A longtime dilemna of mine, related to weight loss, is... How to find good snacks, to eat while working, that are rich in protein but not carbs?

And before anyone says "beef jerky", I don't really like it.

Does anyone have any ideas of high-protein, low-carb snacks, besides beef jerky? Note that I'm not looking for something that simply "says" protein on the label but turns out to be mostly carbs with a little protein in it (like many of the "bars" you find at the health food stores), I want to sate my appetite with something that's genuinely mostly protein, to prevent me from wanting to go out to a fast food restaurant for lunch, and to offset the carb intake I normally have for the rest of the day.

Beef jerky?

Turkey jerky? Mutton jerky?

Peanuts?

Tried searching on Google for protein bar?

[dirty old man mode]
I've got a protein shake for you!
[/domm]
(This would work better if you were a young girl....)

Non-fat cottage cheese and canned tuna are protein miracles. Mix up some non-fat miracle whip with some canned tuna and you have something you can get down if you're not too picky.

For snack bars, I like EAS Myoplex Low Carb bars. The protein to carb ratios rock, and the flavors are decent.

I've tried other bars that I really didn't like. The MuscleTech Nitro bars were just nasty (I have a friend who works there and I got a killer discount, and still didn't buy any more). The Champion Nutrition bars made me naseous just from the taste after about 5 of them (over a two week period, not in 10 mins or anything).

Peanuts?

What's the protein/carb ratio for a jar of Planter's Peanuts?

Non-fat cottage cheese

Ick. I love cottage cheese, but can't stand the lowfat or nonfat variants. In fact, I'm very picky even about the brand. So that's out.

canned tuna

Now there's an idea. Keep the fixin's for Tuna Sandwiches in the fridge here at work. Hmmm.

I like EAS Myoplex Low Carb bars.

I'll look into that, thanks.

Nut nutrition info.

Peanuts are just over a 1:1 protein-to-carb ratio. But pistachios are at 2:1. Of course, you've got a lot of fat with any nut, but isn't nut fat* (monounsaturated) supposed to be good for you?

Edit: Oh, and before you say anything, I used to be able to get bulk low- and no-salt pistachios at my local fancy grocer. Just make sure you stay away from the red-dyed ones. That dye is there to hide poor-quality nuts.

* See earlier reference to ``protein shakes''.

And before anyone says "beef jerky", I don't really like it.

OK, then. Soylent Green it is.

OK, then. Soylent Green it is.

Too gritty for my tastes. Besides, they don't disclose what it's made out of, and I just don't trust that.

Actually, with Beef Jerky, I don't like the stuff they sell in stores either. It is remarkably easy to make your own though, and it will taste like whatever you want. Ours uses Soy, Worchestershire, garlic, salt, chile powder, and about a dozen other ingredients. We've tried different recipes and the finished product can taste radically different. Just cut a slab of meet into 1/4 to 1/8 inch thick peices and soak in a sauce of your own making for a few hours, then stick in a drying rack overnight.

We built our own drying rack using one 100-watt lightbulb at the bottom of a fiberboard box with metal trays in a few hours. Its been working well for more than a decade now. We also dry bananas, apples, strawberries, and all sorts of other things in it.

-Biscuits

Two words... Pork Rhinds.... Don't really know what the protein level is, but being that it's fried animal skin there are no carbs! I lived off of these when doing the atkins diet.

What's your sugar intake like?
Any good health food shop should be able to help you with this.

I guy at college was entering body building comps and stuff, he was *cut*! His lunches were often simple things like tuna and cucumber.

Aren't pork rinds nearly all fat?

- Trevor

Have no idea, I do know that there are no carbs... which makes them an excellent snack (if you can stomach them) for low carb diets.

Have no idea, I do know that there are no carbs... which makes them an excellent snack (if you can stomach them) for low carb diets.

I've never investigated low-carb diets very closely but I'd be surprised if they were effective for weight loss if they encouraged sitting down all day snacking on almost pure pork fat...

Peter

The best tasting bars that I've tried are EAS' Myoplex (they have a number of categories and then multiple flavours in each), Labrada (Texas Pecan Pie is good), Promax (Mmmm...) and Balance (standard and Gold - they're smaller therefore less calories per bar)

Keep in Mind Tony, the "carb" count in the better bars is not strictly made up of what you'd traditionally call a carb, nor are they usually made up of sugar or starch.

