GLP-1 snacks: 18 high-protein snacks for a small appetite

Short answer: the best GLP-1 snacks are small and protein-first: plain Greek yogurt (about 17 g of protein in a 6 oz cup), cottage cheese, hard-boiled eggs, a pouch of tuna, edamame, roasted soybeans, nuts and seeds, and milk or kefir.^[1] A 2025 joint advisory suggests small meals every three to four hours and names these lower-volume protein foods, while listing sweets and savory snacks among the things to minimize.^[2]

When appetite is small, snacks stop being extras and become part of how the day gets fed. This page is one part of our guide to what to eat when you're eating less. Below are 18 snacks with the protein, calories and water in each, worked out from USDA FoodData Central for the exact portion shown, sorted by where you will be when you eat them: at home, on the go, or when only a drink will do. None of it is tied to one medication; the same list works on Zepbound, Mounjaro, Wegovy, Ozempic or any other GLP-1.

What makes a snack GLP-1 friendly?

There is no official list of "GLP-1 friendly" foods, and the prescribing labels set no food rules for the weekly injections.^[3][4] The phrase on a package is marketing. What does exist is the practical advice in the 2025 joint advisory on nutrition with GLP-1 therapy, which points to three traits:^[2]

• Protein in a small volume. It names fish, eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and nuts and seeds and their spreads, such as peanut or almond butter, as lower-volume, nutrient-dense protein foods.
• Little and often. It suggests a small breakfast and then small meals every three to four hours, with adequate fluids, and says small, frequent meals may work when hunger and interest in food are low.
• Minimally processed. It lists refined carbohydrates, sugar-sweetened drinks, red and processed meats, most fast food, and ultraprocessed sweets and savory snacks among the things to avoid.

So the useful test for a snack is simple: does it bring protein, and would you still eat it when you are barely hungry? Chips and cookies fail the first part; a dry protein bar you dread fails the second.

Which snacks have the most protein?

Snack	Portion	Protein	Calories	Water in the food
From the fridge
Greek yogurt, plain, nonfat	6 oz cup	17.3 g	100	about 145 ml
Hard-boiled eggs	2 large	12.6 g	155	about 75 ml
Cottage cheese, 2%	1/2 cup	11.8 g	92	about 90 ml
Edamame, cooked	1/2 cup shelled	9.2 g	94	about 55 ml
A pear and a part-skim mozzarella stick	1 medium pear, 1 oz cheese	7.5 g	173	about 165 ml
Part-skim mozzarella stick	1 oz	6.9 g	72	about 15 ml
Hummus with baby carrots	2 tbsp and 10 carrots	3.0 g	106	about 110 ml
No fridge needed
Light tuna in water, drained	2 oz	11.0 g	49	about 45 ml
Dry-roasted soybeans	1/4 cup	10.1 g	104	–
Beef jerky	1 oz	9.4 g	116	–
Roasted pumpkin seeds, shelled	1 oz	8.5 g	163	–
Dry-roasted peanuts	1 oz	6.9 g	166	–
Dry-roasted pistachios	1 oz	6.0 g	162	–
Dry-roasted almonds	1 oz	5.9 g	170	–
An apple with peanut butter	1 medium apple, 1 tbsp	4.0 g	190	about 155 ml
Drinkable
Kefir, plain, low-fat	1 cup	9.2 g	104	about 220 ml
Milk, 1%	1 cup	8.2 g	102	about 220 ml
Soy milk, calcium-fortified	1 cup	6.3 g	104	about 220 ml

Source: USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy records, scaled to the portion shown and rounded.^[1] "Water in the food" is the water the food itself contains; a dash means almost none. For a packaged snack, its own Nutrition Facts label is the better number.

Which snacks give the most protein for the fewest calories?

If you fill up fast, protein per 100 calories shows which snacks get the most protein in before fullness does. From the same records:^[1]

• Over 15 g per 100 calories: light tuna (22.6), plain nonfat Greek yogurt (17.3).
• 8 to 13 g: cottage cheese (12.9), edamame (9.8), roasted soybeans (9.6), a mozzarella stick (9.6), kefir (8.8), eggs (8.1), jerky (8.1), 1% milk (8.0).
• Under 6 g: pumpkin seeds (5.2), peanuts (4.1), pistachios (3.7), almonds (3.5), and the fruit-based pairs.

