Mounjaro and Ozempic Snacks: High-Protein Ideas to Make or Buy

The best snacks on Mounjaro, Zepbound, Ozempic or Wegovy are small and built around protein. A pot of Greek yogurt, a portion of cottage cheese, two boiled eggs or a small tin of tuna gives you 13 to 22 g of protein for about 80 to 155 kcal. Aim for roughly 10 to 20 g of protein a snack, add fruit or vegetables for fibre, and go easy on chips, pastries and sweets, which bring calories with little protein. You don't have to snack at all: a snack earns its place when your meals are too small to reach your protein target, or when long gaps leave you queasy or ravenous.

Do you need snacks on a GLP-1?

Not always. GLP-1 medicines turn hunger down, so you may not want anything between meals, and that's fine if your meals already cover your protein. Eating between meals helps in three situations, all covered in the 2025 joint advisory from four US obesity and nutrition societies:

• Your meals are small. The advisory says small, frequent meals may work better when hunger and interest in food are low. If you're aiming for 80 to 120 g of protein a day and can only manage small plates, a 10 to 20 g snack covers a useful share of it.
• Long gaps make you queasy. Nausea often comes in the morning or after a long time without eating. For people caught in a cycle of feeling too sick to eat, the advisory suggests breakfast and then small meals every 3 to 4 hours, with plenty to drink.
• You'd otherwise get ravenous. Going several hours without food can bring back a preference for sugar and refined carbs once you're overly hungry.

What a snack shouldn't become is grazing. The advisory lists eating at regular times and avoiding snack foods among the habits linked to keeping weight off. A planned protein snack is a small meal; a bag of chips isn't.

The best high-protein snacks, compared

Per portion, calculated from USDA FoodData Central and sorted by protein.

Snack	Portion	Protein (g)	kcal	Fibre (g)
Tuna, canned in water, drained	85 g (3 oz)	22	99	0
Greek yogurt, plain, nonfat	170 g (6 oz) pot	17	100	0
Cottage cheese, low-fat (1%)	113 g (½ cup)	14	81	0
Eggs, hard-boiled	2 large (100 g)	13	155	0
Edamame, shelled, cooked	75 g (about ½ cup)	9	91	4
Pumpkin seeds	28 g (1 oz)	8	157	2
Cheese stick (part-skim mozzarella)	28 g (1 oz)	7	83	0
Peanut butter	2 tbsp (32 g)	7	191	2
Almonds	28 g (1 oz, about 23)	6	162	4
Popcorn, air-popped	24 g (3 cups)	3	93	3
For comparison: an apple	1 medium (182 g)	0.5	95	4

The top four give 13 to 22 g of protein for about 80 to 155 kcal, which is what makes them work on a small appetite. They're the kind of food the advisory recommends: lower-volume, nutrient-dense protein such as fish, eggs, Greek yogurt and cottage cheese. In the UK, skyr is a similar strained, high-protein yogurt; check the grams on the pot.

Nuts, seeds and nut butter are on the advisory's list too, but they're mostly fat. Two tablespoons of peanut butter give 7 g of protein for 191 kcal; a pot of Greek yogurt gives 17 g for 100 kcal. Weigh or count out a portion rather than eating from the bag or jar.

Edamame, almonds, popcorn and fruit bring fibre, which helps with constipation, one of the most common side effects. Add it gradually, as fibre on a GLP-1 explains.

Easy snack ideas

Pair a protein from the top of the table with fruit or vegetables. All calculated from the same USDA entries:

• Greek yogurt with raspberries: a 170 g pot with 60 g (about ½ cup) of berries, 18 g protein, 132 kcal, 4 g fibre
• Cottage cheese and tomato: 113 g of cottage cheese with a sliced tomato (100 g), 15 g protein, 99 kcal
• Tuna and cucumber: 85 g of tuna on 100 g of cucumber slices, 22 g protein, 114 kcal
• Edamame and a cheese stick: 75 g of edamame and one 28 g stick, 16 g protein, 173 kcal, 4 g fibre
• Eggs and carrot sticks: two hard-boiled eggs with 80 g of carrot, 13 g protein, 188 kcal
• Apple and a cheese stick: 7 g protein, 177 kcal; a lighter pick when a meal isn't far off

