Best Low Calorie Snacks for Weight Loss

A 0.65-ounce bag of popcorn looks like nothing — mostly air, a couple of handfuls — and that's exactly why it works. Popcorn is the one snack you eat piece by piece, so a bag that small stretches across a movie or a long phone call instead of disappearing in four bites.

SkinnyPop keeps the ingredient list short and the seasoning light: it's vegan, gluten free, kosher, non-GMO, and free of peanuts and tree nuts. That last part makes it the box that can go to school, into a lunch bag, or into an office where the shared snack bin has to be safe for everyone, which is a narrower set of snacks than it sounds.

Freshness is the thing to manage. Popcorn in a 30-count box can arrive chewy if the case sat around, and a stale bag is a sad bag — check the sell-by date the day the box lands and work through it rather than saving it for a rainy day. Stored cool and dry, the bags hold their crunch far better than the ones left in a warm cupboard.

For anyone whose snacking is more about the habit of eating than actual hunger, this is the pick. Thirty bags and one of the lowest costs per snack here make it the easiest box to keep stocked, and the portion is small enough that a second bag still counts as an afternoon rather than a binge.

Almonds are the first ingredient in a KIND mini, and the bar eats like it — nuts pressed together under a thin layer of chocolate rather than a candy bar with nuts stirred through. It's small, too: 0.7 ounces, closed easily in one hand, which is the part the product photo doesn't convey.

That size is the whole point. At 90 calories and 3 grams of sugar, a mini is built to bridge the gap between meals rather than replace one, and the low glycemic index is why it doesn't leave you crashing an hour later. Of the three flavors, Caramel Almond & Sea Salt is the one that empties first; Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate is the richest, and Dark Chocolate Nuts & Sea Salt is the plainest of the set.

Our one reservation is texture over time — a mini that has sat too long turns hard instead of chewy, and a couple in our box were on the wrong side of that line. Check the date when the box lands and keep it somewhere cool; the fresh ones have a real crunch from the almonds and a chocolate layer thin enough not to taste like dessert.

Thirteen grams of protein in a 1.25-ounce bag is the number that earns this box a spot, because protein is what separates a snack that tides you over from one that makes you hungrier. It's our pick for the long stretch between lunch and dinner — a desk drawer, a gym bag, a long drive — and because nothing here needs refrigeration, it's the easiest thing on this list to leave somewhere for a month and forget.

The box splits Original and Teriyaki, five bags to four, and the teriyaki runs sweeter, so the Original is the one to start with if sugar is on your radar. The beef is 94 percent fat free and the pieces are thin and flat, easy to eat one-handed. The individual wrappers do their job: ours came out tender rather than dry, which is the usual failure with jerky bought in quantity.

Two things to know before you buy nine bags. The chew varies from pack to pack — some pieces pull apart, others fight back — and nine bags go faster than a 30-pack of anything, so if you want jerky as a weekly habit, order two boxes. As emergency protein it's hard to beat, and the flat bags stack in a drawer better than any bag of chips.

Four bags of roasted and salted, three of chili, two of honey — the split tells you what Wonderful expects you to want, and the first two make the case. The chili has genuine heat, enough that a child may hand it back, and the honey is the sweet one you'll end up saving.

No shells is the detail that makes these work for us. Pistachios in the shell are a better snack for anyone who needs to slow down, but they're a worse snack for a car, a keyboard, or a desk with no wastebasket, and the shell-free packs solve that without turning the portion into a bowl. At 0.75 ounces a bag, this is a real snack rather than a nut binge.

Everything else about the box is easy: nothing to shell, nothing to spill, and no decision to make at four in the afternoon. It's the box to keep around when a single flavor stops sounding good halfway through.

If the cocoa almonds are the sweet half of a 100-calorie habit, this is the savory half: 18 packs of mixed nuts, each capped at 100 calories, in three varieties. It's the box to hand someone who wants something salty with a drink and doesn't want to open a full-size bag.

The variety is the draw — three nut mixes, none of them coated or candied, so it's a genuinely plain snack. The walnuts are the best thing in the box: richer than the almonds and less work than a cashew.

Consistency is where this trails our top pick. A plain nut has nothing to hide behind, so a soft pack reads as soft where cocoa would mask it — open one from the middle of the box before you commit the rest to a desk drawer. Buy it for the savory slot and keep it sealed between packs.

Thirty calories a pack is not a typo, and it's the reason these sheets earn a place: it's the only snack here you can eat without doing arithmetic. A pack is 0.17 ounces — about five grams of seaweed — and it's gone in a minute, which is either the appeal or the problem depending on what you want from a snack.

Sea salt is the plainest flavor and the right place to start. The sheets are thin and crisp and salty the way a potato chip is salty, and the sea smell is strong enough that people divide cleanly into two camps. We're in the first one; if you've never liked nori, this won't convert you, and a six-pack will sit in the cupboard until it goes soft.

For anyone who does like it, this is the best calorie deal of the picks: organic, keto and vegan friendly, and light enough to keep in a bag without noticing. Just don't buy it as pantry stock — six packs is a trial size, and a family will finish the box in a single sitting.