Nuts and seeds rank low because most of their calories come from fat, not because they are poor snacks. On a day when calories themselves are short, an ounce of almonds is 170 calories and some protein in a handful. Match the snack to the problem: protein-dense when protein is short, calorie-dense when everything is short.

What are good high-protein snacks on the go?

The snacks that get eaten are the ones already in the bag. The no-fridge group in the table travels without a cooler: a 1/4 cup of roasted soybeans gives 10 g of protein, an ounce of pumpkin seeds 8.5 g, and a pouch or small can of tuna about 11 g in 2 oz.^[1]

• Portion nuts ahead. An ounce is about 22 almonds or 49 pistachios.^[1] Small bags make it easy to eat one portion and stop.
• Read the sodium on jerky. An ounce of beef jerky has about 506 mg of sodium, 22% of the 2,300 mg Daily Value, and 20% DV or more counts as high.^[1][5] It is also a processed red meat, which the advisory puts on its list to limit.^[2] Fine now and then; not the daily default.
• Keep cold snacks cold. A yogurt, cheese stick or egg packed for the day should go back in a fridge or cooler within 2 hours, or within 1 hour when it is above 90°F outside.^[6]

What about protein bars and packaged snacks?

The advisory lists high-protein shakes, bars and other fortified products as a way some people reach their protein targets.^[2] Bars vary widely, so read two lines on the label. Protein: the Daily Value is 50 g, so a bar with 10 g or more gives 20% DV, which counts as high. Added sugars: the Daily Value is 50 g, and 5% DV or less, 2.5 g, counts as low.^[5][7] A bar that looks like a candy bar on the added-sugars line is one, whatever the front says.

Drinkable protein follows the same rules. How to read a protein powder label, and what a recent lead test found, is in the best protein powder for a GLP-1.

What does a day of snacks add up to?

Three snacks between meals can carry a real share of the day. A 6 oz cup of Greek yogurt mid-morning, a 1/4 cup of roasted soybeans in the afternoon and a cup of 1% milk in the evening come to about 36 g of protein and 306 calories.^[1] For someone who weighs 70 kg (about 154 pounds), the recommended allowance of 0.8 g/kg is 56 g a day, and the advisory notes that 1.2 to 1.6 g/kg has been proposed for adults on these medications.^[2] So the snacks alone cover well over half the allowance before a meal is counted. Your own range is in how much protein to eat on a GLP-1, and the protein calculator splits it into small meals.

The same three snacks also bring about 365 ml of water.^[1] That matters more than it sounds: normally about a fifth of the water people take in comes from food, so eating less quietly means drinking less too.^[8] Milk, kefir and fruit-based snacks are the ones that carry fluid. The daily numbers are in how much water to drink on a GLP-1.

What if you're not hungry at snack time?

That is the usual case on these medications, not the exception. The advisory suggests setting an alarm or other reminder to eat when changing the food is not enough.^[2] Three things make a snack easier to face:

• Make it smaller. Half a cup of yogurt or one egg still counts. The aim is to keep protein coming every few hours, not to finish a portion.
• Make it drinkable. A cup of kefir or milk asks less of you than anything you have to chew. Soft options are in what to eat on a GLP-1 when you're not hungry.
• Go easy on fat and fiber after a dose change. The advisory suggests smaller, more frequent meals and avoiding fatty or high-fiber foods during the first few days of treatment.^[2] Nuts and edamame can wait a few days; yogurt, cottage cheese and tuna are the leaner picks. If your stomach is unsettled, start with what to eat on queasy days.

Is a bedtime snack a good idea?

It can be, if the evening is when appetite comes back. Timing matters if you get reflux: the NIDDK suggests finishing meals at least 3 hours before lying down.^[9] An early-evening glass of milk or a cup of yogurt is easier on that schedule than a late handful of nuts. What tends to sit badly at any hour is in foods to avoid on a GLP-1.

For larger dishes built on the same foods, our GLP-1 recipes give eight single servings with 11 to 24 g of protein each.

For transparency about why this page exists on our site: we make one product, Zornava Replenish, a lemon-lime daily hydration and nutrient powder. It contains no protein, it is not a snack and it is not a substitute for food. It is not on sale yet; early access opens February 9, 2027, and the early-access list is open now. The free guide on this page, Protein for Small Appetites, puts your protein range and the foods that carry it on one printable sheet.