Not all protein bars are created equal.

And — if we’re being blunt — most bars that are labeled as being “healthy” have more in common with a candy bar than a handful of kale or a protein shake.

This is the health industry, where it’s much easier to slap buzzwords on a label than, you know, actually provide you with what you need.

But rather than let you be frustrated by marketing tactics (they exist in every business and with every product), we want to make your life easier. Because there are many good protein bars on the market.

We’re here to make it easy for you to identify the real deal from the real duds.
That doesn’t mean you have to earn a Ph.D. in nutrition. Just follow these five rules and no matter what bar you select, you can feel good that you aren’t wasting your time (and calories) on a crappy candy bar.

5 Rules for Identifying Good Protein Bars

Rule #1: Sugar is NOT the first ingredient of a good protein bar

This rules seems obvious, but here’s why it’s so important:

1. Most people don’t look at the actual ingredients. They just scan things like “calories” or “protein.”

2. Most people don’t know the order of ingredients reflects the quantity in a product. If sugar is first, that means there’s more sugar than any other ingredient.

3. Sugar has lots of different names so it’s easily to be fooled. So if the first ingredient is dextrose, high fructose corn syrup, maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, or turbinado, well, that means “sugar.”

And don’t think that just because a bar looks like it’s made up of whole foods that it’s lighter on the sweet stuff.

“Even if you see these nuts and raisins through the label, the bar [can have] a sugar coating,” says Valerie Goldstein, a registered dietitian and owner of Eating to Fuel Health. “It just looks like a glob of nuts, so it looks very innocent. But even these ‘whole food’-looking bars have to be held together by something. Usually that’s sugar syrup.”

If you want to make sure the bar really is healthy, the bar’s primary ingredients should be a protein source, a fruit or vegetable, or healthy fat source like nuts.

Protein, fat, and carbs consumed with fiber (which you’ll get from fruits or grains) all take longer to digest than simple sugars, so they’ll keep you feeling fuller, longer. That means you don’t need sugar to be energized; you just need a good source of fuel.

The benefits of having good “primary” ingredients (the proteins, fruit/vegetable, or healthy fat source) are part of what distinguishes a good protein bar from a snack bar. Those nutrients have been shown to have a beneficial effect on your weight and waist line too.

For every 10 grams of fiber you eat, you’ll have as much as 4 percent less fat around your belly. Monounsaturated fats, like those found in nuts, seeds, olive oil, and fatty fish, have been shown to help people lose belly fat, according to a 2013 study. And a research review published in Nutrition in 2015 found that Americans who eat a high-protein diet have lower BMI and waist circumferences.

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Rule #2: Good protein bars have 10 grams of protein — or more.

This rule comes with what should be an obvious “if.”

If you’re using the bar as a protein supplement or meal replacement, you want at least 10 grams—or, ideally, even more,

“The biggest thing I tell people is, ‘Know how you plan to use the bar,'” says Anthony D’Orazio, director of nutrition and physique at Complete Human Performance, LLC. “If I’m looking to replace protein specifically, I’m looking for around 20 grams of protein,”

That means the bar’s first ingredient will likely be a protein source. Whey isolate, casein, pea, or egg protein are all high-quality choices.

Soy crisps will appear on a lot of protein labels and “count” as protein, but they aren’t the highest quality source. So if “soy crisp” is the first ingredient, even though a bar might have a high amount of protein, it’s probably not the best choice.

If you’re not using the bar as a protein supplement, you can get away with having the lower protein total. In fact, D’Orazio sometimes supplements his breakfast with a lower-protein bar that’s higher in fat and carbs. Why?

“I’m using it as a quick source of healthy fat,” D’Orazio says. “The main ingredients are peanut butter, rolled oats—ingredients people would recognize.”

Rule #3: Aim for less than 15 grams of sugar

Remember how we said many protein bars are really just candy bars disguised as something good for you?

Well, here’s the proof.

Did you know that Gatorade’s Whey Protein Bar has 29 grams of sugar? And CLIF Builder Bars have 1 more gram of sugar 21g) than they do protein (20g)? Compare that to the Met-RX Big 100 Colossal bar. Lots of protein (30g). But loads of calories overall (400), and 32g of sugar.

What in the what?

Before you freak out about sugar, know that it’s not the terrible villain it’s made to be. And there are many great bars out there (RX Bar comes to mind) with more than 10 grams. The catch? If the bar contains more than 10 grams of sugar, most of that should come from fruit or other natural sugar sources like lactose.

Why are natural sugars better?