Snacks from our recipes

• Cottage Cheese Flatbread: 20 g protein and 155 kcal a flatbread
• Cottage Cheese Egg Cups: 23 g protein for three cups
• Greek Yogurt Bark: 8 g protein and 90 kcal a piece
• Peanut Butter Protein Balls: 6 g protein a ball, so two make a 12 g snack
• Nature's Ozempic gelatin panna cotta: 21 g protein and 170 kcal, for something sweet
• Berry Protein Smoothie: 26 g protein and 250 kcal, for days you can't face chewing

Snacks to buy

The easiest snacks to keep in need no cooking:

• Plain Greek yogurt, skyr or cottage cheese in single pots
• Hard-boiled eggs, which many supermarkets sell ready-peeled
• Tuna or salmon in small tins or pouches
• Frozen edamame, or roasted edamame and chickpea snacks
• Cheese sticks or individually wrapped light cheese
• Single-serve packs of nuts or seeds
• A protein shake for low-appetite days; see protein shakes on a GLP-1

The advisory notes that some people meet their protein target with shakes, bars and other fortified products. Jerky, meat sticks and sliced deli meats are high in protein too, but they're processed meat, which the advisory recommends keeping to a minimum, so treat them as occasional.

What to check on the label

1. Protein: 10 g or more. In the US, a snack labelled "high in protein" must give at least 20% of the Daily Value a serving, and the Daily Value for protein is 50 g, so that's at least 10 g. In the UK and EU, "high protein" means at least 20% of the calories come from protein, which on a 150 kcal snack is at least 7.5 g.
2. Sugar. The NHS counts more than 22.5 g of total sugars per 100 g as high, and 5 g or less as low.
3. Fat. By the same NHS guide, more than 17.5 g per 100 g is high. Lower-fat snacks sit better on a stomach that's emptying slowly.
4. Sweeteners ending in "-ol". Sorbitol, maltitol and xylitol are a known cause of gas and have a laxative effect that rises with the dose. They're common in protein bars and sugar-free snacks, so check for them first if you're dealing with bloating or diarrhea.

GLP-1 friendly food labels covers the rest of the label.

Snacks to go easy on

None of these is banned, but they don't do much for you on a small appetite:

• Chips (crisps), cookies, pastries and sweets. The advisory recommends avoiding most ultra-processed sweet and savoury snacks: they bring calories with little protein or fibre. It also suggests avoiding fatty foods in the first days of treatment to ease nausea. Many people find they want them less anyway, as the advisory notes a general shift away from sweet, savoury, starchy and high-fat foods on these medicines.
• Big portions of nuts, cheese and nut butter. Good foods that are easy to overdo, as the table shows.
• Sugar-free sweets and gum. They often contain "-ol" sweeteners, and the NIH suggests limiting gum and hard sweets if you have gas.

Sweet cravings

Cravings don't always disappear on a GLP-1. The advisory notes that nausea can trigger cravings for sugary comfort food, and that going hours without eating can bring back a pull towards sugar and refined carbs. A planned protein snack between meals helps with both.

When you want something sweet, choose one that brings protein too: yogurt with berries, or the yogurt bark, protein balls or panna cotta above. An occasional treat is fine as well. The advisory lists "occasional portion-controlled treats rather than severe restriction" among the habits linked to keeping weight off, so buy a single portion rather than a sharing bag.

Queasy days and evenings

• On queasy days, cold, mild-smelling snacks are easiest. The NHS advises against strong-smelling food and hot, fried or greasy food when you feel sick, and the advisory notes that smoothies, yogurt and cottage cheese are often more appealing than heavier foods such as red meat, cold cuts or hard cheese. More in managing nausea on a GLP-1.
• In the evening, if you get heartburn or reflux at night, the NIH suggests eating at least 3 hours before you lie down, so keep your last snack early. See heartburn on a GLP-1.

Not sure how much protein you need a day? Work it out with the protein calculator.

Educational nutrition information, not medical advice. If you're struggling to eat enough, or a food keeps upsetting your stomach, talk to your doctor or dietitian.