You can also try shakes, but you will likely find they're higher in calories than many of the bars. The all-out winner for taste is the Myoplex brand from EAS. Nothing else comes close. Of course then you've also got aspertame with this stuff and a bit of starch with the EAS shakes (to make them thicker).

With any of these things, make sure you've got a regular exercise routine. Protein shakes WILL pack on the pounds if you're not working out. As will anything really. And they're not meal supplements! They're a small meal replacement. Of course if you're going to have multiple of these things per day, including bars, you should also be having smaller meals.

Read "Body for Life" sometime. It's a quick read. Ignore the pictures. It's worked very well for a number of people here at work. The most important keys are a protein balanced diet and regular exercise (with a good focus on resistance training - ie. weights). You don't have to have any shakes or bars or buy anything from EAS. Any of that stuff, of any brand, is merely a convenience item.

Bruno

In reply to:

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I've never investigated low-carb diets very closely but I'd be surprised if they were effective for weight loss if they encouraged sitting down all day snacking on almost pure pork fat...

---

The truth is even self proclaimed health experts have no idea how fats affect weight loss, actually fat is good for you if you eat the right kinds. The fact is it's a common misconception that eating fat makes you fat, most of the chemical additives in "low fat" foods actually impair weight loss... Low carb diets do indeed work I can vouch for that... They work extremely well... there are arguments as to the health risks involved. However for me after 2 weeks and a loss of 10lbs I couldn't resist the urge to eat bread. These diets don't work for me simply because of the willpower factor. I was amazed when I tried the atkins diet that I could get up, eat eggs, bacon, sausage, then for lunch eat a huge frickin steak, dinner consisting of two chicken breasts cheese and other various meats and still lose weight. Once your body hits keytosis (i think thats how you spell it) the weight starts falling off.

The big problem with fats is how the body utilizes them. Some people turn over fats very quicly and do not store large amounts (just lucky geneticlly speaking), others cannot readily metabolize fats and tend to increase stored and blood "fat" levels. Since many types of fats are potent stimulators of cells this can lead to coronary-artery disease, cancer etc. Remember though that these are chronic problems, eating hihg amounts of fat for shorter periods or occasionally I expect should not be a problem.

I believe the word is Ketosis (related to Ketone bodies in the Kidney/Ketone Metabolism)

Keep in Mind Tony, the "carb" count in the better bars is not strictly made up of what you'd traditionally call a carb, nor are they usually made up of sugar or starch.

I'm not sure I understand you here. Sugar and starch are what I'd traditionally call carbohydrates. What do the bars contain -- cellulose?

Peter

Alcohols, usually, IIRC. Fiber, too.

The one thing I'll say about the Atkins diet is that I've never met anyone who has resumed a normal diet and kept the weight off. This makes it just another yo-yo diet. Of my friends who've done the diet, most of them did lose a significant amount of weight, but once they resumed a normal balanced diet, the weight came back on. One of my friends has called it a "deal with the devil" because now she can't go back to eating right. There's just no way that the Atkins program can be healthy long-term, even given the advantages of losing weight. It also shifts focus away from exercise, which is IMHO a much more important component of remaining healthy and keeping weight off.

As with all these things, YMMV, but as much as I'd love to lose 20 lbs or so, I'm not going to do it if it means never eating a sandwich again.

I think that it might work better if the person on the diet lost however much weight they wanted to lose and then stayed at that weight for quite a while before slowly returning to a normal balanced diet. I think that your body has to have a chance to let its metabolism get settled.

But this is pseudo-scientific claptrap. I could be totally wrong.

Here's a link to recipes for "zone" favorable meals, including snacks, which tend to be well balanced - high in protein, low in simple carbohydrates and recommend natural unsaturated fats. might turn up a few decent ideas

http://www.zoneperfect.com/Site/content/cookbook_search.asp

The biggest problem/danger of the Atkin's diet IMO (and why I would never do it) is the load it puts on the kidneys. I'll stick with the "everything in moderation" plan.

