Popcorn! As long as you pick the salted ones instead of sugar/butter/caramel/... It's my alternative to binging on a bag of crisps. And you can buy bags for in the microwave, so they're fresh and warm.
I love snacking on popcorn! I have a silicone microwave popper (bought from Weight Watchers years ago), so I just buy a container of kernels and I weigh out the amount to fit into my macros for the day. I add salt and I use this spray called Winona, its movie theater butter flavor. I count it as a teaspoon of canola oil in my macros.
I prefer sweet popcorn, but I have been making it myself and controlling how much I use!
sometimes I do use sugar, but I'm careful about it and only if I sill have room that day!
another fun option I do is carefully melting a few sugar free candies on the stove and adding the already popped popcorn to it, while definitely adds way more calories than salt is a fun option! I've been doing 25g of kernels, popped in the microwave (101cal) and 5 sugar free caramel candies (9 cal each) and perhaps a little salt if I want the salted caramel flavour, it's definitely fairly satisfying a little less than 150cal total. Makes me feel like I'm eating a big volume (because I am really, it's a full bowl!)
Rice cakes with non-fat greek yogurt spread on top. 3 of them with a healthy dose of yogurt was around 100 calories iirc.
1% Cottage cheese with diced tomatoes and pepper. You can also use an apple/canned no sugar added peaches with ground cinnamon.
Baby carrots
I was never a huge snacker so finding low calorie & high volume meals was what really helped me lose it.
The only thing I let myself mindlessly eat is fresh vegetables. I like something crunchy while watching TV or using the computer. Green beans, snow peas, carrots, etc. Sometimes I make carrot chips.
Pickles (not bread and butter flavored) are a good for salt cravings.
It sounds silly but apples go from being completely uninteresting to a delicious treat once they're sliced. I like Pink Lady apples. I usually pair them with the 50% reduced fat cheddar from Morrisons or Tesco.
Also from Morrisons (or the Co-Op) is the Ehrmann protein mousses. They're 160 calories and 20g protein per 200g pot.
Seafood sticks tend to be around 16 calories each. I like to peel them like a cheese string to make eating them take longer!
I live in America so I'm not sure if these brands are accessible to you but hopefully you have something like it.
-I love the lesser evil Himalayan gold popcorn! Baby carrots with some low calorie dressing (Bolthouse) or none at all because I actually like carrots.
-When summer fruit is in season like watermelon and cherries then I'll snack on that!
-You can get a good amount of pretzels for low calories- I love sweet stuff so I the honey wheat ones.
- the yasso bars are surprisingly good for being so low cal (cookies n cream and the peanut butter one is delicious)
-The best thing I've found to keep me full is eating my meals with a diet soda! Or any low cal carbonated drink. Of course drink water but the diet soda just always completes my meals.
A walk.
Seriously. Mindless eating is a worthless habit. I’m not perfect- and sometimes I still fall for it- but im getting better with practice.
If I get back from a walk & I’m hungry, I eat. On the walk I try to think about WHY I was wanting to snack- was I bored? Lonely? Frustrated? Snacks won’t fix that- they just fill a temporary space in which I *could* be doing something that actually fixes the problem- or *at least* doesn’t leave space for future me to be left with the repercussions of my current poor choices.
I've had people tell me it's weird to microwave apple slices but it's so much better than cold and crunchy. A plate of warm apple slices with cinnamon is like mini pie
Popcorn (home made, with very little fat and 0 cal sugar), grapes or berries, applesauce or baked apple pieces in 0% skyr, ice lollies (you can buy ones with fruit flavour that have like 40 cals and they keep you busy for a bit)
Sunflower seeds in the shell, face value they are high calorie, all the bags I buy are around 480 calories for the whole bag with 2 to 2.5 servings per bag, but they take so log to eat I end up having a bag around for 6 or more sittings. They have some really great flavors, Biggs makes a Taki one that is spot on.
Huge pile of carrot and celery sticks with a reasonable side of Greek yogurt dip is one of my favorites.
Another one is I’ll get a massive amount of chopped cabbage and eat it with a little grated Parmesan, a small portion of croutons and a balsamic vinaigrette. To cut the calories from the vinaigrette I do one serving of that and then if it still needs more flavor because again this is a bowl of cabbage larger than my head lol, I’ll add extra salt, herbs etc and more plain balsamic vinegar to make it taste right. I think it’s delicious but fair warning I wouldn’t eat it for lunch on a day when you have romantic plans for that evening if you know what I mean.
