Eating Protein Bars To Stay Fit: Should You, Or Shouldn’t You?

September 30, 2015

Losing weight is accomplished with exercise and a clean, well-thought diet. Meals should be saturated with good nutrition and stay within one’s calorie limit. This calorie limit varies from person to person, based on factors like activity (the number of calories you burn daily), weight, and gender.

In order to stay within the bounds, fitness enthusiasts resort to various supplements and low-fat foods, one of which is protein bars. They’ve become very popular among the health conscious as an easy meal replacement or a quick snack when they’re on the go. But the question is, are they any good?

It’s Debatable
The answer is yes and no. The first thing you need to make sure is that you are choosing the right protein bar, not a candy or energy bar filled with sugar and extra calories you do not need.

One must study the ingredients and nutrients before purchasing and loading up on protein bars. You should make sure the saturated fat content does not exceed 3g, fiber should touch at least 3g, sugar should be less than 10g, sodium less than 300mg, 0 transfat, and about 10-12g protein is ideal if you’re using it to replace a meal; if it is meant to be a snack, 6-8g protein is fine.

How You Can Stay On Top Of It
Instead of eating store-bought protein bars, it is a good idea to try making your own at home so you can customize and alter the nutrition, protein density and calorie count to your liking.

There are so many super foods and other ingredients to choose from like oats, dry fruits, seeds, maple syrup, coconut, raw cocoa, organic honey, hemp protein powder… and the list goes on.

Apart from this, it is very important to make sure the dependency on protein bars is not a permanent one. If you find yourself reaching out for this bar more than once a day, that can be a problem as protein bars should never be the only source of nutrition—they are incomparable to actual fruits and vegetables.

PS: Here’s an exhaustive list of Diets For Weight Loss.
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