Tony,

There is a bakery in my town that makes "health bread" that is a 40/30/30 bread (the ratio that is recommended by sports nutritionists like Michael Colgan). It's pretty good, too. If you go with the tuna sandwich route (I put dill relish in mine), make sure you don't destroy the whole thing by eating the wrong bread with it. Shop around and try to find a good, relatively low carb, protein fortified bread. Boutique bakeries make them.

Also, make yourself up some egg salad and bring it to work for sandwiches (or by itself). If you really want to keep the calories down, lose some of the fat by removing *some* of the egg yolks. I've known body builders who don't seem to mind eating only egg whites (great source of protein), but they just don't do it for me, so I leave most of the yolks in.

If you can find even a 1% cottage cheese that you can stomach, it's much better than whole or 2%. I didn't like non-fat cottage cheese at first, but I got used to it. I found that I could get used to almost anything after a while: diet vs. regular soda, non-fat dairy, non-fat salad dressings. I didn't like any of them at first, but over time I actually prefered them.

The other "miracle foods" from my fitness and weightlifting days were: Grape Nuts (complex carbs, you still need carbs, but try to stay away from starches and sugars. GN is an easy and fairly good breakfast as long as you get yourself some protein to have with it), chicken breasts, fish (Colgan has some great things to say about fish), roasted turkey breast, sweet peppers, asparagus, brussel sprouts, sliced low fat deli meats like chicken and turkey.

If your activity level picks up, especially with weight lifting, you will need more protein. With 3-4 days/week of strenuous weight training, you will need about 1g per lean body mass pound. That is a lot of protein. People will argue about this, but the research is available. I found that with heavy weight lifting, the only way I could keep my protein intake high enough was to go with a protein supplement. Whey is probably the best. It tastes awful, so another alternative is to back off on the strength training. Depends on what you're after. Another thing that people will argue with but is well documented is that the best way to lose fat is with resistance weight traning. Cardio workouts are great, and good for other reasons, too, but if you want to take off the pounds, high intensity weight lifting is the way to do it. PM me if you want some materials on this approach. It's not as horrible as it sounds: 30-45 minutes 3 or 4 times per day.

Take a good multi-vitamin and the research seems to show that chromium picolonate will help with what is thought of as "GTF" or glucose tolerance factor. Chromium appears to have something to do with insulin and sugar metabolism.

Have you read "Optimum Sports Nutrition" by Colgan? It is a must read.

Jim

30-45 minutes 3 or 4 times per day.

I hope that's a typo...

Oh my. 3-4 times per week! Sheesh. Actually, that's conservative, as you get stronger you can only do 1 or 2 per week without overtraining, but it takes a while to get there.

Lots of good advice in the thread so far, everyone, thanks.

Some of the discussion here is getting off on a tangents about dieting and "zone" that isn't directly to my specific question, but that's OK. It's all good information

For reference, I've managed to go gradually from about 215+ pounds down to my current weight of 170 simply by changing my eating habits and doing a little light exercise. It took 2.5 years, though. So I'm not looking at this as any kind of a crash diet, I've simply changed the way I eat and plan to stay with it.

At the current time, what I'm trying to do is simply satisfy my middle-of-the-day snack cravings without eating a lot of garbage full of carbs and fat. For the last couple of years, I've done my best to simply live with the cravings and not give into them. Now that I'm close to my target weight, I'm beginning to get back into the idea that I don't necessarily need to go hungry any more.

Here's my experience with protein bars, from last night:

After reading what was said about protein bars in this thread, I looked for some while grocery shopping. They had and entire section of them, with many different brands and flavors.

I found that most of the bars said "high protein" on the label, but when you looked at the fine print, they would be something like 10-15 grams of protein, 30-40 grams of carbs, and 20-30 grams of fat. Not what I was looking for. And, IMHO, falsely labeled. If it's a protein bar, why so much fat and carbs? They should say "some protein", not "high protein".

I found one brand of bar labeled "Low Carb Diet" that looked good, and bought a few. 3 grams of carbs, 20 grams of protein, 10 grams of fat, no sugars. Decent ratio, although the fat is still higher than I'd like. Tasted decent, not the greatest, but enough to satisfy my cravings for a snack. But they're $2.50 a pop. Ouch!

I know you've said you hate beef jerky, but I still think you might want to try making your own. It doesn't have to taste like those nasty Slim Jims or the other crap they sell in stores. It'll taste like whatever you make it with.

