Protein Bars

Raekwon

Just a quick question about protein bars. A few guys in the gym swear by them and I decided to try them out but there are so many and I was wondering what are the best ones to get.

I was in Holland & Barrett's and thought I'd try them all so I purchased a Proto Pure Bar (31g Protein) for €2.89, a Nito-Tech Bar (30g Protein) for €5.40 ,a Meso-Tech (25g of Protein) for €5.60 & a Weider bar (32g protein) for €2.99.

They vary so much in price I was wondering why the more expensive ones have less protein yet cost nearly double the price?

TommyKnocker

Hi there

Honestly, IMHO with most guys taking protein bars etc, it is basically a case of monkey see monkey do.

Of course supplements have their place. However IMHO you firstly need to decide your goals. Then work out a training plan and diet to help you achieve these goals. There is a wealth of information in the stickies, both on this forum and also the Diet & Nutrition forum.

Then and only then, when you have the basic foundations in place should you consider supplements. At that point you should have done your due diligence and read up on the different supplements available. Weighed up the alleged benefits against any possible side effects and also cost, and if you feel that you might benefit, then by all means try some.

But IMHO the absolute worst reason to take any supplements is because your mates or others in the gm are taking them. The supplement industry thrives on folks with the sheep mentality, who blindly follow the rest of the flock.

Know what you are putting into your body and more importantly why.

Just my 2 cents worth.


Best Regards,

M

P.S. If and when you decide to supplement your diet with protein, protein powders are much more economical then bars, and also contain less crap ingredients.

Parsley

I'd suggest we sticky B-Builder's post here but no-one would feckin' read it anyway.

Mellor

I occasional have a protein bar in the evening after the gym.
Not a main, or even supplementary source of protein. But as a low carb snack.
When choosing one, I try to do for one with low carbs, as these tend to be hiher in protein on average, and even if not, they are then obviously lower in cals.

As B-Builder said, know your own reasons for buying them.

Typhoon.

I make my own.. really handy for eating during work

alls in em is unflavoured protein, oats, pure peanut butter and choclate flavouring.. taste like snickers...:D

each bar is circa 30g protein

rubadub

Raekwon wrote: »

I was in Holland & Barrett's and thought I'd try them all so I purchased a Proto Pure Bar (31g Protein) for €2.89, a Nito-Tech Bar (30g Protein) for €5.40 ,a Meso-Tech (25g of Protein) for €5.60 & a Weider bar (32g protein) for €2.99.

The prices are crazy, I saw 3-4 scrawny 15 year old lads in H&B before, they wanted to get creatine and the woman refused them, then they started looking at protein bars and she said they were fine as they were simply food, some were confused at first, 2 of the lads then looked smugly at each other like they were going to get one over on her! as though she was some auld one who did not know these were steroid rich drugs in the guise of simple bars that would turn them into hulks overnight. I was half thinking of butting in and saying they would be better off with a chicken fillet burger, tastier, more protein per euro.

discombobulate

Prices look crazy to me. If your looking to get protein bars either as said make them yourself or maybe have a look at these ones from myprotein. A lot cheaper and their not too bad at all:
http://www.myprotein.co.uk/products/mp_max_mybar_deluxe

LFC5Times

Typhoon. wrote: »

I make my own.. really handy for eating during work

alls in em is unflavoured protein, oats, pure peanut butter and choclate flavouring.. taste like snickers...:D

each bar is circa 30g protein

Hey,

Whats your recipe/cooking instructions for making them?

Cheers

discombobulate

LFC5Times wrote: »

Hey,

Whats your recipe/cooking instructions for making them?

