5% Nutrition Knocks the Carb OUT with Updated Low-Carb Protein Bars

In early 2018, 5% Nutrition released a unique and groundbreaking low-carb, dairy-free protein bar named Knock the Carb Out, sometimes abbreviated as “KTCO”. To see if the bar really lived up to its name, we performed blood sugar and ketone testing before and after eating them. Long story short: not only do they taste great, but they worked as intended.

5% Nutrition Knock the Carb Out Bars are back in a big way, and have a new Chocolate Brownie Bar flavor too!

Three years later, we’re proud to announce that the brand behind Rich Piana’s legendary name has also updated the labels for their new white “legendary” look, and they’ve added a new flavor!`

5% Knock the Carb Out goes Legendary and Picks Up a New Brownie Flavor

To complement the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip flavors, 5% Nutrition has also added Chocolate Brownie Bar to the menu, and in our opinions, it’s the best flavor yet!

These gems have a simple premise: low active carb, unafraid of fat, dairy-free and whole-food based, but still delicious and nutritious. As always, 5% Nutrition is trying to stick with “real food” ingredients for this product – and different flavors use different methods to get there (both with egg whites, but peanuts or almonds as a base). You’ll recognize everything on the ingredients list, but there are some artificial sweeteners!

Get ready for a good one here!

With a name like “Knock the Carb Out”, we’re obviously expecting a low-carb dieter friendly product. Their panels range from 4 to 6 net carbs per bar and 18 to 20 grams of protein per bar, making them the perfect snack to help low-carb dieters get through their day and not get wrecked by a nagging sweet tooth. They’re satisfying, they’re clean, and they’re delicious.

5% Nutrition delivered when they launched in 2018, and they delivered again in 2021. Sign up for 5% Nutrition news and deal alerts below while comparing prices with PricePlow, then let’s get to our blood testing and ingredient analysis:

Although Mike wasn’t in a state of ketosis when blood testing (towards the end of the review above), these bars did something amazing: they only raised blood sugar 25 points (for peanut butter) and 29 points (for dark chocolate)!

390 calories and only a jump of 24 blood sugar points after 45 minutes?!?! Color us VERY surprised. And yeah, blood sugar started at 99… not exactly the best, but so it goes.

It hardly stopped the transition into a deeper state, as beta hydroxybutyrate readings dropped 0.0 and 0.1 points in the two tests. Only one test is on YouTube though, due to camera issues – apologies from Mike for that.

So while these aren’t necessarily bars that would “get you into ketosis”, they’re most definitely “friendly” — for Mike at least — if you’re already in and are willing to take a minor (but not at all overwhelming) blood sugar impact.

Given the amount of protein inside, this shows that these new prebiotic fibers are indeed something not to be too scared of (again, for Mike at least), and the higher-fats with egg whites and peanuts don’t seem to disrupt things even as much as a straight scoop of whey protein.

Color us extremely pleasantly surprised!

Knock the Carb Out Nutrition and Ingredients

These are the updated ingredient panels for the Legendary white labels launched in 2021

As the nutrition labels show, the flavors range pretty substantially as far as their fat content is concerned. In fact, one may even consider these two completely different products! Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip is peanut based, while Chocolate Brownie Bar and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough are Almond based.

• 4-6 net carbs

  Even with those differences, the three flavors bring 23-26 grams of total carbs per serving (including fiber and sugar alcohols). That may sound high for a “low carb” bar at first glance, but 5% Nutrition is focusing on the “net carb” content here. A net carb is one that will impact your blood sugar levels. Since the bars deliver 14-16 grams of fiber per serving and 4-5 grams of sugar alcohols, 5% Nutrition can state that each serving has only 4-6g of active carbohydrate.

• Two different protein and fat sources depending on flavor

  The bars have either 20 or 18 grams of protein, with the lower-dose flavor being Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. On top of the protein provided from the peanuts or almonds, what’s unique here is that 5% Nutrition has changed the protein blend to egg white protein, bovine collagen, and almond protein powder, which makes this a fantastically unique, dairy-free product.

  Lower in the label, each flavor has coconut oil added, and you can see 7 or 8 grams of saturated fat on top of the 18-19 grams of total fat. This will add a bit of grease factor to the bars, but the benefits of a high-fat, MCT-rich coconut oil is worth it to low-carb dieters who need some solid calories without the net carbs.

