In this article
- The bar a snack has to clear
- High fiber protein snacks, compared
- Familiar snacks that come up short
- Why protein helps a snack hold you
- Portable snacks that skip the fridge
- Office fridge snacks and food safety
- Energy foods around a workout
- A busy day, snack by snack
- Healthy snacking and weight over time
- Watching calories in nut heavy snacks
- Picking the right snack for the moment
- What snack research has yet to test
- High fiber protein snacks: what people want to know
- Sources
Half a cup of shelled edamame carries more protein than a hard boiled egg and about as much fiber as a medium apple. That small bowl is a good model for high fiber protein snacks: one food, or one quick pairing, that covers both nutrients at once.
Most snack foods lean one way. Fruit brings fiber with almost no protein, and yogurt, eggs and cheese bring protein with no fiber at all. The seven snacks below fix that by combining the two, with numbers from USDA data.
The bar a snack has to clear
For this list, a snack needs at least 7 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber. That much fiber is about 14% of the 28 gram Daily Value the FDA uses on food labels.
Two snacks like that cover more than a quarter of your daily fiber before dinner. They also add a meaningful amount of protein between meals, when it’s easy to grab something that offers neither.
High fiber protein snacks, compared
| Snack | Protein | Fiber | Calories | Needs a fridge? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greek yogurt (170 g, plain nonfat) with 1 tbsp chia seeds | about 19 g | about 4 g | about 160 | Yes |
| Hard boiled egg, 1/4 cup hummus and a medium carrot | 11.7 g | 5.2 g | about 250 | Yes |
| Shelled edamame (1/2 cup) | 9.3 g | 4.1 g | about 94 | Yes, or thaw from frozen |
| Hemp seeds (3 tbsp) over 1/2 cup raspberries | 10.2 g | 5.2 g | about 198 | Raspberries do |
| Pumpkin seeds (1 oz) and almonds (1 oz) | 13.1 g | 4.2 g | about 319 | No |
| Medium apple with 2 tbsp peanut butter | 7.6 g | 6.0 g | about 286 | No |
| Roasted chickpeas (from 1/2 cup cooked) | 7.3 g | 6.2 g | about 134 before oil | No |
Greek yogurt with chia wins on protein, and roasted chickpeas win on fiber. Edamame is the lightest option at about 94 calories, which makes it a strong pick when you’re watching your total for the day.
Not sure how much fiber your snacks should be contributing to your day? Our fiber calculator gives you a personal daily number to work from.
Familiar snacks that come up short
Plenty of snacks people think of as healthy only cover one half of the job. Here’s how a few common picks measure up against the 7 gram and 4 gram bar:
- A medium banana: 3.1 grams of fiber but only 1.3 grams of protein.
- Plain Greek yogurt on its own: about 17 grams of protein and no fiber.
- A hard boiled egg: 6.3 grams of protein and no fiber.
- An ounce of almonds: 6.1 grams of protein and 3.1 grams of fiber, just shy on both counts.
None of these are poor choices. Each one simply needs a partner, which is exactly how most of the snacks in the table were built.
Pair the banana with peanut butter, the yogurt with chia, the egg with hummus and carrots, or the almonds with pumpkin seeds. Each small addition pushes the snack over both lines.
Why protein helps a snack hold you
A 2014 study in Nutrition Journal tested this directly. Twenty healthy women ate one of three afternoon snacks, each with 160 calories: a high protein yogurt with 14 grams of protein, high fat crackers or high fat chocolate.
After the yogurt, the women asked for dinner at about 164 minutes, compared with 144 minutes after crackers and 137 minutes after chocolate. They also ate roughly 100 fewer calories at dinner after the yogurt than after the other snacks.
Hunger was lower after the yogurt than after the chocolate, too. The yogurt snack carried no fiber, so adding chia or berries is a simple way to get the same protein plus a few grams of fiber.
Portable snacks that skip the fridge
Some days the snack has to survive a laptop bag, a car console or a gym locker. These three handle it:
A nut and seed mix
An ounce each of pumpkin seeds and almonds gives you 13.1 grams of protein and 4.2 grams of fiber. Portion it into small bags ahead of time, since the calories add up quickly if you eat from a big container.
Roasted chickpeas
Half a cup of cooked chickpeas has 7.3 grams of protein and 6.2 grams of fiber before roasting. Pat them dry, toss with a teaspoon of oil and your favorite spices, and bake until crisp.
Apple and peanut butter
A medium apple brings 4.4 grams of fiber, and 2 tablespoons of peanut butter add 7.1 grams of protein and 1.6 grams of fiber. Single serve peanut butter cups make this easy to pack.
Office fridge snacks and food safety
Yogurt, eggs, hummus and edamame give you more protein per bite, but they’re perishable. The USDA says perishable food shouldn’t sit between 40 and 140°F for more than 2 hours, or more than 1 hour when it’s above 90°F.
If your snack spends the morning in a bag, add an ice pack or keep it in a small cooler. Once you’re at work, move it straight to the fridge.
Here’s how the fridge snacks work best:
- Yogurt and chia: stir a tablespoon of chia into plain Greek yogurt the night before so it thickens by morning.
- Egg, hummus and carrot: boil a batch of eggs on Sunday and portion hummus into small containers.
- Edamame: buy it frozen and shelled, then thaw a half cup in the fridge overnight.
