5 Cheat Snacks That Won't Destroy Your Macros

With diets, it’s easy to stick to eating the right thing around 80% of the time. But outside of that time, a lot of us have cheat days, meals or snacks, which do enough damage that you spend the rest of your time trying to make up for the massive, deep-fried, chocolate-covered burger you decided to eat at 11:35 pm.

Often, it’s not even a cheat meal that really gets us off-track. It’s the snacks you have in between meals. A chocolate bar here, a packet of chips there, and all of a sudden you’ve gone well past your daily calorie goal.

You don’t have to eliminate snacks, or only ever snack on seaweed and grass clippings. There are healthier options out there, which taste great, but fit into healthy, macro-oriented diets. That’s what we’re going to look at in this article.

What Makes a Good Healthy Cheat Snack

With these “cheat snacks”, you’re looking to replace the more common snacks that are generally calorie-dense and loaded with sugar and carbs.

Think chocolate bars, candy, potato chips. You can eat lean, balanced meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but these snacks will send your diet off the rails.

Your goal is to replace these snacks with something healthy. They don’t have to be zero-carbs and zero-calories, but ideally lower in both. You also want complex carbs instead of simple carbs, and other vitamins, minerals and nutrients (so not just empty calories like candy etc).

Most importantly, you want something that tastes good. Ideally, you’ll start to crave these healthy snacks instead of the unhealthy alternatives.

5 Go-To Healthy Cheat Snacks

Let’s take a look at some healthy snacks you can go to whenever you want a treat, which won’t derail your diet.

Tortilla Chips & Guacamole

Guacamole is an awesome snack to get addicted to. It’s versatile, tastes great, and is packed with things that are good for you.

It’s mostly avocado, which contains healthy fats, beneficial nutrients such as vitamin C and potassium, and a lot of fiber. The other ingredients in guac can vary, but you’re usually looking at simple things like lime juice, red onion, salt and pepper.

Pair it with some baked corn tortilla chips, and you’ve got something to snack on that’s actually good for you.

Hummus & Pita

Hummus and pita bread is another really good option similar to tortilla chips and guac. Pair a whole-grain pita with a pot of hummus and you’ve got a nutritional snack, with complex carbs, protein, and healthy fats.

If you really want to knock it out of the park, add some carrot and celery sticks. These make a great vessel for hummus and will keep your diet on the right path.

Trail Mix

Trail mix should be another go-to for snackers.

You can fill it with a variety of different things - different kinds of nuts, seeds, and dark chocolate to get your chocolate fix.

Keep a bunch of trail mix handy for whenever you get the urge to snack, such as at work, while you’re studying, or when you’re watching a movie.

PROTEIN BROWNIE

If you’re one of those people who just can’t replace their chocolate fix with nuts, avocado and hummus, this is for you.

Bake some healthy brownies using a clean protein baking mix like Naked Brownie high-protein brownie mix, for a snack that feels like a cheat meal but really isn’t.

Naked Brownies have 15 grams of protein per serving, are low in carbs and calories, have no artificial sweeteners or additives, and only 9 grams of sugar. Compare that to a regular brownie or a chocolate bar, and the difference is huge.

The best part is that they’re not empty calories - high protein with complex carbs means you’re working towards your macro goals, not against them.

Sushi

Finally, Sushi is the perfect cheat meal - or snack - for those who don’t want to blow out their macro targets.

Sushi gives you a balance of carbs and protein, and often has some kind of vegetable to go along with it too. If you’re specifically looking to go low-carb or high-protein, you can change it up to fit your goals too.

It can be a meal or a snack depending on how big you want to go. It’ll almost certainly fit into your diet, yet many people have a powerful craving for sushi, making it an awesome cheat meal that’s not really cheating.