussels, and clams also contain a few grams per serving because of naturally occurring glycogen. If your goal is strictly zero carbs, stick to fin fish and shrimp rather than bivalves.
Eggs
A large egg contains about 0.56 grams of carbohydrate, almost all of it in the yolk. Under FDA labeling rules, any food with less than 0.5 grams of carbs per serving can be listed as zero, so a single egg just barely misses that cutoff. For all practical purposes, eggs are a zero-carb food. Three eggs at breakfast give you roughly 18 grams of protein, 15 grams of fat, and under 2 grams of carbs total.
Cheese
Aged, hard cheeses come closest to zero carbs in the dairy world. Parmesan has about 0.9 grams per ounce. Cheddar, Swiss, Gruyère, and Manchego are all in a similar range, generally under 1 gram per ounce, because the aging process allows bacteria to consume most of the lactose (milk sugar) over time. The longer a cheese ages, the fewer carbs remain.
Softer and fresher cheeses carry more. Ricotta, cottage cheese, and cream cheese all have several grams of carbs per serving because they retain more whey and lactose. Processed cheese slices and spreads sometimes add starches or sugars as well. If you want cheese with minimal carbs, go for the hard, aged varieties and check the label on anything soft or processed.
Butter, Lard, and Oils
Pure fats are the only foods that are genuinely zero-carb and zero-protein (or nearly so). A tablespoon of butter contains just 0.01 grams of carbohydrate. Lard, tallow, ghee, olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil all sit at zero or a fraction of a gram. These are pure fat sources, so they won’t contribute protein, but they’re useful for cooking and adding calories without any carb impact.
Butter and ghee technically contain trace protein from milk solids. Ghee has even less because the milk solids are removed during clarification. If you’re looking for foods that provide both fat and protein, these don’t really count. They’re best thought of as fat-only additions to meals built around meat, fish, or eggs.
Why “Zero Carb” Labels Can Be Misleading
FDA regulations allow any food with less than 0.5 grams of carbohydrate per serving to print “0g” on the nutrition facts panel. That means a food labeled zero-carb might still contain up to 0.49 grams per serving. Eat several servings and those fractions accumulate. This is especially relevant for foods like eggs, cheese, and certain processed meats where each serving hovers just under the rounding threshold. For most people, this is irrelevant. But if you’re on a strict ketogenic or carnivore protocol and tracking every gram, weigh the actual USDA figures rather than trusting the rounded label number.
Nutritional Gaps to Keep in Mind
A diet built entirely around fat-and-protein foods with no carbs will reliably deliver B12, iron, zinc, and complete protein. But several essential nutrients become harder to get. Vitamin C is found almost exclusively in fruits and vegetables. Potassium is concentrated in potatoes, bananas, and leafy greens. Folate, vitamin E, and manganese also come primarily from plant sources like whole grains, legumes, nuts, and leafy vegetables. Fiber, which feeds beneficial gut bacteria, is absent from all animal foods.
This doesn’t mean you can’t eat mostly fat and protein. It means that if you do, you’ll want to be intentional about including at least some plant foods (even low-carb ones like spinach, broccoli, or avocado) to fill those gaps, or understand which supplements to consider. The people who run into trouble are the ones who eliminate carb-containing foods entirely without accounting for the micronutrients that leave with them.
Quick Reference List
- Essentially zero carbs: beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, duck, salmon, tuna, cod, sardines, mackerel, shrimp, butter, lard, tallow, ghee, olive oil
- Trace carbs (under 1g per serving): eggs, aged cheddar, Parmesan, Swiss cheese, Gruyère
- Low but not zero (1 to 5g per serving): oysters, mussels, scallops, liver, cottage cheese, ricotta, cream cheese, cured bacon, sausage with fillers