5 Under 100 Calorie Snacks for Your Mid-Day Hunger Pangs

Ditch potato chips and reach out for a cup of homemade popcorns instead!

Popcorns (right) , tortilla chips (left) and bakes beans on toast (centre).

(Photo: iStock/Altered by The Quint)

Ever wondered how celebs have those perfectly chiselled bodies and glowing skin? How do they manage to look flawless in all those pictures? It’s simple. A little bit of photoshop and a lot of hard work! They spend hours working out and watching what they eat.

Eating 5-6 moderate meals in a day improves your metabolism, keeps you away from binging excessively and also keeps the digestive system healthy.

Huda Shaikh, Nutritionist and Clinical Dietitian at NutriBond

And that, my friends, seem to be the trick.

It is then established that mid-morning and mid-evening snacks are in order. But the million-dollar question still looms large i.e. what should we eat to control those persistent hunger pangs that erupt out of nowhere? Above all, how do we ensure we are not putting on weight?

Fret not, we have you covered. And we aren’t referring to the regular nuts or fruits (they are of course, the healthiest evergreen snacking options) but there’s more variety in our Indian food haven. Here are 5 under 100 calorie snacks that you can enjoy without worrying too much about your weight. And yes, our nutritionist says yes to these!

1. Tortilla Chips

Tortilla chips, in moderation, are healthy snacking options.  (Photo: iStock)

Surprised to find tortilla chips on the list? Before you reach out to a huge bowl of chips dipped in some tangy-flavoured sauce. STOP. Moderation is the key to healthy snacking and you will have to limit the intake to 6-7 chips. At most, keep it to 10 which will keep the calorie count somewhere around 125 and you should be safe.

According to Huda Shaikh:

Tortilla chips which are baked at home using multigrain flour/bajra can be consumed with tomato salsa (prepared at home) as opposed to the ones available outside. 

Also Read: 5 Stress-Busting Foods You Must Include in Your Diet

2. Homemade Popcorn

Popcorn is your best friend for all your mid-day hunger pangs.  (Photo: iStock)

Get the popcorn out of the theatre and pop some when untimely hunger pangs kick in. Yes, extremely low on calories and easy to make, popcorn is the perfect mid-evening snack. A small cup of homemade popcorn with about 1 tbsp of olive oil and salt will pile on around 55-60 calories. We think that’s not much considering the widely prescribed 2000-calorie consumption a day.

3. Oats and Moong Dal Chilla

You ought to try the moong dal and oats chilla. (Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@dhivyashrees)

We Indians, without a doubt, have some of the tastiest recipes. Moong dal chilla happens to be one of them. Mixed with oats, it strikes a perfect balance of taste and health, at the same time keeping the calorie-count (just around 100) in check. You can indulge, without guilt, in one chilla when you are drowning in insatiable hunger.

Also Read: Always Hungry? Try These 5 Natural Appetite Suppressants

4. Baked Beans on Toast

Baked beans with bread is not just tasty but also healthy. (Photo: iStock)

Bread is a blessing in disguise. Imbued with the ability to turn even the most banal dishes interesting with the help of a few toppings, it is the boon of our millennial existence. Quite naturally then, it had to make it to the list.

About 50 gm of baked beans when served on 1 slice of wholemeal bread makes a perfect evening snack, piling no more than 100 calories.

5. Spinach Omelette

Spinach omelette is a great way to curb stubborn hunger pangs.  (Photo: iStock)

When you are too worried about the weighing hands tilting to the right, find refuge in a spinach omelette for your mid-afternoon cravings. Needless to say, eggs and spinach together pack a power punch and keeps the calorie-count below 100.

Huda Shaikh also suggests a few more snacking options which are low on calories. These include boiled eggs, whole wheat bread sandwiches, salad sticks with hummus. She, however, cautions against choosing a fatty dip. “Roasted chana, peanuts, dry bhel, roasted makhanas, poha, chillas/pancake are also great snacking options”, she adds.

Also Read: No More Bananas & Milk! Here’s 5 Food Combinations You Must Avoid

(The calorie estimation of the above mentioned foods has been done with the help of myfitnesspal calorie counter app.)