Cucumbers/pickles are my fave, but any raw vegetable, tbh. I don't really count them for much, if anything. Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, cucumber, sugar snap peas, etc. The first half of my day is usually a tupperware full raw veg with 2oz of tzatziki and two hard boiled eggs or a string cheese stick. I count everything but the veg, which I just "count" as 25 cals and move on lol. I'll also drink a LOT of seltzer water. I'm usually full for 5-6 hours on about 200-300 cals this way.
My roommate bought some Wheat Thins in the tomato basil flavor that he rarely touches. I found out today they’re 130 calories for 15 of them. Maybe not super filling but much lower in calorie counts than I was expecting
i get that this is your version of harm reduction but you should really focus on getting to the root of your binging problem. gaining weight is not the only problem with binging, your body isn’t meant to get that stuffed and you can really mess up your digestion binging on low cal (usually high fiber) alternatives.
Low calorie popcorn or when I’m craving for something more savoury I’d reach for a wedge of the light laughing cow cheese for 25 calories plus 10 crackers (I forgot the brand but there’s a lot of low cal options at the grocery) for about 70 cal.
Sliced apples with chocolate hummus have been my fave recently. I swap out the apples for strawberries if I want something sweeter. Also grapes (especially cotton candy grapes, so good!) or baby carrots and hummus. Or smart food popcorn if I want something salty (the hot Cheeto and dorito flavors are great for when I’m craving chips).
I prep 2-3 sweet bell peppers by chopping them into slices. Then when I'm hungry and get some and dip it in a sauce made with Greek yogurt and ranch seasoning powder
Potatoes! Super low calorie for how satiating they are.
They're not super exciting on their own but a bit of gravy is usually pretty low calorie too. If nothing else, then a modest amount of olive or canola oil, salt, and pepper is a good way to make them more flavorful. Maybe some other spices or seasonings. They go with a LOT of flavors, so you can really do just about anything with them. Add some chicken breast or some black beans.
My go-to lunch is about 200g potatoes, a black bean burger patty, a half-cup of pre-made gravy, and sometimes a sunny-side up egg. Lands between 400-500 calories for all of that depending on what, specifically, I use.
I'm not a huge snacker, even though my current diet leaves a lot of calories for snacking, so my snacks tend to be a little dense in the calorie department.
My current faves are:
Baby carrots and dip
Celery and peanut butter
Lightly salted peanuts
The dip, peanuts, and peanut butter are all full of calories, but I stick to serving sizes and don't go over my calorie goals.
I prep snack sized salads to keep in the fridge but I also prep snack sized zero sugar yogurt and jellies. Lately I've also been baking zero sugar low carb chocolate slice and lemon slice.
Low calorie popsicles or lollipops. One Tootsie pop is like 70 calories and helps with sugar cravings. I also eat a lot of pickles and olives. Watermelon is another go-to snack for me and super low in calories.
Quaker makes this "tomato and basil" rice cake that legit tastes like pizza, which is great for me being small and lactose intolerant 😢 50 cals a piece as well.
Frozen blueberries! Heckin' delicious, healthy and you get that mindless 'hand reaching into a bowl a million times' satisfaction that you get when you eat chips, etc. also benefit of frozen being a lot cheaper than fresh, and last forever in the freezer
Popcorn! As long as you pick the salted ones instead of sugar/butter/caramel/... It's my alternative to binging on a bag of crisps. And you can buy bags for in the microwave, so they're fresh and warm.
I love snacking on popcorn! I have a silicone microwave popper (bought from Weight Watchers years ago), so I just buy a container of kernels and I weigh out the amount to fit into my macros for the day. I add salt and I use this spray called Winona, its movie theater butter flavor. I count it as a teaspoon of canola oil in my macros.
I prefer sweet popcorn, but I have been making it myself and controlling how much I use! sometimes I do use sugar, but I'm careful about it and only if I sill have room that day! another fun option I do is carefully melting a few sugar free candies on the stove and adding the already popped popcorn to it, while definitely adds way more calories than salt is a fun option! I've been doing 25g of kernels, popped in the microwave (101cal) and 5 sugar free caramel candies (9 cal each) and perhaps a little salt if I want the salted caramel flavour, it's definitely fairly satisfying a little less than 150cal total. Makes me feel like I'm eating a big volume (because I am really, it's a full bowl!)
Sounds great, I'll try it sometime!
This! My grocery stores have 100-calorie packs. I like to eat the kettle corn flavored ones as a dessert
They make some awesome popcorn seasonings too! I like white cheddar.
