I lost 30 pounds last year, but I’ve slacked off in the last few months. I haven’t weighed in but I’m sure I’ve put on at least five. Started counting calories again today.
For those of you who diet, or who at least count calories, what are your favorite go-to snacks? What’s your best intersection of calories, fillingness, and flavor? Or even two out of three.
Lately I’ve been way into the 100 calorie bags of kettle corn, since I can make one bag last a good long while. I can also eat a crapload of carrots, but that’s an awful lot of fiber.
Try putting a handful of grapes in a Ziploc bag and freeze them. They take awhile to eat because they are cold, they are fairly sweet especially if you’ve been avoiding sweets and they have this creamy texture that almost fills the ice cream void in my heart.
Half a banana, sliced length-wise, with half a tablespoon of peanut butter spread between the banana slices, pressed together to make a sandwich. If you use a small banana, this snack is less than 100 calories.
Whole Foods sells these crackers in their cheese section (the brand is called 34 Degrees, I get the whole wheat flavor) that net you 35 calories for 9 crackers. They taste exactly like Catholic communion wafers (i.e., like nothing), but are the perfect vehicle for other foods. I use them with: hummus, Laughing Cow light wedges, folded up slices of lunchmeat, peanut butter, cream cheese, etc. Always pre-measure your “other foods” to prevent going over your calorie budget.
Pistachios are another snack I like because 30 of them in the shell are around 100 calories, and taking time to crack open each shell slows down your eating.
Edit: I find that snacks are pretty useless and will actually make me hungrier if they don’t include a sizeable percentage of protein. If I just ate half a banana, for example, I’d be even hungrier 30 minutes later. The protein and fat in the peanut butter are what sate me. Cheese, nuts, lunchmeat – my snacks always include one of these in order to feel satisfied.
A couple squares of the deepest darkest chocolate I can stand will sate my craving for dessert. I wash it down with a glass of wine, which is not really in line with the aims of this thread, but it beats my old habit of a glass of wine + a bowl of ice cream!
Second the edamame. I like to sprinkle them with salt and Schichimi Togarashi, which is a spice mix you might be able to find in the Asian section of your supermarket.
I agree about the protein, too. A few nuts or a hard-boiled egg go a lot further than a whole bunch of crackers or pretzels.
I keep a big tub of raw, cut-up vegetables in the fridge. As many of those as I feel like eating with fat free ranch dressing, followed by a 50 calorie Sargento low-fat cheese stick, is a surprisingly sating snack.
Frigo string cheese stick (always full fat. Never low fat. low fat is a stick of salt.)
Celery with aforementioned peanut butter or Philadelphia cream cheese
Cucumber slices with ranch dip
1 or 2 squares of Simply Lite sugar free dark chocolate (Trader Joe’s) or Hershey’s Simple Pleasures sugar free dark chocolate more than satisfies my chocolate needs.
I eat low carb so I’m always looking for something to be high protein and even high calorie. But since my meals are so filling I tend not to need to snack much - stuff like I listed above could serve as a meal anymore.
Special K Cracker Chips (27 chips for 110 calories,) Kim’s Magic Pop (15 calories each,) iceberg lettuce with Sriracha, pickles (and any pickled veggie,) Ore Ida Fast Food Fries (27 pieces for 150 calories,) Crunchtables Green Bean Fries (14 pieces for 130 calories,) veggie burgers (70-100 calories,) Laughing Cow Cheese (35 calories,) Aldi’s version of LCC (25 calories,) frozen grapes, a can of tuna (100 calories,) an egg (70-80 calories,) celery, veggie cubes (5 calories.)
My wife and I recently discovered Kale chips. You can make these in the oven in about 15 minutes. Just take the stems out of the kale leaf, pull apart the kale leaves into potato chip sized pieces. Toss them in a bowl with some salt/pepper and olive oil. Lay them out on a baking sheet - bake at 400 degrees until they’re crispy - about 10-15 minutes.
Satisfies your salty chip craving and they’re really good for you.
Frigo’s Cheese Heads string cheese is the best there is. If you get the light (sorry, ZipperJJ) I think it’s only 50-60 calories. Pair with something carby like an apple or a couple of crackers, and it goes a long way.
Hidden Valley Ranch powder in nonfat greek yogurt. It survives my eternal need for ranch, and sneaks in just a bit of protein, too. It goes on everything. Veggies, crackers, turkey breast, my finger …
It’s not exactly a “snack” (but I guess it could be) but I’ve found good ways to reduce the calories for chicken salad. For starters, I use a low-carb, high-fiber wrap instead of bread. Then, I use corn and bean salsa* in place of the mayo or miracle whip (it really tastes good, surprisingly). To add flavor, texture and protein, I add honey-roasted soy nuts to the mix. For a finishing touch, I add some red pepper and lettuce. Very yummy and low carb and relatively low fat, while giving you a big boost of protein.
*The salsa trade-off doesn’t work so well for tuna salad.
I’m doing Weight Watchers, and my favorite snacks are fruits and vegetables, especially refrigerated. Thus, we keep apples and grapes in the refrig, along with carrot sticks. Of course, those are my favorite LEGIT diet snacks. My favorite snack for real is ice cream. Sigh.
I’ve been sticking to a low carb lifestyle for about 6 months. I’m not trying to lose any more weight but I’m sticking to it anyhow. Snacking is really, really tough. The large majority of suggestions in this thread are off limits.
Here are some things I have been known to snack on:
Nuts. Almonds in particular. A half a dozen almonds go a pretty long way. Blue Diamond Wasabi & Soy are a little expensive but so danged good.
Half an avocado
Canned green beans, a bit higher carbs than I normally go for but I can keep indefinitely in my desk drawer at work.
1/3 lb of carrots, also a little higher than I’d typically want. The fiber is way up there, though.
A pinch of deli meat. I quite like the Aldi roast beef and it’s easy on the wallet. These little Polish hams. About 140 cals each, good with hot sauce. There are several varieties.
A chunk of smoked sausage
A half cup of nonfat cottage cheese