Mandarins

They are easy to peel and unlike banana peels, its peels are relatively dry and smell nice, you can keep them comfortably in your pocket until you find a trash bin.

Many people is mentioning nuts. Yes, they are healthy but they are very calorie dense.

No one mentioned it, so I’ll throw it out here:

Popcorn.

I’m not particularly concerned about avoiding fat or salt, so I drown it in butter, but you do you.

After one of my kids killed our microwave by putting a package of popcorn in it and turning it on for way too long and forgetting it, I banned microwave popcorn from the house and got an air-popper. The thing is awesome. I never liked the microwave popcorn, but the air-popped popcorn became my snack of choice.

Sometimes I just go to town on an entire container of cherry tomatoes

Bags of baby carrots are nice.

Also those cans of fruit with no sugar added. I call those adult fruit cups.

Fruit. Nobody has ever gotten fat from eating too much fruit.

Chickpeas, either out of the can or roasted

In shell peanuts

Bananas

Cheese and cold cuts from the deli

Yogurt

Everything in moderation of course

Hummus. There is some degree of effort involved, where you have to put 5 or so ingredients in a blender and blend them. Use crackers, pita, tortilla, veggies, etc. to deliver hummus to your mouth.

Air-fried spinach leaves.

Add some species you like to the leaves, spray them with some olive oil and airfry for 10-15 mins at 200°C.

Makes for a great alternative to normal chips but takes some practice to find the perfect timing to make them crispy but not burned.

Im right here with you, I’ve recently been replacing all the candy snacks I have with various rustic snacks. I’ll have like, 6 cheese curds and salami slices, 3 dates instead of my peanut butter cups, I 've been really into Japanese style peanuts, peacans just on their own.

When it comes to quick and not unhealthy meals, I found out I can make cheese rice in my rice cooker. Follow the usual rice cooker instructions, just add a cup of shredded cheddar, a tbsp of butter, garlic, salt, pepper, and if you want it extra rich replace 1/3 of the water with milk.

If you’re air frying any veg, I highly suggest mixing your seasoning in a little oil and vinegar, then tossing the veg in it. That half assed vinegarette feels really fancy and if helps get an even coating of seasoning. Balsamic brings sweetness, all the others bring sour. You can even make it in bulk, put it in the fridge, and if keeps basically forever.

If you do ramen a lot, toss some frozen veg mix in with it while it’s boiling, then replace half the packet with a splash of soy sauce, and some garlic. It’s less and somehow so much more.

Recently I’ve gotten into “soy meat” it’s dried, crumbled, tofu that’s a really popular meat substitute in Mexico. Pound of beef equivalent for 97¢ at the local Hispanic grocery. Since it’s dried and functionally flavorless, you can mix you up a slurry of spices and the stuff will sponge it all up. Toss it in a pan and it comes out the exact same texture as ground beef, but you can make it taste like everything from plain beef to Italian sausage, maple cured bacon, even smoked pepperoni. I’ve taken to adding it to chilli, sloppy joes, pasta, not only because it halves the cost of meat, but because it can add such an amazing depth of flavor and it seems to naturally correct acidity.

Hope some of this helps. I personally fell for the idea that eating right had to be miserable for so long and now it’s like, why is this not the standard? This is so fucking good!

Nori is fantastic, it’s very light and has a strong taste. So you’re not eating much by weight. It’s also healthy, if you’re not eating tons every day.

Fruit, I guess that’s my favorite healthy snacks.

In winter, bananas. In summer, watermelon. If I’m craving something sorbet like I snack on frozen berries.

Nuts are also another good one but they’re not low calorie.

My favorite is frozen mango. I like to eat them as a quick cold snack straight from the freezer.

Another one is raw carrots with hummus as a dip.

This is probably my #1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispbread Either plain or with low calorie butter

Good suggestions for snacks but I think a lot of people missed the “when I want to shove something in my face as a force of habit.” You really want to get the lowest calorie thing possible, ideal would be lettuce and celery since those are basically nothing but still give you something to eat. Next would probably be apple slices, berries have surprisingly low sugar, egg white is basically pure protein but a full egg is fine too. Sprouts can be good if you grow them right. I sometimes just slowly eat a spoonful of peanut butter over like an hour but…

I would also recommend having random drinks you can go between, like tea soymilk coffee, even diet soda. Just avoid anything with sugar or fat. Things like nuts are healthy but not a great constant snack food because they do have a lot of fat, so that should be an intentional thing rather than something to reach for.

Mini portobello mushrooms dipped in hummus is my go-to. Also pistachios, nori, grapes, cherries. Salami works instead of chips, but gotta watch the salt content too

I’ve been dabbing into intermittent fasting for the last couple months.

It’s not really a snack, but my doctor recommended that before I break my fast, to drink warm lemon water. So I do,

I run my tap until it’s hot as it gets, and squeeze half a lemon of juice in a cup, and fill it with that warm water. The first one was rough, I didn’t like it. But after a short time, I really like them now and just drink one or two, or sometimes three times a day. The warm water helps my tummy feel full and the lemon nearly tastes sweet at this point. My doctor said it makes thw fat cells “move”. So move it!

For meals,I stopped buying butter, and cook everything from scratch. Sometimes I’ll just roast a sweet potato or squash and eat that. Roasted veggies are under rated. The take like 20-45 mins depending, but I like I can do it in the air fryer or toaster oven. Olive oil and spices its a win.

Years ago, I lost 100 pounds in a year. I ate, whole prepared foods, but didn’t really cut anything out. I used a smaller plate. I just ate less. I still would have bread and butter, just less. And, it still worked for me. Take whole or real food meals you like, and just have a smaller plate. This is easier if you use an actual, small plate.

I also made everything spicy as hell, by the end of the year I was chopping raw habeneros and putting them on like, a ham sandwhich. I don’t eat deli meats anymore, but making any food spicy will intuitively help you to slow down. Eating slower makes a huge difference. I also often would eat meals with chopsticks, that will also slow your eating habits.

Edit, to add, homemade popcorn in avocado oil, with a little salt, black pepper, nooch and cayenne pepper is amazing. You can eat a whole bowl and its only like 300 calories. I make mine on the stove in a dutch oven, but you can put a 1/4 cup of kernals in a lunch sack paper bag, fold it up and microwave it too! Its guilt free snacking.