  A bit on Egg White Protein

  Egg whites are no strangers to 5% Nutrition, who’s used them in numerous products, including Real Carbs + Protein (sadly, their Egg White Crystals are now discontinued). Egg white protein has some of the highest digestibility of any protein source found in nature. If we rely on the industry standard of Protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS), eggs and egg whites score a 1 out of a highest score of….1!^[1]

  This means that egg white protein is just as good as whey. Those that find themselves seat belting themselves to a toilet after dairy should kiss 5% Nutrition’s feet for going with this instead of whey or soy. Finally – a protein bar for those who can’t have most protein bars.

• Soluble Tapioca Fiber and Chicory Root Fiber as the binding agent

  

  Here’s a stack idea: After nearly a decade of bulking, it’s finally time for 5% Nutrition to release a fat burner: It’s Shred Time!

  Certain “fibers” and fiber sweeteners caught a ton of flak in 2018 due to IMO Syrup being realized as a “fake” fiber and not worthy of being counted as real-deal dietary fiber.

  With prebiotic fiber here, there’s an upside – it doesn’t spike Mike’s blood sugar nearly as much as we expected (if at all!), and it’s healthy for gut bacteria and microflora.^[2]

  And tapioca-sourced prebiotic fiber means we’re avoiding soy and corn, which are all-too-often GMO-heavy crops. Since 5% Nutrition is relying on “real food” sources, it fits the bill. Just don’t rely on these bars in your diet for the entire day.

  On the soy front, however, note that there is a dash of soy lecithin in the chocolate chips themselves, so these are not soy-free bars, but they’re close.

• Sweetening support with maltitol and sucralose

  While these bars are low-carb and whole foods based, they do use sucralose for sweetening. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however. Because… we want to enjoy our low-carb snacks!

  

  Rich truly was the king of consistency. This man was all day, every day, until his last day.

  While natural sweeteners sound great on paper, most of them leave an odd and bitter aftertaste we dislike. The best-tasting one that doesn’t do this is sugar… and that’d destroy the purpose of a low carb product!

  Since sucralose is non-caloric, it was a solid choice. Low-carb dieters are usually fine with sucralose, and we are too – just in reasonable amounts. But if you’re a low-carb dieter who’s more on the “paleo” side and refuses to touch the stuff, these bars just won’t be for you. Just ask yourself if those high doses of stevia are any better for the gut microbiome than lower doses of sucralose…

  In addition, maltitol has been added as a low-glycemic carbohydrate that tastes sweet and helps with texture. This is where you’ll see the sugar alcohols on the new nutrition facts panels.

Knock the Carb Out Macros

• Calories: 300-330
• Protein: 18-20g
• Carbohydrates: 23-26 (2g sugar, 14-16g fiber, 4-5g sugar alcohols)
• Fat: 18-22g (7-8g saturated)

The newer versions here actually vary less than the original versions, which had much higher total fat in the peanut version before. It seems that there’s been a shift from the higher fat base to more protein, and it’s likely the bovine collagen powder that made this possible!

Flavors available

For the new version discussed above, look for the white labels at the stores. If you see black boxes, those will be the older versions — and if you’re huge fans of those flavors, stock up while you can!

You ready to Knock the Carb Out?!

Just like with the various other Legendary updates we’ve covered on our 5% Nutrition news page, and what we said in our original article on KTCO Bars, “Rich would be proud”.

That’s because 5% Nutrition hit the mark with these bars, and then some. We got everything we wanted: a delicious, low carb protein bar that doesn’t leave us starving. The ingredient label is flush with real foods we had sitting around our kitchen. The blood sugar impact was negligible.

Rich Piana’s Knock the Carb Out Bar Highlights – Image egregiously stolen from 5PrecentNutrition.com

And we even have some distinct flavors, and it’s just sweet enough thanks to sucralose. We want an easy snack when low-carb dieting (carbs are everywhere, we need something other than plain nuts and beef jerky!).

For our low carb followers, we fully believe these bars deserve a place in your next online supplement shopping spree. They’ll deliver that “naughty” feeling of going off diet while still allowing you to stick to a low-carbohydrate lifestyle. Just like Rich would want.

Note: This article was originally published on May 31, 2018 and updated October 21, 2021 with the Legendary “white” label formula.