High-Protein Low-Carb Snacks

These carry real protein without much carb weight alongside it. Every number comes from USDA FoodData Central, the same sourcing standard used for every macro on this site. It’s how I pick snacks anyway: a decent amount of protein without a bunch of carbs I don’t need along with it.

The list

Sorted by carbs per serving, lowest first. Fiber is listed for the foods that have any, since a lot of low-carb counting subtracts it.

Snack	Serving	Protein	Carbs	Fiber	Calories
Chicken breast, cooked	3 oz	26g	0g	0g	140
Pork rinds, plain	1 oz	17g	0g	0g	155
Tuna, canned in water	3 oz, drained	16g	0g	0g	75
Smoked salmon	2 oz	10g	0g	0g	65
Shrimp, cooked	3 oz	20g	under 1g	0g	85
Hard-boiled eggs	2 large	13g	1g	0g	155
Cheddar	1 oz	6g	1g	0g	115
Deli turkey breast	2 oz	8 to 12g	1 to 2g	0g	60
String cheese	1 stick	7g	2g	0g	85
Beef jerky	1 oz	9g	3g	1g	115
Cottage cheese, 4%	1/2 cup	13g	4g	0g	110
Parmesan, grated	1 oz	8g	4g	0g	120
Pumpkin seeds, roasted	1 oz	8g	4g	2g	165
Greek yogurt, plain nonfat	1 container (170g)	17g	6g	0g	100
Almonds, dry-roasted	1 oz	6g	6g	3g	170
Peanuts, dry-roasted	1 oz	7g	6g	2g	165
Peanut butter	2 tablespoons	7g	7g	2g	190
Pistachios, dry-roasted	1 oz	6g	8g	3g	160

Zero-carb options

Plain meat and fish carry no carbs at all, so the choice between them comes down to protein, calories, and salt.

Tuna and shrimp give the most protein per calorie on this page: 16g for 75 calories and 20g for 85. Leftover chicken breast carries the most protein per serving, 26g in 3 oz. When I want something more substantial, I’ll have leftover chicken or turkey.

Pork rinds carry 17g of protein per ounce with zero carbs, almost twice what an ounce of jerky carries. They also carry about 515mg of sodium per ounce, about the same as an ounce of jerky.

Smoked salmon is where the label matters most. USDA’s hot-smoked salmon entry and its lox entry carry the same 10g of protein and 65 calories per 2 oz, but the lox carries about 1,140mg of sodium against 380mg for the smoked salmon, because lox is cured in salt rather than just smoked.

Dairy and eggs

Eggs and cheddar land at about 1g of carbs per serving. String cheese is 2g. None of the three move a carb total much, so they’re easy to pair with each other.

Cottage cheese and grated parmesan both come in at about 4g per serving. Parmesan is the odd one among the cheeses: USDA’s grated parmesan carries about four times the carbs of cheddar per ounce, along with about 510mg of sodium.

Greek yogurt has the most carbs of the dairy options, about 6g in a 170g container, and the most protein at 17g. That’s for plain. Flavored yogurt adds sugar, so read the label on anything that isn’t plain.

Nuts and seeds: where fiber matters

Nuts are where total carbs and net carbs (total carbs minus fiber, the way most low-carb tracking counts them) start to split. An ounce of almonds is 6g of total carbs but 3g of fiber, so about 3g net. Pumpkin seeds come out ahead of every nut on this page: the most protein at 8g, with only 4g total carbs and 2g net. Pistachios carry the most carbs of the group at 8g total, about 5g net.

The catch with all of them is calories. Nuts and seeds run 160 to 190 calories per serving for 6 to 8g of protein, more than twice the calories of 3 oz of tuna for half the protein or less.

Two that don’t make the list

Pepperoni is nearly carb-free, under 1g per ounce, but that ounce carries only 5g of protein for 145 calories. That’s under a third of what the same ounce of pork rinds carries.

Edamame carries 18g of protein per cup, more than almost anything above, but also 14g of total carbs. About 8g of that is fiber, so it’s roughly 6g net. Whether it fits depends on whether you count net carbs or total carbs.

From the recipe box

For a full snack recipe rather than a single food, the buffalo chicken dip is the one on this site built specifically low-carb: 14g protein and 2g carbs per 1/3 cup. A few other low-carb recipes here work as a snack or a light meal:

• Egg muffins: 16g protein, 4g carbs per 2 muffins
• Tuna salad: 20g protein, 3g carbs per 5 oz serving
• Crockpot chicken: 53g protein, 2g carbs per 6 oz, shredded

For more low-carb cooking generally, browse High-Protein Low-Carb Meals, or see the full snacks list for the higher-carb options too.

FAQ

What actually counts as low-carb for a snack?

I don’t use a strict cutoff here the way the recipe side of this site does (that’s a carbs_g under 20 and under the protein number, see any low-carb recipe for the exact rule). For a single snack food rather than a full recipe, single digits to low teens of carbs is a reasonable bar, everything on this list keeps carbs to single digits per serving.

Are nuts low-carb enough to snack on freely?

In the portion listed, yes, but nuts are easy to eat well past one serving without noticing, and the carbs (and calories) add up fast past that first ounce. Measuring out a serving ahead of time keeps that in check better than eating from the bag.