My Favourite Low Calorie Snacks

In order to shed a little fat and get a tad more lean, I’m currently tracking my eating and am in a slight deficit. This means I’m always in need of some low calorie snacks! If I’m wanting to trim down I’ll never go into a deficit of over 300 cals. I find that if I consistantly eat around 200 cals per day below my maintainance, it’s a good and maintainable pace.

My meals do usually leave me feeling satisfied, but I’m always reaching for a snack if I get up super early meaning I have my breakfast around 6am and can’t wait til lunch at 12. Or in the evening when I’m watching TV I always crave something to snack on. Usually after my dinner I leave myself 100-200 cals for evening snacks.

Here’s some of my favourite low calorie snacks which mean they don’t take away from me having bigger meals and still hitting calories and macros.

1. Cereal and Almond Milk

I love a good bowl of cereal. Try find one that is not overly packed in sugar and has a decent 6-8g of protein so you’re atleast slightly contributing to your macros there. In order to keep the cals down I will always have cereal with a milk substitue. Almond is my favourite but sometimes I’ll have soya. 100ml is only around 15 cals so doesn’t contribute to your total allowance that much. Coconut and oat milk tends to be slightly higher calorie.

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2. Yoghurt

Yoghurt is super handy for when you are out and about and if you pick wisely, often fits your macros well! Go for a greek or high protein yoghurt to get that protein in. If you have a plant based diet, the alpro on the go protein is so good! I literally had it every day at uni. If you’re looking to cut costs, buy a big pot of plain greek yoghurt then use a jam or syrup on each serving to make it nice and sweet!

3. Pop Chips

When I’m craving crisps I will always go for pop chips! They are only around 100 cals per serving and taste amazing. I tend to go for the BBQ flavour which you can get pretty much everywhere, but I saw a tonne of different flavours I didn’t know about in Waitrose the other day! In terms of crisps and carby snack, they one of the best low calorie ones you’ll get!

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4. Popcorn

Again, if I have a carby snack craving, popcorn hits the spot! You get a lot more volume with popcorn for the same amount of cals you would if you were to have crisps. If you’re out and about, the Proper Corn sweet and salted is lovely. If you’re feeling adventurous, buy a bag of kernals and cook them in a little coconut oil in a pan on the hob. Then you can flavour it exactly how you want!

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5. Veg and hummus

Hummus does tend to be slightly higher calorie, with a third of a pot being about 150 cals usually. In order to keep the other part of this snack low in cals, slice some carrot or pepper to dip in!

The best friends bring #Hummus to #Friendsgiving

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6. Low Calorie Ice Cream

This has literally been the best food invention in recent years!!!! I tend to just go for whatever is on offer, but my favourites are the Halo Top Peanut Butter or the Ben and Jerry’s Moophoria chocolate one. I’m not too big a fan of the Bruyers ones as they don’t have much of an ice cream texture and aren’t as big on flavour.

7. Ice Lollies

This is a recent discovery of mine. Most fruit lollies are only around 40 calories! Have a look at some of the ice lollies next time you’re at the supermarket and I’m sure you’ll be surprised! I’m currently making my way through some of the fruit rocket lollies from Sainsbury’s.

8. Options Hot Chocolate

Perfect in the evening if you are wanting something sweet and chocolately. So many hot chocolates just made with water are so rubbish, but the Options ones work! I tend to put in a little splash of almond milk to make it a little more creamy. Only 40 cals per serving.

9. Fruit

I probably wouldn’t be being a particularly good PT if I wasn’t advising you to get some micronutrients in. I absolutely love bananas, and usually have one in my proats every morning. However, when I’m cutting I’ll substitue them for tangerines, kiwi or a lower cal fruit. Sadly bananas are around 100 cals :-(. I tend not to have fruit by itself as a snack as I feel it just doesnt fill me up. I try and encorporate fruit into my other meals though eg, in my oats, in yoghurt or with pancakes.

