19 Best High-Protein Snacks (Vegan, Keto & More)

Have you ever felt hungry right after a snack or felt that you needed to have multiple snacks per day in order to feel satisfied? If so, your snacks may need a protein upgrade.

Adding more protein to your meals and snacks is a smart way to maintain a healthy weight and support overall well-being.

Ingredients: 4 slices of turkey breast1, 2 slices Swiss cheese2, romaine, sliced tomatoes, and mustard. 

Protein per serving: 19.488 grams 

Ingredients: 2 ounces of chicken breast3, sliced avocado, cherry tomatoes, and 1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds4. 

Protein per serving: 20.96 grams 

Ingredient: 1 ounce Cheddar cheese5, 1 ounce salami6, and veggies of your choice like olives or roasted red peppers 

Protein per serving: 14 grams 

Ingredients: 1 cup peanut butter7, 1 serving mindbodygreen whey protein isolate+, and vanilla extract to taste.

Protein per serving: 15 grams per 2 balls

Ingredients: ¾ cup unsweetened Greek yogurt8, ½ cup chopped Granny Smith apple9, and 1 tablespoon chopped walnuts10

Protein per serving: 17 grams

Ingredients: 2 hard-boiled eggs11 and ½ an avocado12 served with crackers and sliced veggies 

Protein per serving: 13.9 grams of protein plus a few grams of protein from the crackers and veggies. 

For vegans, taking in enough protein can be challenging. However, if you know how to pair foods in the right way, it's easy to create high-protein, vegan-friendly snacks.

Ingredients: 1 scoop vegan protein powder, 1 cup frozen blueberries13, 1 tablespoon peanut butter7, and 1.5 cups unsweetened almond milk14

Protein per serving: 26.5 grams

Ingredients: 1 ounce roasted almonds15, 1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds4, and ¼ cup raisins16

Protein per serving: 11.28 grams 

Ingredients: 2 tablespoons chia seeds17, 1 tablespoon peanut butter7, ½ cup oat milk18, and ½ cup fresh blackberries19

Protein per serving: 11.18 grams

Ingredients: 1 cup frozen prepared edamame beans20, salt, pepper

Protein per serving: 18.5 grams 

Ingredients: 1 Honeycrisp apple21, 2 tablespoons peanut butter7, and 1 tablespoon hemp seeds22

Protein per serving: 10.75 grams 

When you're following a low-carb diet, protein is usually in high demand. Protein-rich snacks can help keep your blood sugar stable and keep you feeling full and satisfied between meals.

People on low-carb diets should prioritize pairing foods high in protein with high-fiber ingredients to support digestive health. 

Ingredients: 1 can of tuna23, 1 tablespoon of mayo24, 2 tablespoons Greek yogurt24, chopped celery and red onion, served on top of cucumber slices 

Protein per serving: 42.8 grams 

Ingredients: 4 eggs, ½ cup full-fat cottage cheese, ½ cup shredded Cheddar cheese, onion, bell pepper, chile

Protein per serving: 12.43 grams per bite

Sometimes, you need a protein-rich snack that's premade. In order for a packaged food to carry a "high protein" label, it must contain 20% or more of the dietary reference value (DRV) for protein per serving, which is set at 50 grams25 for a 2,000-calorie diet.

Protein per serving: 10 grams per stick 

Protein per serving: 10 to 15 grams per bar

Protein per serving: ~10 grams per 2-ounce serving 

Protein per serving: ~12 grams per 4-ounce serving 

Protein per serving: ~25 grams per scoop 

Protein powder is a convenient high-protein ingredient to keep on hand. You can add it to water or your milk of choice to make a protein shake on the road and can add it to low-protein foods, like plant-based yogurt, in order to give your snack some staying power. 

When shopping for a high-quality protein powder, look for one that contains at least 25 grams of protein and 2.5 grams of leucine per serving to activate muscle protein synthesis.

Protein is a macronutrient, which is a nutrient that your body needs in large amounts. Protein is known for its role in muscle protein synthesis and maintenance, but it's also necessary for hormone and neurotransmitter production, immune function, and many other essential processes. 

Taking in optimal protein on a daily basis helps keep your body healthy and is important for maintaining lean muscle mass and bone strength. Following a higher-protein diet is also effective for promoting weight loss26 and can make it easier to reach your body composition goals.

Even though it's entirely possible to meet your protein needs following a plant-based diet, animal-based proteins are considered27 to be of higher nutritional quality compared to plant-based protein.

This is because plant-based proteins are low in some essential amino acids, like leucine, and have lower digestibility compared with animal proteins.

"Two scoring systems—the protein-digestibility corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS) and the digestible indispensable amino score (DIAAS)—would say that animal-source proteins have higher scores. In other words, they are more digestible and have a higher content of essential (indispensable) amino acids, the amino acids we need to get from our food," Stuart Phillips, Ph.D., a protein researcher and professor at McMaster University, tells mindbodygreen.

Even though the current recommended dietary allowance (RDA)28 for protein is set at 0.8 gram per kg (g/kg) of body weight [0.36 gram of protein per pound (g/lb)], research suggests that the optimal protein intake28 for active people is closer to 1.2 to 2.0 g/kg per day (0.54 to 0.9 g/lb). For a 150-pound person, this would equate to 81 to 135 grams of protein per day. 

This is because the RDA is the minimum amount of protein your body needs to meet amino acid requirements, prevent muscle loss, and maintain nitrogen balance, not the optimal amount of protein needed to support overall health. 

In order to meet your protein needs, it's important to add sources of protein to every meal and snack.

Most experts suggest taking in 25 to 30 grams29 of protein at meals, but what about snacks? Say you're a 150-pound person aiming for a protein intake of 0.8 gram per pound per day or 120 grams of protein per day. If you take in 100 grams of protein over three meals, that means you'll need to fit in a snack that contains 20 grams of protein to fulfill your protein requirements.

If you're not paying that much attention to your macro intake and just want to make sure you're eating enough protein, choosing snacks that contain at least 10 grams of protein is usually enough to help keep you satisfied until your next meal. 

Upping your protein intake can be an effective way to lose body fat, as long as you're following an overall healthy diet, doing resistance training, and maintaining a calorie deficit.

Because protein is the most filling macronutrient and is important for muscle maintenance, following a high-protein diet can reduce hunger levels and help you maintain your muscle mass during weight loss. Usually, your basal metabolic rate (BMR) or the calories you burn while you're at rest, drops when you lose weight. However, studies show26 that high-protein diets help people losing weight maintain their BMR over time, which can help them sustain their weight loss.