100 Calorie Snacks

How does everyone feel about all the 100 calorie snacks on the market?

Personally, I love them, I love the variety and the pre-determined portion sizes.  They do manage to satisfy my cravings.

I don't however know how effective they are.  I have only lost 1.8 lbs in 2 weeks, perhaps I would have lost more without these snacks?  who knows...

Any thoughts?

They are bad mojo for me.  For some reason the "diet treats" seem to turn on the binge switch.  If you're able to stay within your calorie budget and indulge though, I say go for it. 

I used them the 1st month and lost about 14lbs so, I dont think they are your culprit unless you are eating too many and not recording them or eating all the salty ones (water retention).

I have since been limiting them but only because I have lowered my daily calories and well, they are unnecessary right now.

Fruit, nuts and other high-fiber natural snacks with a similar amount of calories would be more effective in helping with weight loss as well as health; however, it's the actual calorie count that actually drives your weight loss so the problem might just be eating slightly too many calories. I'm in the same boat as peaceapple though; any salty or sweet processed food turns my binge switch on and I wind up eating a few packets, which defeats the purpose! I just try to avoid processed stuff because I won't binge on fruit.

The biggest issue I have is that they are so expensive for what you get.  If you were to buy the larger pack and split it yourself you would save a ton of money.

The other issue is that these are primarily high fat/high calories food, and 100 calories of that isn't particularly satisfying (at least to me), and not giving me a significant nutritional boost from things like fiber.

In making sure I get to my calorie goal for the day, I try to maximize my food so that I can eat as much as possible.  So one daily snack I have is a snack bag of 94% fat free popsecret popcorn.  It makes 6 cups, and is 130 calories.

The snack packs themselves won't cause you to gain weight provided you are being accurate in your food log and hitting your calorie goal (and not going under the 1200 bare minimum for adult females).

I think a bit part of my problem (slow weightloss) is that I haven't found my "sweet spot" yet..  meaning how many calories I should be taking in.  I track every bite of food I eat and I almost always stay within my calories, but I think maybe I need to find the right "target" for me, regardless, Im not giving up, slow weightloss is better than no loss!

Some of the things I do buy sometimes. Like the hostess 100cal cakes. They have 5 grams of fiber for all 3 little cakes, and they are a good snack for me. The other ones, like the... 100 call oreos and chezzits, etc I won't buy those - because of the same thing 67alecto said.

There are many other things you can snack on for 100 calories, like yogurt -those new yoplait parfait things are surprisingly much better than I expected and very satisfying if you eat it slow. also, I have been snacking on edamame (soy beans in pods) those I am finding are fantastic to snack on and watch TV. In the pod, they take longer to eat, have a good amount of fiber and protein. i'll also snack on the cherry twizzler bites - something like 18 pieces are 140 calories, and i'll take out several (weigh them) and leave them out and as I'm cleaning or laundry or whatever pop one into my mouth.

an Asian pear is only like 50 calories and those things are big. I will also use a banana as a snack, about 70 calories. I find bananas very satisfying and filling enough for a between meal snack. Also, a fat free beef hot dog on a slice of light wheat is about 80 calories - and you can throw mustard on that or whatever. 1/4 cup (by weight) of cottage cheese (i buy 4% cause 2% I find icky)  is 60 calories - and those they sell in snack sizes and some with fruit.

Lots of options out there :) But as far as specifically 100 calories products - I only buy the hostess chocolate cakes and strawberry cakes (I got tricked with the twinkie version today, it has <1 fiber while the others have 5)

Couple of articles:

http://consumerist.com/293770/100-calorie-pac ks-are-still-a-scam-cost-more-for-less-food

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/business/30 drill.html?_r=1

exactly! great links

I haven't in a while, but I used to buy things and prebag them by servings (they sell those great snack size ziplock bags even) now I mostly just weigh everything, and have no reason to be in a hurry that I need to pre sort and bag.

but i'm still going to defend my hostess 3 mini cakes:

Regular hostess chocolate cake

Hostess chocolate cake 100 cal

I am too cheap to buy them. I snack on fruit, nuts, popcorn or string cheese.