High Protein Ice Cream: Grams per Scoop and 3 Recipes

Regular vanilla ice cream has 3.5 g of protein per 100 g, and a high protein ice cream needs about three times that. Under the US label rule it means 10 g of protein in a 2/3 cup serving, or roughly 11 g per 100 g. Greek yogurt blended with whey powder gets there at 12.6 g per 100 g, using USDA records for each ingredient.

How much protein is in regular ice cream?

Not much. The vanilla ice cream record lists 66 g for a half cup, so 2/3 cup weighs 88 g. That is my arithmetic. I scaled every row to 88 g so the comparison is by weight.

Frozen dessert (record)	Protein per 100 g	Energy per 100 g	Protein in 88 g	Protein per 100 kcal
Vanilla ice cream	3.5 g	207 kcal	3.1 g	1.7 g
Vanilla ice cream, light	4.78 g	180 kcal	4.2 g	2.7 g
Vanilla soft-serve frozen yogurt	4.0 g	159 kcal	3.5 g	2.5 g
Frozen yogurt, lowfat, flavors other than chocolate	8.0 g	139 kcal	7.0 g	5.8 g

A serving of ice cream carries 3–4 g. Frozen yogurt isn’t automatically better. The soft-serve record has barely more protein than ice cream, while the lowfat record has more than twice as much, though it’s a generic entry, so read the label on the tub you buy.

What counts as high protein ice cream?

On a US label, 10 g of protein per serving. The term “high” means 20% or more of the Daily Value per reference amount, under 21 CFR 101.54. The protein Daily Value is 50 g, so the bar is 10 g, which is my sum. The reference amount for ice cream and frozen yogurt is 2/3 cup.

I add a second test, protein per 100 kcal, because a serving can reach 10 g by carrying a lot of energy. In the UK the rule is only about density: a “high protein” claim needs at least 20% of energy from protein, under Regulation 1924/2006. At 4 kcal per gram, that is 5 g of protein per 100 kcal.

What are three high protein ice cream recipes?

Each makes two bowls. Blend the frozen parts until smooth and eat it as soft serve, or freeze it and let it soften before you scoop. These are my mixes, built from the records and not tested in a kitchen. Totals are the sum of the rows as printed.

Strawberry Greek yogurt ice cream

Ingredient (state)	Weight	Protein	Fat	Energy
Greek yogurt, plain, nonfat	312 g (2 containers)	32.1 g	1.2 g	190 kcal
Strawberries, frozen, unsweetened	298 g (2 cups)	1.3 g	0.3 g	104 kcal
Banana, ripe	115 g (1 banana)	0.9 g	0.3 g	112 kcal
Total	725 g	34.3 g	1.8 g	406 kcal

Half the batch is a 362 g bowl with 17.1 g of protein and 203 kcal. It’s a big bowl. Per 100 g the mix has 4.7 g of protein, because the fruit dilutes the yogurt. Leave out the freezer and it’s a drink. High protein smoothies counts those in grams.

Chocolate cottage cheese ice cream

Ingredient (state)	Weight	Protein	Fat	Energy
Cottage cheese, lowfat, 2%	440 g (2 cups)	48.4 g	10.1 g	370 kcal
Banana, ripe	115 g	0.9 g	0.3 g	112 kcal
Cocoa, dry powder, unsweetened	10.8 g (2 tbsp)	2.1 g	1.5 g	25 kcal
Honey	21 g (1 tbsp)	0.1 g	0.0 g	64 kcal
Total	586.8 g	51.5 g	11.9 g	571 kcal

The 293 g bowl has 25.8 g of protein and 286 kcal. Cottage cheese is curds, so blend it until smooth. It does the same job in batter, and high protein pancakes uses it alongside eggs, oats or Greek yogurt. Leave out the honey and the batch has no added sugars.

Vanilla whey and yogurt soft serve

Ingredient (state)	Weight	Protein	Fat	Energy
Greek yogurt, plain, nonfat	312 g (2 containers)	32.1 g	1.2 g	190 kcal
Whey protein powder	32 g (about a third of a cup)	25.0 g	0.5 g	113 kcal
Banana, ripe	115 g	0.9 g	0.3 g	112 kcal
Total	459 g	58.0 g	2.0 g	415 kcal

This one has 12.6 g of protein per 100 g and 14.0 g per 100 kcal. The 230 g bowl has 29.0 g of protein and 208 kcal. Pick vanilla powder. The record is a generic whey-based powder with 78.13 g of protein per 100 g. Check your tub’s label and rescale.

How do the recipes compare with a tub?

One of the three clears the US bar, and none of the store records do. Here are all the rows by the same 88 g.

Dessert	Protein per 100 g	Protein in 88 g	Protein per 100 kcal	Reaches 10 g in 88 g?
Vanilla ice cream	3.5 g	3.1 g	1.7 g	No
Frozen yogurt, lowfat	8.0 g	7.0 g	5.8 g	No
Strawberry Greek yogurt	4.7 g	4.2 g	8.4 g	No
Chocolate cottage cheese	8.8 g	7.7 g	9.0 g	No
Vanilla whey and yogurt	12.6 g	11.1 g	14.0 g	Yes

Only the whey recipe passes. The strawberry mix has more protein per calorie than the lowfat frozen yogurt record. More than half of it is fruit, though, so an 88 g scoop is small in protein. A bowl here runs 230–362 g, well past 88 g. The bowl is the fairer unit for a recipe. How much protein you should eat a day gives the range to measure it against, and the bowls hold 17.1 g for the strawberry bowl, 25.8 g for the cottage cheese bowl and 29.0 g for the whey bowl.

What should I watch with homemade protein ice cream?

Homemade versions raise questions about sugar, sodium and milk. For sugar, the Dietary Guidelines say one meal should contain no more than 10 g of added sugars, and they list honey among them. The honey in the chocolate recipe is 17.2 g of sugars for two bowls, or 8.6 g a bowl. The fruit in the other recipes isn’t added sugar.

To set a daily target from your own height and weight, use the protein calculator. It works in the 1.2–1.6 g per kg range the Guidelines give.

Cottage cheese carries salt. The record has 321 mg of sodium per 100 g, so a bowl of the chocolate mix holds about 700 mg. All three recipes contain milk products, so none suits a cow’s milk allergy.

Kidney disease changes the protein target, and that one is a question for your doctor, not a dessert recipe. Pregnancy and breastfeeding change the figures too. This page is for adults.

If you want the same grams-first treatment for dinner, high protein meals works through everyday dishes.

Make the whey one and weigh the bowl. I keep it in Calsa as a recipe built from its ingredients, so a bowl is one log.