High Protein Low Calorie Snacks: What 20 g of Protein Costs

A high protein, low calorie snack gives you at least 15 g of protein for 200 kcal or less. Cooked shrimp is the leanest I found: 20.4 g of protein for 84 kcal in an 85 g (3 oz) portion. Canned tuna and plain nonfat Greek yogurt come close. I ran ten common snacks through USDA records, starting with the shrimp entry, and priced each one in calories per 20 g of protein.

What counts as a high protein low calorie snack?

Both lines are my own, and no published standard sets them. A snack that passes both fills the gap between meals and leaves most of the day’s calories for meals. Five foods pass both tests at the portions below, and each row links to its USDA FoodData Central record.

Snack (state)	Portion	Energy	Protein	Protein per 100 kcal
Shrimp, cooked	85 g (3 oz)	84 kcal	20.4 g	24.2 g
Tuna, light, canned in water, drained	107 g (1 can)	96 kcal	20.3 g	21.1 g
Greek yogurt, plain, nonfat	156 g (1 container)	95 kcal	16.1 g	16.9 g
Cottage cheese, lowfat 2%	150 g	126 kcal	16.5 g	13.1 g
Edamame, frozen, prepared	155 g (1 cup)	188 kcal	18.5 g	9.8 g
Turkey breast, sliced, prepackaged	48 g (3 slices)	51 kcal	7.1 g	14.0 g
Egg, whole, large	50.3 g (1 egg)	74 kcal	6.2 g	8.4 g

The shrimp row shows how each figure is made. The record gives 99 kcal and 23.98 g of protein per 100 g. That makes 85 g worth 99 × 0.85 = 84 kcal and 23.98 × 0.85 = 20.4 g. Yogurt, tuna, cottage cheese and egg use the specific Atwater energy that their records give. Shrimp, edamame and turkey list one figure.

Turkey and egg fail the 15 g test on their own, so they work as add-ons. Deli turkey has 14.0 g of protein per 100 kcal, a better ratio than cottage cheese, but three slices only carry 7.1 g.

How many calories does 20 g of protein cost?

The cost swings from a light snack to a small meal, depending on the food. For each food I divided 20 g by its protein per 100 g to get the grams, then multiplied by its energy.

Snack	Grams for 20 g of protein	Energy for 20 g of protein
Shrimp, cooked	83 g	83 kcal
Tuna, canned in water, drained	105 g	95 kcal
Greek yogurt, plain, nonfat	194 g	118 kcal
Turkey breast, sliced	135 g	143 kcal
Cottage cheese, lowfat 2%	182 g	153 kcal
Edamame, frozen, prepared	168 g	203 kcal
Egg, whole	161 g (3.2 eggs)	237 kcal
Beef jerky, chopped and formed	60 g	247 kcal
Mozzarella, low moisture, part-skim	84 g	251 kcal
Almonds	95 g	548 kcal

Shrimp, tuna and Greek yogurt sit under 120 kcal. Jerky and mozzarella cost about three times the shrimp price. Almonds are the outlier, because the record puts them at 49.9 g of fat per 100 g. One ounce is 23 almonds, 164 kcal and 6.0 g of protein. Count them as an energy food that happens to carry some protein. If you’re trying to gain weight that is a feature, and high protein foods for weight gain leans on exactly that.

Next time a pack says “protein”, divide the protein on the label by its calories and multiply by 100. Shrimp scores about 24 that way, so a pack well below it isn’t lean.

Are high protein snacks good for weight loss?

They can help, but less than the packaging suggests. A 2015 review in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found a modest satiety effect. People felt fuller after higher-protein meals, yet that did not change how much they ate at the next meal. The same review linked benefits to 1.2–1.6 g of protein per kg of body weight a day and said 25–30 g or more in a meal may help, though the gains showed up in people who stuck to the plan.

The 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans give the same 1.2–1.6 g/kg, and how much protein you should eat a day explains it in full. At 70 kg that is 84–112 g a day, so one 20 g snack covers 18–24% of it.

Put your weight into the protein calculator for your own number. It uses the same 1.2–1.6 g per kg range and holds a floor of 60 g.

My reading: a protein snack is a cheap way to reach that number, and any fullness is a bonus. The trap is a 200 kcal snack added on top of the same meals, which makes the day 200 kcal bigger. Put it in your total, or let it replace something you already ate.

I’d start with the dullest swap on the page. Jerky costs 247 kcal for 20 g of protein and Greek yogurt 118, so choosing yogurt once a day saves 129 kcal, which is about 900 kcal over a week. Nothing else in the day has to change.

How do I build a snack under 200 kcal?

Pair a lean protein with a second food that adds volume. The three stacks below stay under 200 kcal, and the weights are the ones the records describe.

Stack	Contents	Energy	Protein
A	156 g Greek yogurt and 1 egg (50.3 g)	169 kcal	22.3 g
B	85 g cooked shrimp and 77.5 g edamame (half a cup)	178 kcal	29.6 g
C	150 g cottage cheese and 3 slices (48 g) of turkey	177 kcal	23.6 g

Stack B has the most protein. Stack C needs a look at the sodium. Cottage cheese brings 482 mg of sodium and the turkey 431 mg, so the stack holds 913 mg. That’s about 40% of the 2,300 mg daily limit in the US guidelines. One ounce of jerky has 506 mg on its own.

I’d pick stack A for most afternoons. I boil a batch of eggs on Sunday, and after that the snack is a spoon and a peeled egg. The record is for the whole raw egg, and I count a boiled egg at the same grams. Mornings are a separate problem, and high protein low calorie breakfast plates stay under 250 kcal.

What should I check before I buy?

State comes first. A can of tuna holds 142 g in total. The 20.3 g of protein in the table belongs to the 107 g of drained solids only. Log the whole can and you overcount by about a third, because the rest is packing water. Get the drained weight right and one can anchors a full dinner, as the high protein tuna meals show.

Sugar comes next. The Guidelines say a dairy snack such as yogurt should not exceed 2.5 g of added sugar per ⅔ cup. Read the label on flavored cups for added sugar. The plain nonfat yogurt in the table is where I’d start. Last is sodium. Deli meat, jerky and cottage cheese all carry hundreds of milligrams a portion, as the stacks showed.

These numbers suit healthy adults. If you have kidney disease or are pregnant, your doctor sets the protein figure, and an allergy to fish, shellfish, milk or soy rules out most of the top rows.

Weigh the snack you eat most and work out what 20 g of protein costs in it, using the method above. If the number surprises you, swap one item and keep the rest.

If counting calories has started to feel hard to stop, or eating feels out of control, talk to someone: ANAD in the US (1-888-375-7767), Beat in England (0808 801 0677), NEDIC in Canada (1-866-633-4220) or the Butterfly Foundation in Australia (1800 33 4673). If you’re in danger right now, call your local emergency number. Other UK numbers and crisis lines are on our crisis support page.