We fed this protein/energy bar's ingredients into an AI and asked it for an unbiased report. Here's what happened.
Making a protein/energy bar is tricky business. Supplement makers have lots of choices to make, depending on their target consumers.
For example, most focus on making slightly healthier snack bars that taste good. There's a big consumer base there – folks who want to make better snack choices but also wouldn't eat the bars if they didn't taste exactly like junk food. We call these "glorified candy bars."
Other consumers want a "clean" snack with minimal ingredients. Supplement makers filled that niche by mushing together dates, nuts, and a couple of egg whites and adding a wrapper. They're "clean," but you're paying a lot for the convenience of having someone else squish some foods together for you. Also, these aren't performance bars; they're just snackies.
A while back, we set out to make a real performance bar for a different type of buyer, a bar that fuels workouts and competitions, accelerates recovery, and supports hydration, muscle growth, and even fat loss. We worked with Olympic athletes and asked them what they wanted, too, which was a bar that wouldn't upset their stomachs during competitions.
The result was the FINi Protein-Energy Bar (Buy at Amazon). We think we nailed it. No, it's not a bar made for the general masses, but we don't make stuff for those guys anyway.
A new way to test products
The ultimate test of any supplement is customer satisfaction. Did the supplement deliver? But with the rise of artificial intelligence, we have a secondary method – toss the ingredient list and the supplement's goals into an advanced AI and ask it for an evaluation.
The AI combs through mountains of real-world research in minutes and spits out an unbiased report. We did this with Igniter, our new preworkout, along with our intra-performance supplement and Superfood.
What would the superhuman computer say about FINi bars?
The AI evaluation
Here's exactly what the AI had to say:
🤖 Overall assessment:
The FINi bar is a smartly engineered hybrid fuel – part energy bar, part recovery snack. The isomaltulose inclusion genuinely sets it apart from commodity bars, and the dual-phase protein blend aligns with performance nutrition science.
It's not a "daily snack bar" – it's built for athletes who train hard and need reliable, crash-free energy. The formulation reflects that purpose well.
Final Score: 9/10 – Excellent athletic fuel, slightly carb-heavy but scientifically sound and functionally justified.
🤖 Benefits by time horizon:
- Short-Term (0-6 hours) –Smooth, crash-free energy delivery. Moderate protein synthesis boost. Stable blood sugar and mental focus during activity.
- Medium-Term (1–3 weeks of use) – Improved training endurance and reduced mid-session fatigue. Better nutrient timing around workouts (if used pre/intra). Improvement in recovery efficiency.
- Long-Term (Months) – Supports lean mass maintenance and glycogen efficiency. Reduced cravings between meals (due to balanced macros). No digestive fatigue often seen with high-sugar or sugar-alcohol bars.
The FINi bar is designed as a hybrid functional food: not merely a protein bar, but a sustained energy and recovery formula. Its ingredient profile – primarily isomaltulose, whey/casein protein isolates, and complex carbohydrate carriers – clearly targets athletes engaged in demanding training or competition.
It's a solid mid-workout or pre-event fueling option, particularly for endurance or high-volume strength work.
🤖 Criticism:
The FINi bar isn't overbuilt in a technical sense – it's just more performance nutrition than most people require day-to-day. It's not made for office snackers – you're not "sustaining energy" at your desk. Instead, think of it like a race-tuned fuel system: it's engineered for performance under load, not idle cruising.
For the casual gym-goer, it's somewhat overkill as a daily bar, but a fantastic, targeted tool when timed around hard workouts, hikes, or events.
🙋♂️ Our response
That's fair, though we'll still snack on one at our desks occasionally if we've had a tough workout that day. But it's true: we didn't make it for the sedentary consumer. It's a performance bar. That's not the biggest market niche, but we'll let the other supplement companies cater to those folks.
