The Type of Snack That Can Help You Lose Weight

Finding the perfect afternoon snack that fills and fuels you when you’re trying to drop pounds can be surprisingly tricky. Now, science is offering some direction: A new study published in Nutrition Journal suggests that snacking on a high-protein, low-fat snack like yogurt between lunch and dinner can help you feel full, kill hunger pangs, and even reduce the number of calories you take in at dinner.

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It’s hard to believe, but one-third of a typical person’s daily food intake consists of nutritionally empty snacks high in sugar, salt, and calories, write the researchers. Since this rise in junk snacking could be part of what’s behind the obesity epidemic, they decided to investigate whether replacing the unhealthy offerings with higher-protein fare would help people better regulate their food intake. Twenty young female study subjects were asked to consume a specific 160­-calorie snack in the middle of the afternoon for four days: nonfat yogurt with 14 grams of protein (the typical amount in a serving of Greek yogurt), high-fat crackers than had zero protein but packed carbs and fat, or chocolate with very little protein but plenty of carbs and fat. One the fourth day, study subjects consumed a standard breakfast and lunch, followed by their randomly assigned snack. Each participant cycled through four days consuming each snack. The result: The study team found that the women were less hungry after eating the yogurt than they were after polishing off the chocolate. Interestingly, they ate dinner later and even took in 100 fewer calories at that meal than when they had the crackers or chocolate. (Fullness levels were the same regardless of the snack.)

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The findings suggest that tiding yourself over with a high-protein, nonfat yogurt in the afternoon may help control your appetite—so you aren’t crazed with hunger by dinnertime and can achieve your goal of taking in fewer calories at dinner. And while the study was small, it’s worth giving yogurt a try—or going for another high-protein snack.

MORE: 5 Foods with More Protein Than an Egg

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