Anyone have any recommendations? Also, good or not worth it?
I like Quest bars, and ONE bars are pretty good. I had to ditch the former because they are made with almonds, not good for my specific hormone issues (high shbg).
I think as a bridge they’re OK. I like them because I always end up hangry when we leave the house.
2 Likes
I think they end up bring anywhere between 20% to 200% more expensive than just having a shake. But the convenience of not needing to carry a bottle and then clean it is pretty appealing - assuming you’re not one of those crazies that just throws a scoop of powder straight into their mouth with a liquid chaser.
2 Likes
Snickers bars.
1 Like
I sometimes get them for a long drive or plane ride. My general opinion on protein bars: they taste good, have protein, and are too expensive to eat regularly compared to whole foods or shakes.
If money isn’t an issue, maybe.
I feel like protein shakes, besides the obligatory post workout supershake, are an easy way of getting protein, but whenever you can have real food, it’s a much better idea. Protein bars are the same way to me. If you’re in a jam, use it, but I don’t see much of a point in making them a staple. I’d rather bring a jar of peanut butter, a bag of nuts, or a container of cottage cheese.
I eat them sometimes. Just not often…
I usually have 1-2 with me in case I’m hungry, and there’s no stores nearby or I can’t buy anything good, or even for some reason I can’t go to store…
It’s a good save sometimes.
The costco brand of questlike bars are good if you’re on a budget, but I think in a perfect world I’d nix them all together. Rather get it from real food, but damn they are convenient.
1 Like
I try not to make them a staple due to my work schedule they are necessary sometimes but the are a better bad choice instead of eating fast food. I like quest bars.
I like the syntha 6 whey crisp bars.
I second the Costco bars recommendation. Have used them many times for long car rides or in a pinch if I can’t get something else right away. They are pretty damn close to Quest bars.
A problem with many protein bars that isn’t brought up enough is the sugar content. Some protein bars have 30 grams of sugar or more, while this is great for those undergoing endurance training such as running a marathon or whatnot, it is not healthy to consume excess sugar like that, especially if one is relying on protein bars for their sole source of extra protein. I personally stick with whey protein.
1 Like
I like the Grenade Carb Killa protein bars. 218cals/bar, 20g protein, low in sugar but ofc using quite a bit of artificial sweetener.
I only eat them sporadically though, when I’m on the road, in meetings, conferences etc, and it’s impractical to have a prepped meal.
The new Animal Snak Bars are outstanding…also I would suggest Redcon MRE Bars or the PE Science Select Bars
I think relying on them on a regular basis is a mistake, but for travel, they are generally the best option. I went through a bunch of them this past week while I was traveling. When I’m picking them out at a store, I generally just look at the ingredients to see how much garbage-protein is in there. I don’t personally care about any of the other macros in a bar, although if you’re using them to replace a meal, some carbs are good.
If money wasn’t an issue I would use them a lot more. Unfortunately I can’t really justify the price compared to whey since they cost 10 times as much per gram of protein (£2 per bar vs £0.2 for 25g of whey).
I do keep my eye open for deals on bars that are close to their sell-by date though. I got 76 bars last month for the low price of £24 since they expired in July. Eating about 5 a day of those fibre-packed bars made me realise how important fibre is in my diet. I haven’t taken shits that were as consistently pleasurable as those in years.
I don’t understand this post. Why would you actually WANT to eat more protein bars? The protein content is inferior to basically all other options. And there are certainly other ways to get fiber in your diet.
Are you on the road/too busy to stop for meals all day every day? And can’t carry a drink with you? That’s the only reason I could imagine wanting to eat more bars.
2 Likes
I’m not saying that the protein bars were the best source of fibre, just that they made me realise how important it was that I increased my intake of it in my regular diet. A bit of a tangent, really.
The vast majority of my protein comes from chicken and whey. I only eat other meats very occasionally and while I appreciate they’re much better sources of protein than bars, being able to break the monotony of my diet while eating something that both satisfies my cravings for something sweet and allows me to hit my macros is something that I would definitely like to do for a couple of weeks every few months.
When I said I’d like to have them a lot more, I should point out that I’ve had probably about a total of 60 in my years of lifting, including the ~50 I had in the past few weeks. I definitely don’t think they should be a central part of anyone’s diet.
1 Like
I was under the impression refined sugar (and simple carbohydrates) was just plain bad for the individual eating them. Is there a situation when refined sugar is good? If so, when can I eat fudge…
On days when I go to gym, walk my dog and go to work - protein bars do come handy. I can eat them in public transport, and are often better option than getting fast food on my way to work or to home.
And sugar content in them doesn’t do any harm in that case. It is actually nice caloric and energy boost to me.
Aditional boost is 1l of yoghurt. Per 100g it has 4.5g of protein, 3.8g of fat and 4g of carbs (that brand that I usually buy) so this does the trick too because whole bottle has 45g of protein, 38g of fat and 40g of carbs.