10. Protein Pancakes

I love pancakes so will make a big batch of protein pancakes so I can have some for lunch then some for snacks the next day. I tend to use one egg, 2 scoops of protein powder, 2 scoops of flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder and then around 200ml of almond milk. Four pancakes are around 240 cals. I’ll tend to use a chocolate whey and a chocolate spread on top to make them feel like a proper treat! They are amazing with fruit too!

120g of Protein on a Vegetarian Diet

The importance of protein

When I first started tracking my food, I was shocked at how little protein I was actually getting in my day-to-day diet. By this point I was a few months into a weight training programme and realised I really needed to pay more attention to my nutrition to compliment my training. I was unsatisfied with the slim, but not toned look I had achieved by doing a year of cardio training. It’s impossible to avoid someone in the fitness industry banging on about the importance of protein. They have reason for it, though. Protein is essential to muscle growth and recovery due to the breakdown into amino acids by our digestive system.

You may have read that if we are training, it is advised we should have around 1g of protein per lb of bodyweight. Therefore, I tend to weigh around 57kg (125lbs) so would therefore try to aim for 125g of protein per day.

To someone consuming meat, this is a very achievable target, without having to get your protein from sources like whey (shakes, bars etc). However, I found that on a vegetarian diet, it was a lot harder to consume that much so I had to make a very concious effort to make sure I did get sufficient levels of protein in my day.

I would love to be able to get all my protein from plant based/natural sources without any extras. But at this point, I need a little extra help to hit that 100g+.

My top sources in my day-to-day diet are:

  • Whey Protein Powder (20g per scoop) (I use the MyProtein Whey Impact in the Chocolate Smooth or the Sticky Toffee Pudding flavour)
  • Eggs (13g for a medium egg)
  • Greek Yoghurt (10g per 100g of Fage Total 0%)
  • Quorn Pieces (13g per 100g)
  • Quorn Mince (14g per 100g)
  • Tofu (10g per 100g)
  • Baked beans (9g per 200g)
  • Chick peas (7g per 100g)
  • Kidney beans (8g per 100g)
  • Protein bar (most are around 20g. Grenade Carb Killa are my faves!)

I became a vegetarian for ethical reasons rather than for taste, so I eat A LOT of quorn because I just enjoy the taste. Quorn isn’t the best for macros and calories, however it is reasonable inexpensive and very versatile. I really enjoy cooking with tofu but sometimes it is less time effective and a wee bit more expensive.

So for all you plant based people out there- get those beans and pulses in! Not only do they have decent amounts of protein, they are obviously packed with fantastic micronutrients too.

My typical day of eating would be:

Breakfast – Protein Oats (25g whey, 50g oats and perhaps a banana/tangerine/grapes)

Lunch – either eggs on toast, beans on toast, or protein pancakes (25g whey, 25g flour, 1 egg, almond milk served with fruit)

Dinner – A base carb (rice, pasta, potato or noodles), a protein (tofu or quorn), and a PILE of veg including beans or pulses (chickpeas/kidney beans/black beans/mixed beans, pepper, onion, aubergine, courgete, cherry tomatoes). I cook these all together in a different sauce each day to mix it up. Sometimes I’ll make it more like a curry, or more oriental with soy or hoison, or with BBQ, or a tomato based sauce. A dollop of hummus on the side gives a little extra protein too!

Snacks – Greek yogurt and fruit, cereal (right now I’m enjoying the chocolate wheetabix protein crunch), hummus and veg or tortilla chips, protein shake. My new find for a nice sweet snack whilst I’m cutting is an ice lolly! Most fruit ice lollies you find in supermarkets are around 40 cals! Amazing 🙂

I hope this post was helpful, as it took me a while to get into a routine of what worked in my diet and what was feesable time and cost wise for me.

So if you are getting into weight training and are looking to change your body a bit more, get that protein in!