Best Carnivore Diet Snacks and Meals on the Go

Pack these Carnivore Diet snacks for a quick bite or mix and match a few options for a meal on the go.

If you’re new to the Carnivore Diet, navigating snacks or quick meals on the go can be challenging. After all, many Carnivores love cooking up steaks every chance they get.

Related: 10 Tips for Your First Time on the Carnivore Diet

But there are Carnivore Diet compliant options for those who want to avoid ordering a dozen bunless burger patties from the nearest fast food restaurant or spend the day hiking a trail when purchasing food nearby is not an option.

Snacking on the Carnivore Diet

Most Carnivores agree that if you choose to snack, you’re not eating enough at mealtimes. But the first week or two on the Carnivore Diet, you’re focusing on breaking habits, such as eating junk food and sugar, excessive snacking and grazing. And because your body has to adjust to eating larger amounts of meat at mealtimes, it may take a while for your stomach to transition.

For the first 1-2 weeks on the Carnivore Diet, many people opt for snacks until their bodies adapt. Sometimes you truly are hungry—and sometimes, snacking is simply habit. But if you have snack-friendly food handy when you start the Carnivore Diet, there is less chance that you’ll reach for the wrong type of food.

Eating on the Go on the Carnivore Diet

Once your body has transitioned to eating larger meals and snacking less, you may run into situations where you need a meal option on the go. Though packing cooked meat in a thermos or insulated container is always an option, it’s a good idea to have other shelf-stable food options for last-minute travel.

As a family of six, we love taking day trips with our kids, exploring nearby towns and hiking trails in our vicinity. These trips often mean we are gone for the full day. That’s when it’s crucial for us to pack easy meal-on-the-go options to sustain our energy while doing physical activity. If you live an on-the-go or active lifestyle like us, you’re in luck, because this list of Carnivore Diet snacks are precisely what we pack when we’re on the go.

Intermittent Fasting on the Carnivore Diet

Many people on the Carnivore Diet have embraced intermittent fasting as part of their daily routine. The idea is especially prevalent for those seeking the Carnivore Diet to lose weight or reduce chronic disease or inflammation. Planning your day trips around your fasting schedule can make being out and about while on the Carnivore Diet much easier for many people.

My husband and I are very active people for our early forties—and have been that way our whole lives. Though we have experimented with intermittent fasting in the past, it’s not part of our daily routine at this point. We seek to sustain our energy levels throughout the day parenting four young kids, CrossFitting, playing pickleball, hiking and other active endeavors. (Read more about why we tried the Carnivore Diet.)

Before we dive into food ideas, let me preface these snacks by saying that when you commit to doing the Carnivore Diet, you have to be prepared to cook–A LOT. My husband and I cook three meals a day from home (because we work from home). But the point is, we enjoy cooking and our lifestyle is one in that we rarely ate out even before we tried the Carnivore Diet.

Some of these snacks or meals on the go can be purchased from the store, but keep in mind that some of them may require some prep work. We all know that jerky is an amazing snack, but how many jerkys on the market don’t have extra ingredients?! With some of these options, your best bet is to make large batches of your own snacks and dehydrate or freeze for when you need snacks or quick meals.

Use these ideas as a quick snack or mix and match a few options for a meal on the go.

Pork Rinds

Pork rinds are one of the most popular snacks on the Carnivore Diet—and for good reason. Pork rinds or chicharrones are made from deep-fried pig skins. A 1-ounce serving of pork rinds yields 18 grams of protein and 10 grams of fat.

They are a great portable option for taking to parties, hanging out with friends who are munching on popcorn or satisfying that crunchy craving, which is hard to do with meat.

Just be sure to check the label of your pork rinds. Acceptable brands fry their rinds in pig renderings, while unacceptable brands fry them in vegetable oils. Any flavored pork rinds will have extra ingredients that aren’t included on the Carnivore Diet list, so just double check your labels before buying.

Utz Pork Rinds and Mac’s Pork Rinds are affordable options offered in family-sized bags down to individual servings, which are available from both online or storefront retailers.