Lactose from milk products and fructose from fruits, like all sugars, contain 4 calories per gram. But unlike refined sugars, these natural sugars come paired with the other nutrients you get from fruit or dairy—things like Vitamin C, potassium, calcium, Vitamin D, and other things that help your body function.

Good protein bars are oftentimes defined by their nutrients. It’s what helps separate a healthy bar from a candy bar. And refined, added sugars don’t deliver the added nutrients.

Added sugars also can hurt you in the long run. People who consume more than 21 percent of their daily calories from added sugars have double the risk of death from heart disease compared to people who consume just 10 percent of their calories from added sugars, according to a 2014 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association: Internal Medicine. 

Rule #4: Watch out for sugar alcohols

Sugar what?

No, the bars don’t have booze in them. Sugar alcohols are a category of artificial sweeteners.

They have names like xylitol, sorbitol, isomalt, and glycerol. You’ll find them in all kinds of things labeled “sugar-free.” And for some people, they can lead to a pretty unhappy stomach, depending on how you react to them.

“That’s real person-specific. I personally don’t have an issue with them, but they can give other people digestive issues,” D’Orazio says.

Just as with the whey concentrate, he says, you have to pay attention to how the ingredient affects you. If the bar produces something less like a feeling of fullness and more like a feeling like you have to run to the bathroom, then you’re going to want to steer clear of it.

Rule #5: Look for protein bars with fewer than 400 calories.

Good protein bars are supposed to be supplements—something you use to shore up a weak spot in your diet, just like protein powder or a multivitamin. They’re meant to supply nutrients, protein, or calories you might not otherwise get from your diet, or if you find yourself busy and missing meals.

When a bar weighs in at 400 calories or more, that’s more calories than you’d get from eating a Whopper, Jr. or half of a Chipotle bowl. And a bar isn’t necessarily “healthier” than those options.

For example, some popular bars have 200 calories only deliver 6 grams of protein, but a hard-boiled egg will give you 7 grams! And it’s less than 80 calories. So if you can eat whole food, eat whole food. But of course that might not always be possible.

“Maybe it’s difficult to pack a meal because you’re on a job site and don’t have access to a refrigerator,” D’Orazio says. In those cases, bars do offer you some advantages. “They’re portion-controlled and pre-measured. They supply the sort of nutrition you might not get at a drive-thru window.” (But even then, the 400-calorie “rule” is still a good guideline to follow.)

“It’s hard to overeat if you only bring what’s necessary. If you plan to eat two bars—and you bring two bars—you can use them as a tool to help control yourself. You control your intake with a mobile package of food.”

READ MORE: 

What is the Best Protein Powder?

Is Sugar Bad for You?

The Fastest Way to Do More Pushups

The post Good Protein Bars, Decoded: 5 Signs a Bar is Worth Eating appeared first on Born Fitness.

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I frequently do live Q&A sessions using the hashtag #AskBorn. As part of the process, I decided to review all of the questions and find the most popular, the most difficult, and the most bizarre. After all, when someone asks, “What’s the best way to build muscle,” you’d like to give a good answer. 

One of the most frequent question is, “How much protein should I eat?” 

The amount of protein needed for your body is debatable, as it depends on both your body weight and activity level.

You want to understand protein, and not just protein powders. (After all, there’s no magic dust in the protein.) You know protein is important for building muscle, but beyond that there are so many questions, such as: How much protein do you need? How often? And what sources are the best?

To provide he most thorough, research-based approach to eating protein, I teamed with examine.com to help you figure out what is ideal for your body. -AB

The Protein Guide: How Much Protein Should You Eat?

Protein is one of the three dietary macronutrients (we are excluding alcohol as the fourth), and by far the most popular macronutrient to be sold as a supplement. It is usually recommended that carbohydrates and dietary fatty acids (aka fats) be consumed through a healthy diet, but it is quite common that protein consumption be augmented with protein powder supplements.

As protein powder is the best selling supplement, there is a lot of competition around various powders. Highly unregulated and of questionable ethics, supplement companies regularly come up with the latest and greatest formula to continue to drive sales up to stay ahead of competitors.

Different sources of protein are used, different additives are used, and different processing techniques are used. Do these modifications live up to their grandiose claims? To answer that, we first need to understand what exactly protein is used for, how the various powders differ, and then deconstruct the modifications and whether they are supported both in clinical settings and practical settings.

Protein 101: Uses and Sources

Protein is known for being the critical macronutrient for muscle formation. It does more than that, acting in unison with a large amount of enzymes and transporters in your body in vital functions that support life and proper metabolism. In a sense, protein are bricks in the construction of your body.

