Living the low carb lifestyle can be difficult. I’ve tried before with my husband, and I think that most of my problem is that I didn’t try a variety of foods, and I didn’t keep low-carb snacks on hand. Now I have no excuse! I’ve compiled this HUGE list of 50 low carb snacks ideas to help all of us. And the good news is that most of these require very little prep or cooking at all. They’re easy peasy snacks you can whip up in just a few minutes, with a few exceptions. Having these items on hand will also help you make simple low carb meals, too.
This post was updated on 10/19/2019.
Please keep in mind that, as with all foods, you need to watch your portions. Things like nuts, sugar-free chocolates and berries are easy to indulge in when you’re low carbing, but you need to portion them out before you start snacking to avoid eating too much.
Also, I’ve had a few complaints that some of these foods aren’t truly low carb. That is actually a matter of which plan you’re following.
If you’re following an early phase of Atkins, for example, and you need to stay under 20 net carbs a day, some of these low carb snacks won’t fit into your plan. However, people like my mother-in-law (who’s a diabetic), limits carbs, but perhaps within 80-100 carbs a day.
So, in that way, “low carb” is a little subjective. No matter what your carb count goal is for the day, though, I believe you’ll find something here to nosh on when you get hungry.
Here’s the low carb snacks list. Print it out for easy reference. You can also pin it for later.
- hard boiled eggs
- peanut butter and celery
- nuts
- carrot sticks and hummus
- ham and cream cheese rollups
- pork rinds
- cottage cheese and raspberries
- string cheese
- sunflower seeds
- pepperoni slices and cheese cubes
- stuffed mushrooms
- turkey and Swiss cheese rollups
- baked Parmesan crisps
- bacon slices
- beef or turkey jerky
- bacon and cream cheese bites
- pickles and cheddar cheese slices
- meatballs
- bacon, lettuce and tomato wraps (BLTs)
- tuna and lettuce wraps
- asparagus and bacon bundles
- plain, full fat yogurt
- cucumbers and ranch dip
- berries (strawberries, raspberries or blackberries)
- lunch meats
- sugar-free chocolate
- tuna on tomato slices
- shredded cheddar baked crisps
- pepperoni sticks
- zucchini pizzas (toppings on baked zucchini slices)
- cauliflower and ranch dip
- broccoli and cheese dip
- avocado slices
- edamame, roasted
- tuna on cucumber slices
- veggies and guacamole
- jalapeno and cream cheese poppers
- little smokies
- zucchini topped with bacon and cheddar
- zucchini chips
- cucumber sandwiches
- bacon-wrapped chicken bites
- green pepper halves stuffed with pizza toppings
- green pepper halves stuffed with philly cheesesteak
- celery and cottage cheese
- celery and cream cheese
- bacon-wrapped artichoke hearts
- cauliflower crisps (smashed and baked cauliflower)
- deviled eggs
- egg salad wrapped in lettuce
If you liked this list of 50 Low Carb Snack Ideas, you’ll also enjoy these posts:
Low Carb Staples: Stocking Your Kitchen for Low Carb Success
Simple Low Carb Meals
30+ Delicious Low Carb Side Dishes
I always wonder what is a low calorie snack now I have a chart thank you
Some of these aren’t necessarily low calorie, as low carb diets don’t focus as much on calories, but most are a good source of protein. 🙂 Enjoy!
I’m not doing a low-carb diet but I’m loving all the healthy snack ideas!
Thanks! High protein snacks are a good idea for anyone…very filling!
Great list. Sugar-Free Jello and faux ice-cream are great too. For ice cream blend 1 scoop protein powder with 1/2 a glass of unsweetened almond milk and 1/2 a glass of ice blend and enjoy.
Thanks, Tanya! Can’t believe I forgot Jello, but I’ve never had the faux ice cream before. I’ll definitely try that!
This is a great list! Thanks for sharing! I found your blog via ‘Wake Up Wednesday’! 🙂
Thank you for stopping by, Emma! 🙂
Thanks for this great list! 🙂
Careful on the artificial sweeteners though. If you are low carbing it for blood sugar reasons, artificial sweeteners still spike your blood sugar and mess with your insulin.
Actually, artificial sweetners don’t spike blood sugar levels. According to the Mayo Clinic “Sugar substitutes don’t affect your blood sugar level. In fact, most artificial sweeteners are considered “free foods” — foods containing less than 20 calories and 5 grams or less of carbohydrates — because they don’t count as calories or carbohydrates on a diabetes exchange.” My husband, brother-in-law, and father-in-law are all diabetics and we use artificial sweetners whenever converting regular recipes to “sugar-free” or “low sugar” and none of them have had any issues with spiking blood sugars. Now, with that said too much of any of the sweetners can cause diarrhea, and we have had that issue when my father-in-law decided to eat an entire pie by himself in one sitting.
Diarrhea can definitely be a problem with those, but they can affect blood sugar levels according to many other resources that I’ve read, even though the effects are not as dramatic as actual sugar. Eg.: http://dtc.ucsf.edu/living-with-diabetes/diet-and-nutrition/understanding-carbohydrates/counting-carbohydrates/learning-to-read-labels/counting-sugar-alcohols/
when you talk about roll ups and wraps, what are you using? They all sound really good.
Usually foods are wrapped in lettuce when you’re low carbing. Although there are some low carb tortillas, you typically can’t have them when you first start a low carb diet, but that depends on which plan you’re on.
You might want to try a wonderful substitute for the wraps. I often use collard greens to wrap all kinds of things. Just wash well, dry and trim the center vein of each leaf.
Place your choices on the leaf, wrap & enjoy.
Example: julienne cooked chicken, cucumber, avocado, mango & strawberries. — wrap & go to tasters heaven.
Just wonderful!!
We often do lettuce wraps, but I honestly never thought of wrapping them in collard greens. What a great idea! Thanks, Ann.
Thanks so much for posting this interesting article! I have just started on my low-carb journey, trying to fight off the Diabetes 2 I was just diagnosed with. My doctor thinks I can beat it without having to resort to drugs. Now, just to stick to the low carbs. Thanks again! Smiles, Linda at Paper Seedlings.
Hello! I found this post through Pinterest, and it’s been very helpful so far. Can you please tell me what the bacon and cream cheese bites are? I can’t find anything like that online. Thank you!
It’s just softly cooked bacon wrapped around a piece of cream cheese… or you can also mix up some cream cheese with lots of bacon pieces to make a sort of cheeseball. 🙂
I try to eat low carb snacks, but find that I get bored with my choices. You’ve made my day with a bunch of new snacking options for me! Luckily I’m heading to the grocery store today.
Thanks for all of these suggestions! I tend to only snack on peanuts and beef jerky, and there are so many other great ideas here. Printing this out to hang on my fridge.