Related: How to Make the Perfect Cup of Carnivore Coffee

Canned Fish

Canned fish is one of the easiest ways to intake protein and fat on the go. You may have to develop a taste for it if you’re used to eating mostly beef, but the convenience of meat on the go is hard to ignore.

Related: Easy and Delicious Carnivore Diet Salmon Patties

Look for canned tuna, salmon, anchovies or sardines. Once again, check your labels and be careful to buy fish packed in water and not oil or vegetable broth.

Jerky or Beef Sticks

Dehydrated meat such as jerky or beef sticks is a great option for eating on the go. Make your own like we often do by buying a dehydrator like this one or this one. There are tons of jerky recipes out there, but if you’re following strict Carnivore, you need to stick with just meat and salt as you’re preparing your jerky.

If a DIY project is out of the question, you can also purchase jerky or beef sticks. While many jerky brands are keto-approved, it’s much harder to find ingredient make-ups in compliance with the Carnivore Diet. Just be on the lookout for brands with extra additives, such as sugar or soy.

Hard Cheese

If you’re able to tolerate dairy, hard cheese is a great snack to pack while you’re on the go on the Carnivore Diet. Hard or firmer cheeses such as parmesan/parmigiano, pecorino, gruyere and many cheddars are great for transporting and don’t require as much refrigeration as soft cheeses.

Manchego is one of my favorite cheeses that is made from sheep’s milk instead of cow’s milk. Roughly half of the people who can’t tolerate cow’s milk products can tolerate sheep’s milk products, so it’s worth a try if regular cheese doesn’t agree with you.

Related: More Carnivore Diet Posts

Cheese Crisps

If it’s summertime or you’re worried about hard cheese melting while you’re on the go, you can instead try baked cheese crisps. You can bake them yourself or purchase them from any grocery in store or online retailer in individual or family-sized packs.

They are tasty and crunchy and satisfying as a quick snack, though not super filling.

Cooked Pork Belly

You won’t see this Carnivore Diet snack suggestion mentioned much online, but it is hands down one of my favorite snacks or parts of my meals. If pork is agreeable with your body, then cooking up several slices of pork belly is a great snack to take with you while you’re on the go. Not only is it tasty, but for roughly 3 oz. of cooked pork belly, you’ll get 21 grams of fat and 13 grams of protein.

Though many people love the taste of bacon, most all store-bought bacon contains a preserving agent—either nitrates/nitrites or more natural forms such as celery powder. But you can buy a slab of pork belly in bulk and slice it yourself. We buy pork belly in bulk from Costco and slice it with a deli slicer before freezing it into smaller servings that last only a few days in the fridge before consumption. If you can get pork belly humanely raised from a local farmer, that’s you’re best healthiest bet!

Beef Liver Bites

There are a few companies who carry beef liver bites on Amazon, but they tend to include preservation ingredients such as celery powder along with other spices. But Carnivore Aurelius carries beef liver bites in individualized packs of 14 that only contain beef liver, purified water and salt. Though these can be pricey, they are so convenient for Carnivore Diet snacks or meals on the go.

Carnivore Aurelius goes into detail about the health benefits of dehydrated beef liver (which you can also make yourself).

Bone Broth

The benefits of bone broth have been circling the internet for a few years, and now many companies have jumped on the bandwagon of creating portable bone broth packs for individual consumption or drinking on the go. The problem with most of these broths is that they are made with vegetables, which is a no-no on the Carnivore Diet.

You’re best bet is to make bone broth yourself. Here’s how we handle bone broth. Every time we cook a meat with a bone in it (roasts, ribs, steaks, shoulders, etc.), we save the bones and stick them in a gallon-sized bag in our freezer. Once our bag is full, we throw all the bones in a crockpot, fill with water and cook on low for about 18 hours. Once it’s cooked down, you can pour the broth in small 4 oz. mason jars and place in fridge or freezer for easy Carnivore Diet snacks or meals on go.

What are your favorite Carnivore Diet snacks or meals on the go?