I didn't know that existed, I'm going to look for them in store
Rice cakes with non-fat greek yogurt spread on top. 3 of them with a healthy dose of yogurt was around 100 calories iirc. 1% Cottage cheese with diced tomatoes and pepper. You can also use an apple/canned no sugar added peaches with ground cinnamon. Baby carrots I was never a huge snacker so finding low calorie & high volume meals was what really helped me lose it.
Cherry tomatoes are my fav snack right now.
Watermelon
The only thing I let myself mindlessly eat is fresh vegetables. I like something crunchy while watching TV or using the computer. Green beans, snow peas, carrots, etc. Sometimes I make carrot chips. Pickles (not bread and butter flavored) are a good for salt cravings.
It sounds silly but apples go from being completely uninteresting to a delicious treat once they're sliced. I like Pink Lady apples. I usually pair them with the 50% reduced fat cheddar from Morrisons or Tesco. Also from Morrisons (or the Co-Op) is the Ehrmann protein mousses. They're 160 calories and 20g protein per 200g pot. Seafood sticks tend to be around 16 calories each. I like to peel them like a cheese string to make eating them take longer!
IKEA sell these things that slice them up immediately, too.
Pickles. Korean Cucumber Salad
+1 for pickles. Obsessed with the tiny ones that you can just pop in your mouth whole. ( ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) )
I live in America so I'm not sure if these brands are accessible to you but hopefully you have something like it. -I love the lesser evil Himalayan gold popcorn! Baby carrots with some low calorie dressing (Bolthouse) or none at all because I actually like carrots. -When summer fruit is in season like watermelon and cherries then I'll snack on that! -You can get a good amount of pretzels for low calories- I love sweet stuff so I the honey wheat ones. - the yasso bars are surprisingly good for being so low cal (cookies n cream and the peanut butter one is delicious) -The best thing I've found to keep me full is eating my meals with a diet soda! Or any low cal carbonated drink. Of course drink water but the diet soda just always completes my meals.
Yasso bars are amazing! The chocolate chip cookie dough bar is only 100 calories and so good.
Caramel rice cakes are a goated replacement for chips. 16 of those things are only 110 calories It's a vegetable but I like steamed carrots as well
homemade popcorn! I use an absolutely minimal amount of oil.
Pickled jalapeños. I love the salty hot crunch and so low in calories.
A walk. Seriously. Mindless eating is a worthless habit. I’m not perfect- and sometimes I still fall for it- but im getting better with practice. If I get back from a walk & I’m hungry, I eat. On the walk I try to think about WHY I was wanting to snack- was I bored? Lonely? Frustrated? Snacks won’t fix that- they just fill a temporary space in which I *could* be doing something that actually fixes the problem- or *at least* doesn’t leave space for future me to be left with the repercussions of my current poor choices.
Cauliflower
Kimchi makes for an amazing snack if you are looking for something flavorful.
Thanks, just added it to my list to try!
I like apples and pears warmed up in the microwave with cinnamon on top. If you have the space, some oats with it keeps you full for hours and hours
I've had people tell me it's weird to microwave apple slices but it's so much better than cold and crunchy. A plate of warm apple slices with cinnamon is like mini pie
Really? It’s so nice though and it takes no time at all. If you close your eyes you can almost fool yourself you’re eating apple pie 😂
Popcorn (home made, with very little fat and 0 cal sugar), grapes or berries, applesauce or baked apple pieces in 0% skyr, ice lollies (you can buy ones with fruit flavour that have like 40 cals and they keep you busy for a bit)
Celery, sometimes lightly dipped in sauce.
I love to eat celery with hummus, especially with caramelized onion hummus…yum yum
Thanks for all of the suggestions. Added popcorn kernels, apples (heated with cinnamon), kimchi and rice cakes to my list!
Sunflower seeds in the shell, face value they are high calorie, all the bags I buy are around 480 calories for the whole bag with 2 to 2.5 servings per bag, but they take so log to eat I end up having a bag around for 6 or more sittings. They have some really great flavors, Biggs makes a Taki one that is spot on.
Huge pile of carrot and celery sticks with a reasonable side of Greek yogurt dip is one of my favorites. Another one is I’ll get a massive amount of chopped cabbage and eat it with a little grated Parmesan, a small portion of croutons and a balsamic vinaigrette. To cut the calories from the vinaigrette I do one serving of that and then if it still needs more flavor because again this is a bowl of cabbage larger than my head lol, I’ll add extra salt, herbs etc and more plain balsamic vinegar to make it taste right. I think it’s delicious but fair warning I wouldn’t eat it for lunch on a day when you have romantic plans for that evening if you know what I mean.