Personally, I've had the opposite problem from most people; it takes a lot of willpower to eat regularly. I just don't get hungry, so if I'm not careful, I can go for several days without eating, which is NOT a good thing.

-Biscuits

Personally, I've had the opposite problem from most people; it takes a lot of willpower to eat regularly. I just don't get hungry, so if I'm not careful, I can go for several days without eating, which is NOT a good thing.

And then you torture the rest of us by having a username that consists of two yummy food items. Damn you.

I'm at work, so I'll have to make this quick (I can write a lot on the virtures of excercise and stuff). If you think you need to lose weight, something obviously isn't working for you, and you have to change your lifestyle. Eating healthy is one way (notice I said healthy and not dieting - huge difference). The most important thing is to get some excercise. Even a walk after dinner helps. Just eating healthy is a start, but that is only one step.

Personally, I've had the opposite problem from most people; it takes a lot of willpower to eat regularly.

I have sort of the same problem. I was on a diet for a really long time (wrestled through grade school and high school), and to this day, I get full really quickly. Two of my friends (neither can weigh more than 105lbs) get really pissed at me whenever we go out to eat. They end up finishing their meal, and I can never eat more than 1/2 of mine, especially if we get an appetizer. I guess it makes them feel like they are fat :/

One of them makes sure she calls me on weekends, even if she is out of town to make sure I eat something, otherwise I will just forget.

That reminds me of the way I do things. I eat when I'm hungry. If I'm not hungry at lunch, I skip it. If I ate at noon, and I'm hungry again at 3:00, I eat again. I kinda figure the body takes care of itself and lets you know when it needs nourishment. There was a study that dogs that were fed 3 times a day, and only 3 times a day, had a propensity towards obesity, as opposed to dogs that had food out all the time. I've never had a "feeding time" for any of my dogs, and I've never had an overweight dog.

All that being said, I consume on average ~3000 calories a day, which is high, until you realize that I'm 5'10", 28, and 140 lbs. When I was in college, I was consuming closer to 7000 calories a day. But I was running, mountain biking, mountain climbing, swimming, diving, playing raquetball, tennis, and soccer. So I guess I just used it all.

Tony... A friend of mine lost ~150 pounds about 5 years ago by eating a lot of tuna fish. I mean a LOT of tuna. He has kept it off ever since by simply jogging a couple of miles a couple times a week. He also says that plain yellow mustard will cut down (or cover up) the taste of tuna somewhat. He got to a point where he'd open the can, add a little mustard, mix, and eat right out of the can. Not for me, but hey.... I got lucky genetically so it isn't an issue.

The one thing I'll say about the Atkins diet is that I've never met anyone who has resumed a normal diet and kept the weight off]The one thing I'll say about the Atkins diet is that I've never met anyone who has resumed a normal diet and kept the weight off

But that's not the diet. The diet intends you to keep eating like that. What do you think Atkins does?

My parents are on that diet, and plan to stay on it for the rest of their lives. My dad lost 80+ pounds on it.

Once you get down to your target weight, you have to balance out. My parents, when balancing, do eat a lot of meat and high protein foods, but they also eat greens. You can eat healthy, just not what people tend to think of as healthy. Like someone said, people don't usually think of fat being good for you, but it's the carbs that do it. If you eat a lot of carbs, then the fat isn't good for you.

Also, every once and a while, my parents cheat on the diet. They'll have a 3 day business trip or two, and at the company dinners they'll eat some bread and other carb foods, but then they'll follow the diet more strictly for a week or so before balancing out again.

Honestly, with all the negativity the diet has gotten, as usual it was not very well informed.

• For one, people would just decide to go on it. That can be risky. You may be pre-disposed to something adverse to the diet.
• Some people don't read up on how to do it. My girlfriend's roommate just up and decided to do it, but didn't read up on it. It's not as simple as,"drop the breads and sugars and eat lots of meat." There's more to it.
  

The fact is, my parents have regular doctors checkups. My mom has a slight form of diabetes, and her doctor admits that the diet, and the diet alone has helped keep it in check. They don't suffer the side effects, and are, without a doubt, better off than if they didn't loose the weight.

Oh, and my dad only has one kidney

Some of my fav protein sources...