Continuing our analogy, carbohydrates tend to be workers, cementing these bricks together, while fats are the managers, making sure this process is running smoothly. All three are of course critical, and work together in keeping your body in proper shape.

What does it all mean?

Protein intake is basically a daily quota. There are lots of amino acids that do a lot of things, and many of them can be converted to one another (ones that cannot be obtained via conversion are termed essential, familiar to anyone who has seen essential amino acids on sale). Without complicating things, you need X amount of protein each day to live and perhaps bump that up to Y each day given some circumstances (the actual values of X and Y will be elaborated on later).

The idea here is that there is a rough amount of protein you should be consuming every day to facilitate optimal body functions.

Protein Lesson #1: Protein are the bricks your body uses for all internal construction, be it building new muscle or maintaining existing functions. If you deprive your body of protein, there will be problems.

The RDA for dietary protein is currently set at 50 grams a day. A surprisingly low number, but if you meet this level of intake it is unlikely you will be deficient in dietary protein.

The RDA was set based on ‘normal’ people, which was a sample of sedentary people of somewhat normal BMI (18.5-25) with a mixed diet of adequate calories.

So if your goals are merely to live and not regularly partake in any physical activity, the RDA is enough. This does not mean it is optimal, but 50g is at least sufficient.

The amount of protein needed for your body is debatable, as it depends on both your body weight and activity level. Although there is no set of perfect guidelines, it seems that the scientific consensus has currently landed in the following approximate ranges:

• The base level (assuming no activity and no desire to change body composition) is around 0.8g per kilogram body weight (50g for a 137.5lb person) or above. More is not harmful, but this seems to be the bare minimum
• An athlete or highly active person, or a person who is sedentary and looking to lose body fat would do well with a range between 1-1.5g per kilogram. For a 200lb person, this equates to 91-136g daily
• An athlete or active person who wishes to beneficially influence their body composition (lose fat and/or gain muscle) or a very highly active endurance athlete should be consuming in the range of 1.5-2.2g per kilogram daily (for our 200lb person, this equates to 136-200g daily)

There are a few caveats to the above recommendations:

• The above assumes that you are of somewhat average body fat percentage. If you are a male above 20% bodyfat (or 30% for a female), then the above information would lead to a needless overconsumption of protein. Use your goal weight to calculate your protein requirements.
• Any recommendation above 1.5g/kg is, unfortunately, not too well supported by scientific literature. The limited evidence that there is suggests it adds more benefit, but most of the recommendation is derived from a history of anecdotal usage and general guidelines from practice. This isn’t a bad thing, just needs to be disclosed.

Protein Lesson #2: The base amount of protein you should take is roughly 1g/kg bodyweight. If you are active, 2g/kg is a good target. If you are obese, calculate that based on your target bodyweight, not current weight.

Complete Proteins vs. Incomplete Proteins

The bare minimum recommendation for protein is based on complete protein sources.

Remember that protein is a mixture of amino acids. A protein source is considered complete if consuming the 50g minimum would give you enough essential amino acids to support life.

Any protein source that is lacking in one or more essential amino acid is deemed “incomplete.” Rice is deemed an incomplete since it is low in the amino acid lysine. If you got all 50g of your protein from rice, you would be deficient in lysine.

So we have two options here:

1. Combine two incomplete protein sources that nicely cover each other. For example, rice is low in lysine but high in methionine, while pea is high in lysine and low in methionine; combining them gives you a complete source.
2. Just eat more. Rice gives you you some lysine, and so you could literally eat 100-150g of incomplete protein to get enough of the deficient amino acids.

Worrying about complete vs incomplete protein sources is only a valid concern if your overall intake of protein is very low. At higher intakes of dietary protein intake, you should be covered; it is highly unlikely you’ll fail to meet requirements on a mixed diet of incomplete protein sources if overall protein intake is higher than the minimum.

Protein Lesson #3: Your body can convert one amino acid into another. The ones it cannot convert are called essential amino acids. A protein source is considered complete if 50g of that protein will give you all the essential amino acids.

Want Personalized Diet Advice?

Still confused about what you should be eating or how to get more protein into your diet? Learn more about how you can work one-on-one with a Born Fitness coach to create a catered nutrition and exercise plan.

READ MORE: 

How Much Fat Should I Eat?

Do Carbs Actually Make You Fat?

The Curious Case of Why People Fear Protein

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post The Protein Guide: How Much Protein Do You Need? appeared first on Born Fitness.