Snacks for when you can't stop

Cheese strings, and tear them up into the tiny strings! I've just discovered these - gives my hands something to do too!

Ice pops.

Celery - occupies a lot of mouth time :)

M+S Fiery Pickles.

Ryvita and marmite. Or those Pumpkin seed and Emmental crackers (or whatever they're called - M+S and waitrose sell them, big rectangular in a cellophane packet) with primula cheese spread or cream cheese.

Just buy a bag of corn kernels, add one teaspoon of olive oil and 50g of kernels to a pan, put lid on and heat until they pop. Add salt.

Shake every now and then so they don't burn.

@Morecustardcreams I was going to suggest that you look at why you snack as well.

I tend to fill up at mealtimes and therefore don't feel the need to snack between meals. I make sure I eat plenty of protein because it keeps me feeling fuller for longer.

What type of meals do you eat? Can you give some examples?

Grapes, cherries, blueberries, pistachios are good you have to remove the shell so generally eat less of them. Sugar free mints are good to stop snacking. Also I'm drinking more cordial at the moment. I really like the Robinson's creations (peach and raspberry and lemon and raspberry) having a small glass makes me snack less and it's minimal calories.

Ideally, don't start but if you have to snack, snack on a thing that is contained rather than a 'just one more' thing - so food like a yoghurt, an apple, a cereal bar, a hard boiled egg, a small packet of baked crisps or nuts - not biscuits, crackers, cereal or anything you have to portion out.

Mixed nuts, with dried fruit if you like.

Roasted chickpeas or butter beans with salt and chilli powder - make them yourself.

Salted roasted edamame beans, you can get big packs on amazon.

Home made granola bars make as healthy or unhealthy as you like

A lot of the snacks suggested here will quickly pile on the calories and prevent you from losing weight. Try to gradually focus less on snacking.
I have a sweet tooth and get the munchies in the evening. At the moment ice lollies seem to be helping, but they need to be the cheap almost flavourless variety, so just 30/40 calories.

Add a bit of honey to your yogurt. I also like prawns as a treat, with seafood dip.

Are you snacking out of habit / boredom or hunger?
I have lost a lot of weight and hardly snack at all now.....Instead of constant snacking I focus on eating meals that keep me full.....more fiber and protein in my meals has really made a difference.

Fruits like grapes, are very easy to overeat.

Thank you for this.
I definitely reach for snacks as a distraction, mainly at work when I don't want to do the next task, or am tired (ie always).
I am totally on board with the suggestions to work on meals first. I'm just full of excuses/reasons why it's easier to quickly eat a bowl of sugary cereal whilst desperately attempting to get the children ready for nursery, or why I chuck a ready made soup and piece of bread in for lunch whilst I'm doing my admin, or shove down freezer rubbish because we're home late and I'm exhausted. How does anyone manage to be prepping freshly cut vegetables and boiled eggs before work?!

Ive been snacking on cucumber slices topped with cottage cheese and sprinkle of sesame seeds/black pepper

Frozen berries
Small tomatoes and coconut sriracha
M&S Balsamic pickled onions
Stick of celery with cottage cheese
Baby Cucumbers
Fruity Ice Lolly

The only thing that worked for me was stopping snacking. I used to confuse the feeling of not being full with being hungry, so I’d eat all the time. I’d try switching to something healthy and it was fine for a while, but eventually I’d get bored and go back to whatever I’d eaten before. Now I don’t snack. It took a few weeks of pure willpower and it wasn’t easy, but I did lose the urge to keep reaching for food. Now I only eat when I’m genuinely hungry and I have a much better idea of how much I actually want.

Preparation and takeaway boxes are your friend! A nice big fruit salad divided into boxes, plenty of chopped veg sticks with hummus put into much smaller pots so you can just grab one and not eat half the tub.

takeaway boxes of chicken or egg salad with a pot of crushed tortillas so you sprinkle a handful over before you eat (I add cooked beetroot to my salads for bulk plus a little feta and roasted pumpkin seeds or cashew nuts)

small tubs of salted popcorn

individual pots of fat free protein or Greek yoghurt so you’re not responsible for portion size

make sure you have fruit bowls in each room.

drink water before each snack to feel fuller

Biltong, jerky and slim smoked salamis.

I wonder if the fact you snack at all is part of the problem you are trying to solve?

Based on some of the snacks you’ve posted you’ve eaten recently, what I suspect is happening is that you feel a little peckish, eat a snack which is high GI and tastes great so you eat a bit more than you really need to take the edge off. This spikes your insulin response, so you crash again about an hour later and feel hungry so have another snack and the cycle starts again.

I might in your shoes experiment with having a larger meal 3x a day, and if the munchies strike between meals have a large glass of water and wait 15-20 mins and see if you are genuinely still hungry. As someone else said thirst is often mistaken for hunger. But also feelings of hunger are often short lived and psychological not real. Real hunger doesn’t go away but snacky temptation does if you distract yourself. If you feel genuinely hungry by the time you reach a meal time, you are more likely to have the appetite to eat a decent meal which will fill you up to next time.

It might take a few days to train yourself but I’d consider getting rid of all snacks in the house and making a pact that you will go a minimum of 5 hours between meals without snacking and see how you get on.

if that doesn’t work however, you could have a snack box with pre-portioned, calorie counted snacks for the week in it, with the understanding that this gets replenished only on a set day of the week and when they are gone, they are gone. That would help ensure you balance your calories out across the week and get out of the binging cycle. I’d make the snacks boring and functional rather than crunchy, salty or sweet too as those attributes will encourage you to overeat

Lidl salted roasted almonds &75% black chocolate.

I’m a lifelong snacker and have to be a lot more careful about my diet as I get older.
Freezing things slows my eating down so grapes are good. Half a banana on a stick dunked in plain yogurt and sprinkled with cinnamon before freezing makes a great alternative to a full sugar lolly. A large tub of yogurt spread on a baking tray with baking paper, sprinkled with chopped berries- cut into smaller pieces after freezing and store in an ice cream container.
Fruit and low fat yogurt will always taste better when served layered in a glass, frozen for half an hour and eaten with a sundae spoon! You can crumble a single biscuit in for an extra treat.

@Bobloblawww but the almonds taste good though 🤣 so the worst of two evils....

Cold Jersey royals.
Cottage cheese.
Ham.
Fruit.

It's so tough, ugh

I'd definitely swap the full fat greek yog. Its loaded with saturated fat. It's not the fat keeping you full, its the protein so you can swap to a lower fat, high protein natural yogurt and it will still keep you full.
Unsalted nuts / trail mix are a good snack again for the protein content.

I've lost 30lbs in the last two years. My favorite low calorie snacks are individual pop corn bags with only 100 calories, and fruit with citric acid powder on it. It makes the fruit taste like sour candy without the calories.

Yep, if I know for a fact that I have eaten enough, and I'm feeling snackish just for boredom etc, I will have chewing gum. It's working quite well for me.

Honestly none of these are good options.