1. Nonfat cottage cheese (add a little yogurt or fruit if you can't handle the taste)
2. Tuna sandwich w/mustard
3. Light Yogurt (not non-fat which is 80% carbs, but light which tends to be about equal carb to protein)
4. MetRx Protein Plus bars. Some of these taste like dirt, but some aren't bad. I like the chocolate fudge. IIRC these are about 35/20/10 grams protein/carbs/fat.
5. Powerbar protein bar. I don't remember the exact name, but they have about 20grams of protein and zero carbs (they use sugar alcohol). There is a nut-fudge that tastes like a real candy bar. They run about a buck a piece. Might want to check the fat content on these, I don't remember how bad they are.

-Mike

And another favorite is any of the protein shakes from Smoothie King. I think they're a local thing, but they rock! I usually get the vanilla Hulk. (1700 Calories)

Nutrition Info (these are based on the 20 oz smoothie. I usually get the 40 oz.

I found that most of the bars said "high protein" on the label, but when you looked at the fine print, they would be something like 10-15 grams of protein, 30-40 grams of carbs, and 20-30 grams of fat. Not what I was looking for. And, IMHO, falsely labeled. If it's a protein bar, why so much fat and carbs? They should say "some protein", not "high protein".

Are those bars claiming to be "protein bars", or are they claiming to be "energy bars"? A lot of energy bars never contained any protein at all -- it was all carbs, a bit of fat, and some potassium and other minerals, so for an "energy bar", 10-15 grams *is* a "high protien" content.

Are those bars claiming to be "protein bars", or are they claiming to be "energy bars"?

I don't know, there was a big mixture of bars, some of which said "energy" and some that said "high protein". I only bothered looking at the labels of the ones that claimed to be high in protein. If it just said "energy bar" I knew it would be all carbs. I found that even the ones claiming to be high in protein were also high in fat and carbs, except for the one brand of bar.

Edit: Did a search and found a picture of the bars on the web here. These were the only ones at my local store that were truly high protein low carb. Everything else was high carb.

Do you have to have high protein ? I thought the low carbs part was the key.

Do you have to have high protein ? I thought the low carbs part was the key.

If you have low carbs and low protein all that is left is fat! Most people would agree that a diet of mostly fat would be a bad idea.

Do you have to have high protein ? I thought the low carbs part was the key.

My goal is to find enjoyable snacks that are high protein, low carbs, and low fat.

I found that even the ones claiming to be high in protein were also high in fat and carbs, except for the one brand of bar.

That's not too surprising. Except for the people on special diets, most energy bars are designed for athletes looking for a pre/mid/post-workout snack, and the best fuel for that situation is carbs, since that's what replenishes your muscles' energy. The only reason you see any protein in these bars at all is because in recent years, it's been "discovered" that eating carbs isn't enough for muscle recovery after/during exercise. In order to help rebuild (and strengthen) all those muscle fibres that have been broken down through exercise, the body also requires some protein, which is what those fibres are made of. Without the protein, your muscles get energy, but they don't start to rebuild as quickly. As a result, energy food makers started adding protein to the mix, and "high protein" on a label usually equates to "more than none."

If you've just been looking in a regular supermarket, you might have better luck finding something in a health food store, or a Trader Joes.

Disclaimer: I'm not a nutritionist or medical person by any stretch of the imagination (but I took a nutrition course in university). This is all just stuff I've picked up from reading various literature and trying to find something that tastes better than PowerBars, but works just as well. Corrections from those who know are welcome.

> The truth is even self proclaimed health experts have no idea how fats
> affect weight loss, actually fat is good for you if you eat the right kinds.

This reminds me of a book I read a while ago that suggested that cholesterol isn't the cause of heart disease, but is actually the body's defence against it, which is why there are such high levels in the body when people are at risk of or have had a heart attack.

Mixed nuts, tuna, or protein bars are the way to go. I'd say the best is tuna... and yeah, the fats in nuts and tuna ARE good for you.

If you've just been looking in a regular supermarket, you might have better luck finding something in a health food store, or a Trader Joes.

Yup. If you haven't tried your local Trader Joe's yet, check it out. I was in there today, and found a stash of these low-carb bars. 3 grams of carbs, 20+ grams of protein. There were a couple other bars with only 2-3 grams of carbs.

Yup, those are the same ones I got.