Once again, it depends. What are you snacking on? Are you trying to recover metabolic health or maintain it? Are you trying to lose weight or maintain your weight. Are you snacking because you are hungry, bored, or just want the flavor?

It matters very much of course what we are snacking on. We know that if the snack raises our blood sugar that it will take us out of energy burn mode and put us into energy storage mode. If it is a high fat snack it may not raise our blood glucose, but it does cause us to burn the fat we are eating instead of the fat from our fat cells, so we want to avoid snacking if we are trying to lose weight. Of course, if we are hungry we should eat something; but if we get hungry between meals that is probably a sign that we need to eat more filling and satisfying meals. The state we want to get to is where we fill our fat stores during meals, then between meals we burn that fat as it’s released. Snacking short-circuits that process. If we want to snack out of boredom, that is our reward center wanting a dopamine hit. Give it a different reward: call a friend, do a puzzle, read something interesting—whatever positive thing that you find rewarding.