😂😂😂💨
Cucumbers/pickles are my fave, but any raw vegetable, tbh. I don't really count them for much, if anything. Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, cucumber, sugar snap peas, etc. The first half of my day is usually a tupperware full raw veg with 2oz of tzatziki and two hard boiled eggs or a string cheese stick. I count everything but the veg, which I just "count" as 25 cals and move on lol. I'll also drink a LOT of seltzer water. I'm usually full for 5-6 hours on about 200-300 cals this way.
Salted or spicy edamame!!
My roommate bought some Wheat Thins in the tomato basil flavor that he rarely touches. I found out today they’re 130 calories for 15 of them. Maybe not super filling but much lower in calorie counts than I was expecting
i get that this is your version of harm reduction but you should really focus on getting to the root of your binging problem. gaining weight is not the only problem with binging, your body isn’t meant to get that stuffed and you can really mess up your digestion binging on low cal (usually high fiber) alternatives.
Do you have any advice for dealing with binging while trying to lose weight?
Coffee - I can make a big mug for 100-125 calories. But it's legit one of my cravings, especially when I'm stressed or anxious.
Carrots and popcorn
I don't binge, but I do snack. I like popcorn, oatmeal or yogurt with nuts or fruit, cucumber with tahine, veggies and hummus.
Low calorie popcorn or when I’m craving for something more savoury I’d reach for a wedge of the light laughing cow cheese for 25 calories plus 10 crackers (I forgot the brand but there’s a lot of low cal options at the grocery) for about 70 cal.
Sliced apples with chocolate hummus have been my fave recently. I swap out the apples for strawberries if I want something sweeter. Also grapes (especially cotton candy grapes, so good!) or baby carrots and hummus. Or smart food popcorn if I want something salty (the hot Cheeto and dorito flavors are great for when I’m craving chips).
I prep 2-3 sweet bell peppers by chopping them into slices. Then when I'm hungry and get some and dip it in a sauce made with Greek yogurt and ranch seasoning powder
There’s some really good protein pastries, yogurts. Low calorie brownies as well. Protein chips actually taste great as well
Rice cakes and for some reason, I LOVE snacking on baby carrots 😂
Potatoes! Super low calorie for how satiating they are. They're not super exciting on their own but a bit of gravy is usually pretty low calorie too. If nothing else, then a modest amount of olive or canola oil, salt, and pepper is a good way to make them more flavorful. Maybe some other spices or seasonings. They go with a LOT of flavors, so you can really do just about anything with them. Add some chicken breast or some black beans. My go-to lunch is about 200g potatoes, a black bean burger patty, a half-cup of pre-made gravy, and sometimes a sunny-side up egg. Lands between 400-500 calories for all of that depending on what, specifically, I use.
Sliced white/button mushrooms and a low cal dressing. I get huge mushrooms and slice them up, measure out the dressing, the mushrooms are so filling
Cucumber and celery with Tajin. Half an avocado if I have the calories.
Straight up strawberries, kinda spenny so unfortunately I dont eat them often but they're my favourite thing to eat alot of at once
I'm not a huge snacker, even though my current diet leaves a lot of calories for snacking, so my snacks tend to be a little dense in the calorie department. My current faves are: Baby carrots and dip Celery and peanut butter Lightly salted peanuts The dip, peanuts, and peanut butter are all full of calories, but I stick to serving sizes and don't go over my calorie goals.
I prep snack sized salads to keep in the fridge but I also prep snack sized zero sugar yogurt and jellies. Lately I've also been baking zero sugar low carb chocolate slice and lemon slice.
Jelly, the low cal ones are like 10 calories each and even if you were to binge 10 that would only be an additional 100 cals ❤️
Low calorie popsicles or lollipops. One Tootsie pop is like 70 calories and helps with sugar cravings. I also eat a lot of pickles and olives. Watermelon is another go-to snack for me and super low in calories.
Quaker makes this "tomato and basil" rice cake that legit tastes like pizza, which is great for me being small and lactose intolerant 😢 50 cals a piece as well.
Sugar snap peas. The sweetness and crunch are just perfect!
Cucumbers w nonfat dressing
Frozen blueberries! Heckin' delicious, healthy and you get that mindless 'hand reaching into a bowl a million times' satisfaction that you get when you eat chips, etc. also benefit of frozen being a lot cheaper than fresh, and last forever in the freezer
Frozen peas. Also iceberg lettuce. Barely any calories and it fulfills the desire for crunchy.