Energy foods around a workout
If you train in the evening, a snack a few hours before can keep you from showing up hungry. The International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends spreading protein across the day, with a dose every 3 to 4 hours.
The same position stand puts an ideal single dose at 20 to 40 grams. None of these snacks reach that alone, but the yogurt with chia gets close at about 19 grams, and pairing two snacks after a workout gets you there.
Apple with peanut butter and roasted chickpeas also bring carbohydrate, which gives you some quick energy along with the protein.
Hemp seeds over raspberries make another good post workout option, with 10.2 grams of protein and 5.2 grams of fiber for under 200 calories. Carry 3 tablespoons of hemp seeds in a small container and shake them over half a cup of raspberries when you get home.
A busy day, snack by snack
Picture a day with back to back meetings and a 6 p.m. gym class. At 10 a.m., you grab the bag of pumpkin seeds and almonds from your desk drawer.
At 3 p.m., you pull yogurt and chia from the office fridge. On the way to the gym, you eat half a cup of thawed edamame from a small container in your bag.
That’s about 41 grams of protein and 12 grams of fiber from snacks alone. Add three ordinary meals, and a 28 gram fiber day is well within reach.
Healthy snacking and weight over time
Harvard’s Nutrition Source reports on a study that followed 120,000 people for 20 years. Eating more nuts was linked to about half a pound less weight gain every four years.
A later analysis linked yogurt, peanut butter and nuts, among other protein foods, with less weight gain over time. Three of the snacks above are built on exactly those foods.
Want more snack recipes that pack protein and fiber together? Our recipe eBooks are full of quick ideas you can make ahead.
Watching calories in nut heavy snacks
Nuts and seeds are dense. The pumpkin seed and almond mix carries about 319 calories, more than three times the half cup of edamame.
That’s fine if the snack is filling a long gap or fueling a hard workout. If you’re snacking out of habit or managing your weight, the edamame, yogurt or chickpeas give you similar fiber for far fewer calories.
If beans and chickpeas still leave your stomach unsettled, our gut health guides show you how to add them in smaller steps.
Picking the right snack for the moment
- If you need it to last in a bag all day, choose the nut and seed mix, roasted chickpeas or an apple with peanut butter.
- If you have a fridge, go for yogurt with chia, edamame or the egg and hummus plate.
- If you’re watching calories, start with edamame or roasted chickpeas.
- If you’re refueling after training, pick the yogurt with chia and pair it with a second snack.
What snack research has yet to test
The yogurt study was short and small: 20 women, one afternoon at a time. It tested protein against fat, not a snack that combines protein with fiber.
The top picks on this list, like edamame and roasted chickpeas, weren’t part of that test. A head to head test of a protein only snack against a protein and fiber snack would show whether the fiber adds extra staying power.
Until that’s done, the strongest case for these snacks comes from their numbers and from the long term data linking nuts, yogurt and peanut butter to steadier weight.
High fiber protein snacks: what people want to know
What is the best high fiber protein snack?
Shelled edamame is one of the best, with 9.3 grams of protein and 4.1 grams of fiber in half a cup for about 94 calories. Roasted chickpeas and Greek yogurt with chia are close behind.
How much protein should a snack have?
This list uses at least 7 grams. The ISSN suggests eating protein every 3 to 4 hours at 20 to 40 grams per dose, so a 10 to 20 gram snack covers part of that between meals.
Is Greek yogurt high in fiber?
No. Plain Greek yogurt has about 17 grams of protein per 170 gram container but no fiber. Stirring in a tablespoon of chia seeds adds about 4 grams.
Are roasted chickpeas a good protein snack?
Yes. Half a cup of cooked chickpeas, roasted until crisp, has 7.3 grams of protein and 6.2 grams of fiber. They keep at room temperature, so they travel well.
Are nuts a good high fiber snack?
Yes, in measured portions. An ounce of almonds has about 6 grams of protein and 3.1 grams of fiber, but also around 166 calories.
What protein snacks don’t need refrigeration?
Nuts, seeds, roasted chickpeas and an apple with peanut butter all keep at room temperature. Yogurt, eggs, hummus and edamame shouldn’t sit out for more than 2 hours, or 1 hour above 90°F.
Is peanut butter a good source of fiber?
Not on its own. Two tablespoons have 7.1 grams of protein but only 1.6 grams of fiber, so pair it with an apple to reach 6 grams.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. “FoodData Central” (edamame; chickpeas, cooked; Greek yogurt, plain, nonfat; chia seeds; hemp seeds; pumpkin seed kernels; almonds; peanut butter; hummus; egg; apple; carrot; raspberries). 2024. fdc.nal.usda.gov
- Ortinau LC, Hoertel HA, Douglas SM, Leidy HJ. “Effects of high-protein vs. high-fat snacks on appetite control, satiety, and eating initiation in healthy women.” Nutrition Journal. 2014. nutritionj.biomedcentral.com
- Jäger R, Kerksick CM, Campbell BI, et al. “International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: protein and exercise.” Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. 2017. jissn.biomedcentral.com
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Protein.” The Nutrition Source. 2025. nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu
- USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. “USDA Urges Consumers to Keep Clear of the Danger Zone This Summer.” 2016. fsis.usda.gov
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels.” 2024. fda.gov
