Healthy Snacks for Lean Muscle Building

There are a ton of snacks out there that have been brilliantly packaged to look healthy and most of these deceiving products even have words that lead you to think they actually are. However, if you take a closer look at the ingredients and nutrition listing you’ll be more often unpleasantly surprised than you will be pleasantly surprised.

We’re going to take a look at three healthy snacks that you can put together yourself and will be devoid of high fructose corn syrup, artificial preservatives and other ingredients that really shouldn’t be in our foods.

Before we get into these healthy snacks how do we classify them as healthy in the first place? In my humble opinion a healthy snack should contain some protein, fat and hopefully some fiber as well. This combination will make you feel satisfied with what you ate as a snack and help fight off any other unhealthy cravings which often are saboteurs of our smart eating plan.

Healthy Snacks #1: Peanut Butter Protein Bars

Ok, you might right away think of peanut butter protein bars as something you buy in a store, but I’m going to give you the quick and easy home-made version that is a much healthier variety.

These will be high on the calorie side but great for keeping you satiated and definitely great for helping you build lean muscle mass.

It’ll just take 10 minutes of your time so set this up on your weekend so that they will last for the week to come.

Here are the instruction: Combine about 3/4 cup of natural peanut butter along with one scoop of protein powder (I recommend the chocolate flavour of Casein Protein Powder) and 1/2 to 1 cup of any high fiber cereal (should have more than 3 grams of fiber per serving). Finally add enough honey or maple syrup to get it to stick all together so you’re easily able to form bars.

Once you have it all mixed, press into a pan and then place in the fridge for thirty minutes to an hour until set. Cut into snack-sized bars and wrap in tin foil or saran wrap to store.

Healthy Snacks #2: Low-fat Swiss Cheese and Green Apple

Cheese too often gets a bad rap, but in reality it is a great source of protein and calcium and packs much more vitamins/minerals than say a cookie or chocolate.

Try a few slices of low fat swiss cheese and sliced green apple and you have a very healthy and satisfying snack. The apple will bring in Vitamin C and fiber which will help you meet your fruit quota for the day, but if you want a little extra for a boost of immunity against viruses and bacterial infection then have a very affordable Signature Vitamin C or a Signature Multivitamin with Immunity Boost.

Healthy Snacks #3: Trail Mix

This is one I always forget myself until I see it in stores. The thing that I always find though is that the store bought ones never have the right amount of my favorite nuts or dried fruit in them. So why not make our own?

Pretty simple cause it is easy to switch around the macronutrients until you have something that fits your current nutritional needs.

Try your favorite nuts, seeds, dried fruits, and even whole grain cereals like Shreddies to boost the fiber content.

Since this will be a high calorie snack this is great for those of you who struggle with putting on lean muscle mass, just remember to split up a carton into appropriately sized snack portions (which should be about one handful).

Conclusion: Healthy Snacks for Lean Muscle Building

I hope you enjoyed this article and try these 3 healthy snacks to help you build lean muscle mass. Remember that although they are calorie dense snacks in the long term these actually prevent you from falling through with your healthy eating plan by curbing your cravings for junk foods which over a weeks time can cause a lot more harm.

Have any questions or suggestions on other healthy snacks? Please leave a comment below…