Have been reading everywhere that watermelon is keto friendly however it is 11-12 net carbs per cup.
Am I missing something?
Please advise - thanks!
Watermelon
realmuse
#1
SomeGuy
(Joey)
#2
Interesting - Iâve never come across this claim⌠Iâd have thought that, although natural, watermelon is basically sugar water (fructose) and therefore wouldnât make for a low-carb menu item beyond a small bite or two.
Can you share a few of these âeverywheresâ youâre seeing such statements?
SomeGuy
(Joey)
#5
Okay. Here are highlights from the first few hits. Iâm not seeing it touted as a good idea for keto folksâŚ
-
âOn a 2,000-calorie diet, you may be restricting your carb intake to just 100 calories, or 25 grams, per day. Therefore, a single serving of watermelon could take up nearly half of your daily carb allotment.â
-
âWatermelon can be keto friendly, but in limited quantities⌠One cup of watermelon contains roughly 11 net grams of carbohydrates. This means a cup of watermelon might make up half of their allotted carbohydrates for the day.â
-
âHowever, as with all fruits, watermelons naturally contain sugars. Therefore, people following a ketogenic diet may worry that eating watermelon could take them out of ketosis, the metabolic process that burns fat instead of carbs. As sugars are carbohydrates, it is reasonable to assume that watermelons are not keto-friendly.â
Your mileage may vary. 
robintemplin
(Robin)
#7
There is nothing that isnât keto friendlyâŚ. Eat whatever you want, just keep the total carbs under 20, or whatever your range is.
People ask me all the time if I can have this or that. I say I can have whatever I want. I simply choose where I get my carbs from.
realmuse
#8
That makes sense and itâs what I try to do. Today is Day 107 for No weighing. Trying to keep the carbs at 15, most days Under.
Shinita
#11
I have read the same idiotic thing (okay, not that keto friendly but that it hasnât a ton of sugar and great for a diet⌠or at least not bad) many times. I canât understand it.
Watermelon is kind of solid sugary water. People buy a big one and eat it up, thatâs how it works, thatâs how super watery sweet fruits work. I ate 3000g a day (3 occasions), thatâs 195g sugar. No idea how one eats only a tiny bit or why.
I eat ANY fruit even on keto (on my off days as my default woe is carnivore or super close and without fruits beyond lemon) except dried dates and watermelon. (Okay, the other melon too :D)
As they are impossible to fit into my tiny allowance for fruits (it was 3g on keto, way higher now as my normal food contains very little).
This is my view too⌠But I usually add that we need to be able to eat them in tiny amounts⌠Cauliflower wasnât keto for me while chocolate covered banana was. Watermelon hadnât a chance, itâs very sugary AND I ate it in huge amounts, even bigger than cauliflower 
And itâs not even worth it anyway, itâs not a particularly flavorful fruit. Just fun because summer and cold and water. But not good and SUPER sugary. Itâs like a soda. With chewing and itâs natural (made to be super sugary though but thatâs modern fruit for you. I am so thankful we have quince, thatâs only a bit too sweet to me. oh and lemon, my darling, that is quite good. even sour, I love sour).
The things called berries (though they often arenât real berries) are a better idea as they are typically very flavorful and a satisfying portion is tiny. Well, for some of us, at least. Though I am sure no one eats 1-3 kgs of raspberries while itâs very normal for watermelon⌠Watermelons are typically big and easy to eat. Yes, there are half ones and maybe even slices here and there but itâs very., very normal to buy a 8-10 kg watermelon even if the family is small. And it lasts for a few days only.
PaulL
(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?)
#12
You can have watermelon, if you want. Just keep your total carb intake under 20 g/day, and it shouldnât be a problem.
If, however, you are a carb addict, the sugar from even a small portion of watermelon might launch you into a carb binge, so be careful.
You can apply this reasoning to any food out there, by the way. Asking repeatedly if âthis is ketoâ or not will always get you the same answer: try it and see if it works for you.
Carrielyn
(Carolyn Griffin)
#13
My PA from years ago told me another diabetic patient got his numbers down nicely and wanted to know if he could have Watermelon. The PA told him one cup, the person ate the entire melon and ended up in the hospital in a diabetic coma. He started telling his patients ânoâ.
PaulL
(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?)
#17
Oh. Was that what I was doing wrong? . . . 
(I remember laughing, many years ago, when a scientific study of binge drinking on college campuses turned out to define a binge as five servings of alcohol. We all thought that was hilarious. Five drinks is a warmup, five days is a binge!)
Shinita
#18
Once I met an interesting definition of alcoholism. It was very regularly consuming ANY alcohol. Around that time I had a few drops of rum in my coffee almost every day⌠I definitely didnât felt an alcoholic and I drank less in a month than a normal person in a day⌠I was pretty sure the amount matters more. (Anyway, drinking a shot every morning is an extremely common thing here since ages, it didnât mean some unhealthy relationship with alcohol.)
I have no idea about the binge thing, be it alcohol or food. Surely people have wildly varied idea about it. But 5 drinks, while not necessarily alarming, is high even if countless 15 year old kids do more every Saturday. It was pretty crazy to meet some American Christians who never touched alcohol because they were only 20 years oldâŚ
I am not sure a watermelon binge (if we look at a single meal or afternoon) exists. Watermelon is basically drinking, huge amounts are easy and common.
But both my SO and me wondered about the size of the watermelon as normal folks physically canât eat one in one sitting. Or two or threeâŚ
lfod14
#19
If you donât eat a lot, itâs fine. But Watermelon is hard to eat in small amounts. When I stick it in Cronometer it sets a serving at 98g, which isnât much at all, and it had 7.4g of carbs, fructose doesnât act the same as sucrose, so technically it has less of an effect since fructose doesnât play with blood sugar as much, but it does affect it. If you can actually limit it, you shouldnât have a problem. When I eat it, I typically eat a lot. Whether it causes an issue with you or not is 100% trial and error.
jondrum418
(Jon Borgen)
#20
From a purely carbs per hundred grams perspective, watermelon has 8 g of carbs per hundred grams which is actually less than blueberries and others. I suppose maybe moderation would work if you cut them into blueberry sized pieces? 