Protein Bar/Cookie/Snack Debate

Diet and Nutrition
1

What’s your thoughts on these?

This is my thoughts and not a I’m correct statement, it’s just an evolutionary thought process I’ve developed about these.

First I feel the word protein in these are only marketing hype, I believe there is no protein benefit to any of these products eg muscle building repair and they are overpriced.

This does not mean I don’t eat them. In fact I’ve found that they are great during training time, meaning I like to eat them close to training like before or Intra, but I don’t eat them post training.
The reasons are for fuel and a placebo effect for lifting along with the easy calories.

A big mistake I made was eating them almost daily as a replacement which is what they promote. I feel I’m better off eating natty PB than one of these highly processed protein snacks.

With that I also have a Yuka app and it’s pretty accurate. Even though that scan should be taken with a grain of salt, since these products have strange stuff in them, I’m going by the app.

So far- LaRaBar has the best rating good-excellent!!! I’m gonna get these regardless of having low protein (as I don’t believe the hype).
Cliff bars and nut butter by Cliff comes in at good and I love them

Those are the only decent rated ones I’ve found so far.

I still have a place in my heart for Builder Bar even though they rate as poor. I just enjoy them, plus I get a placebo effect from them.

I don’t eat these products daily, just a couple a week.

2

Of course whole unprocessed foods are better but nothing wrong with a bar for a snack. As long as it has a good macro profile that fits your goals and doesn’t have a ton of sugar.
If the couple bars you mention above are the only good ones you’ve found then your not looking very hard.

3

I’m checking the ones at the grocery store and they have lots of them these days including the “health” section.

Im sure many taste better like Barebells, they are freaking awesome but they scan as BAD on the app. They have low sugar and high protein.
Pure Protein tastes horrible, I don’t recall what they scanned as.

4

What are you scanning them with?
How about reading the label and selecting a bar that meets your goals and then decide how much sugar/additives you’re willing to tolerate?
Relying on an app to tell you what is good and not good is non sense.
I can walk into the grocery store right now and find at least five to six bars that would satisfy my criteria

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5

I explained all this in my initial post.

I don’t “rely” on this app. I’ve already stated that all these products have strange stuff in them.

6

Then don’t eat them. What’s your point here?

7

I still say anything that has more carbs than protein is just a candy bar.

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@Brant_Drake I actually did use Hershey bars as a test to compare and I found the supplement bars were actually better for what I was looking for in a bar, eg placebo effect. Also the Hershey bar kinda felt like it sat in my gut and I didn’t care for that.

Just an observation using the scientific method.

9

I explained it in my initial post.

I eat them a couple times a week during training for easy calories and placebo energy only. I never eat them outside the lifting window.

Sometimes I’ll take up to a whole week without eating them just to be disciplined and when cutting.

Sometimes I’ll just drink honey during lifting also, which isn’t obviously a protein supplement product.

So far I really like Builder Bars as a placebo affect, I use them on special lifts, like before a 1-rep max on certain lifts as an example.

10

Is it really the placebo effect if you know it’s the placebo effect?

Mind blown, man . . .

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11

I don’t make routine of having a protein bar, but if on a road trip I’ve been known to grab a Met-Rx bar and beef jerky for “lunch” over the gas station rotisserie hot dogs or fast food burger.

Just keep in mind nearly all are highly processed snack foods, and real food is a far better option.

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12

Why do you keep saying this? If you eat calories that is energy that you now have to use. It’s not a placebo. WTF are you talking about???\

What science are you citing here?

I’ll bet you have narrow clavicles?

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a cartoon of a man with a beard and a large head

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@s.gentz my clavicles are just over 16” at 5’9.

Technically you lost the bet.

17

Some energy from calories amps me up more than others. Maybe it’s sugar, maybe something else?

Makes sense now???

18

This is the 1 rep muscle building guy. He’s almost always controversial. Best to give him zero attention and he’ll go away.

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19

So, the misunderstanding here is that a placebo is an inert ingredient. It has no effect.

The placebo effect is when somebody takes a placebo, usually as part of a “placebo” group in a study of an ingredient that may have an effect, as a neutral comparison to the possibly effective ingredient and they describe or demonstrate an effect which can’t be attributed to the neutral ingredient.

At least thats the common understanding of it.

So when you take something with more of less of a ratio of ingredients, like protein/carbs, thats not actually a placebo effect. That is the desired effect, e.g. more energy, better recovery.

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20

@SkyzykS to be the most simplistic here, I do a lot of different things when lifting to keep things interesting for me, otherwise things get complacent, I end up lethargic etc.

I don’t eat the same things the same way everyday anymore either. I change that up too.

If I do rituals they eventually stagnate.

On some days on certain lifts I eat a Builder Bar right before the lift, it seems to give me an extra “kick”. It’s as simple as that, it may not and most likely does not work every time do I don’t make it a habit.

Other times I might want to do an extra set of something but I’m tired, I’ll eat a bar and get some energy and this usually works.