Low Carb and Slow Carb Snack Ideas for Home, Work, and On the Go

Quick Summary: Low carb and slow carb snack ideas for home, work, and travel, plus homemade crunchy snacks that replace chips and crackers. I lost 30 pounds on the 4-Hour Body diet and coached 400+ people through it, and these are the snacks that kept us on track.

Jump to: Portable Snacks | Home or Office | Crunchy Snacks |Ingredient Details | Strategies to Avoid Failure | FAQ

Finding snacks that are both convenient and compliant is one of the hardest parts of slow-carb eating. When hunger hits between meals, you need something already prepared.

Many people reach for protein bars, but most are higher in carbs than you’d expect. Low carb protein bars are among the better options if you must, but whole foods are usually a smarter choice.

Here are snack ideas organized by situation, plus strategies for staying on track when willpower is low.

About my coaching experience: I lost 30 pounds on the slow carb diet in 2013 and have kept it off for over a decade. From 2016 to 2020, I coached more than 400 people through slow carb and low carb diets. The biggest lesson: the people who cooked for themselves were the ones who made it a sustainable lifestyle. The ones who struggled usually had one of three problems. They didn’t know how to cook, they were too busy, or they got bored with the food. My recipes are written for all three: clear directions, easy steps, and big flavor. I’m not a doctor. If you have diabetes, kidney disease, or take medication, check with your doctor before changing how you eat.

For everything that’s allowed, see my complete slow carb food list.

Portable Low-Carb Snack Ideas

These travel well and many of them don’t need refrigeration:

• Hard-boiled eggs (you can buy these pre-peeled)
• Nuts (no more than 1/3 cup; see notes below on best varieties)
• Pepperoni slices or sticks
• Chicharrones (pork rinds)
• Aged hard cheese (no soft cheeses)
• Olives
• Seaweed snacks (salted and dried, nice and crispy)
• Cornichons (tiny crunchy pickles)
• Jerky (look for low-sugar varieties)
• Protein shake in a blender bottle
• Cherry tomatoes

Slow-Carb Snack Ideas for Home or Office

• Celery with peanut butter (easy on the peanut butter)
• Tuna (I usually get tins of tuna in olive oil or brine, dress it up with capers, mustard, mayo, etc.)
• Hard-boiled eggs
• Deviled eggs
• Dill pickles
• 1/2 cup cottage cheese (full-fat cottage cheese)
• Nuts (keep this to a minimum, easy to overdo)
• Sunflower seeds
• Baba Ghanoush (eggplant dip from Holy Land)  with zucchini sticks as dippers
• Jerky (beef or turkey: try to find low-sugar varieties – often this has a lot of nitrates, however)
• Sugar-free Jello, alone or with cottage cheese and a sprinkling of nuts
• Make sugar-free lime Jello with part coconut milk. For a large package, dissolve the powder in a cup of boiling water, add a can of coconut milk, and then add the rest of the water. Stir well.
• Smoked salmon on cucumber slices
• Lettuce Roll-ups: Roll luncheon meat, egg salad, tuna or other filling and veggies in lettuce leaves
• Microwave a can of rinsed black beans (slow carb only), add some salsa on top, and some sliced avocado if you have it
• Spread a slow-carb bean dip or spread on the lunch meat or lettuce and then roll it up
• Raw veggies and hummus (jicama works well for dipping); try my harissa hummus
• Pork rinds
• Pepperoni Chips: Microwave pepperoni slices until crisp. Great with bean or salmon dips
• Avocado: about 3 grams of net carbs per whole avocado and lots of healthy fat, so it’s very filling. Mash with salt and pepper, or drizzle with a little balsamic vinegar for a treat.
• Left-overs from dinner

Crunchy Low Carb Snacks That Replace Chips

The best low carb substitutes for chips are chicharrones, pepperoni chips, cheese crisps, and seaweed snacks. When I coached, crunchy, salty snacks were the number one thing clients missed. These are the ones I make or keep on hand:

• Chicharrones (pork rinds): zero carbs and as crunchy as a potato chip. I use them to scoop guacamole or cottage cheese.
• Pepperoni chips: Microwave pepperoni slices on a paper towel for 45 to 60 seconds until crisp. Great with bean or salmon dip. [Confirm the time]
• Cheese crisps: Bake small mounds of grated parmesan or cheddar at 400°F for 5 to 7 minutes. Low carb and keto, but strict slow carb skips cheese.
• Seaweed snacks: salty, crispy, and almost no carbs.
• Salt and vinegar cucumber chips: dried in the dehydrator until they snap.
• Beet chips: sweet and earthy. Keep the portion small, since beets have more natural sugar than most vegetables.
• Roasted harissa chickpeas: my go-to slow carb crunch, with a parmesan and herb variation. Slow carb only, not low carb.
• Chile-lime peanuts: a small handful, since peanuts are easy to overeat.

Recipes: salt and vinegar cucumber chips, beet chips dried in a dehydrator, crispy roasted chickpeas with harissa, and chile-lime peanuts.

Ingredient Notes and Details

• Nuts: Best options are higher-fat varieties: macadamia, Brazil nuts, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, almonds. Net carbs run 2-5 grams per 50 grams. Avoid cashews and chestnuts, which are much higher in carbs. Easy to overeat, so portion control matters.
• Cheese: Aged hard cheeses don’t have the lactose that makes soft cheese problematic on slow-carb. Still calorie-dense, so moderate portions. Strict slow carb allows only cottage cheese, so hard cheese is a low carb and keto snack. More in my post on dairy on the slow carb diet.
• Cold meats: Choose sliced whole meats like ham or turkey breast over processed options. Carb count should be under 1 gram per 100 grams. Prosciutto and Wiltshire cured ham are good choices.
• Jerky and pepperoni: Highly processed and not ideal, but very low carb (0-1 gram per stick). Fine in a pinch when you’re stuck with gas station options. When you have a choice, go for whole foods.
• Dark chocolate: The problem is sugar, not cocoa. Sugar-free chocolate products exist and can satisfy a craving in small amounts.
• Chicharrones: Crispy, salty, zero-carb. Also called pork rinds or bacon puffs. They fill the gap left by potato chips for people who miss the crunch.
• Protein shakes: Look for whey isolate with minimal sugar. Adding a teaspoon of cinnamon to vanilla protein boosts flavor (Stick to a teaspoon a day of regular cassia cinnamon, which contains coumarin, which can harm the liver in large amounts.. Ceylon cinnamon has very little.). Unsweetened coconut milk works well instead of water.

Strategies to Prevent Snacking Disasters

• Pre-plan. Stock your refrigerator and pantry with compliant options before hunger hits. Have clean, sealable containers ready for grab-and-go snacks.
• Know your nearby restaurants. Many places have compliant options if you know what to order. Figure this out in advance with an online menu search or a phone call. When you’re hungry isn’t the time to research.
• Have the right equipment. Most offices have microwaves and refrigerators. If you work from home, keep your kitchen stocked with compliant foods so the path of least resistance is also the compliant path.
• Use the strategy of inconvenience. This comes from Gretchen Rubin: make non-compliant foods harder to access. In mixed-diet households, put candy and chips in opaque containers or in the freezer. If you can’t eliminate temptation, at least make it inconvenient.

Want the whole plan in one place? My ebook, A Guide to Fat Loss Through a Slow Carb Diet, pulls together everything I taught my coaching clients.

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