Cheers

Would be interested to know this too. Thanks

Typhoon.

its easy peasy..and only takes a few mins


190g protein powder (i used unflavoured)
150g Flahavans progress oats
3 teaspoons choc flav powder or about 25-30 drops of liquid flavouring
100g Meridian peanut Butter
250ml slimline milk

Mix all in a bowl ....keep mixing for a while.. dont be tempted to add more milk, might get too wet
spoon onto a sheet of cling film (make the clingfilm about the depth of the kitchen counter top)
cover with another sheet of clingfilm (same length as above)
shape into a long bar ( I use a rolling pin to spread out and shape it square using 2 chopping boards )
chill in the fridge for a few hours
cut into bars and wrap individually in cling film....


gives 8 bars.... each bar contains about

27g protein
20g Carbs
8g fat
250kcals

almost identical to Myprotein bars.....but a lot cheaper. Nice and filling too.

few pics below

the lighter coloured ones were made using the liquid flavouring from bulk powders and the dark brown were made using the choc flavouring powder from myprotein.... you could prob use cocoa powder insead..thats basically what the my protein flavouring is anyway....

DARCHA22

Typhoon. wrote: »

its easy peasy..and only takes a few mins


190g protein powder (i used unflavoured)
150g Flahavans progress oats
3 teaspoons choc flav powder or about 25-30 drops of liquid flavouring
100g Meridian peanut Butter
250ml slimline milk

Mix all in a bowl ....keep mixing for a while.. dont be tempted to add more milk, might get too wet
spoon onto a sheet of cling film (make the clingfilm about the depth of the kitchen counter top)
cover with another sheet of clingfilm (same length as above)
shape into a long bar ( I use a rolling pin to spread out and shape it square using 2 chopping boards )
chill in the fridge for a few hours
cut into bars and wrap individually in cling film....


gives 8 bars.... each bar contains about

27g protein
20g Carbs
8g fat
250kcals

almost identical to Myprotein bars.....but a lot cheaper. Nice and filling too.

few pics below

the lighter coloured ones were made using the liquid flavouring from bulk powders and the dark brown were made using the choc flavouring powder from myprotein.... you could prob use cocoa powder insead..thats basically what the my protein flavouring is anyway....

Move over gordon ramsey. They look the business, and no crap in them. Top stuff. Gonna make these at the weekend.

How long they keep for? Could one make a batch of say 10 or 12, just with the milk they could go off.

Im starvin now haha

Typhoon.

I've only cut it into 8 bars and had them over 8-10 days.... always been perfect

Its only a small bit of milk, and its the slimline

I'm sure you could use water instead if you werent sure

DARCHA22

Cool, off to the kitchen i go

Mellor

rubadub wrote: »

I saw 3-4 scrawny 15 year old lads in H&B before, they wanted to get creatine and the woman refused them, then they started looking at protein bars and she said they were fine as they were simply food

One or two of the protein bars that are available here also have about 5g creatine (amount might be off).
Now, I don't take creatine, and I'm not going to at this time (just don't like liquid calories, try to save them for solid food). I also know that if I was, buying in bulk would be better.

Ok, the pack advise to take before training (I'm a freak I read everything I pick up). I was wondering, what sort of effect would taking such low volumes of creatine have, say one bar a week. I imagine (but am not sure at all) that creatine completely counter productive to weight loss.


And again, don't bother with;
You'd be better of buying X, Y or Z
Why are you taking Creatine if you are on a diet etc.

I know and i'm not. I'm just a curious fecker

_JOE_

Typhoon. wrote: »

3 teaspoons choc flav powder or about 25-30 drops of liquid flavouring

Super post mate. Just wondering whether you could shed some light on the following ingredients?

Jarren

_JOE_ wrote: »

Super post mate. Just wondering whether you could shed some light on the following ingredients?

choc flav powder - protein powder - http://www.myprotein.co.uk/products/impact_whey_protein

An example of a liquid flavouring -

http://www.myprotein.co.uk/products/flavdrops_liquid_flavouring

Typhoon.

this is the chocolatepowder i used

and this was the liquid flavoring

theyre both basicaly the same....prob just less calories in the liquid flavouring

I'm sure ordinary cocoa powder from the suermarket would do the same job.... I hope it does because i'll be getting that in future.... i find the powder from myprotein expensive enough..... even though it is good

Noffles

I eat 3 or 4 a week, choc fudge brownie ones, bloody lovely they are, fair ebnough they have a pretty grim fat count BUT... I have a sweet tooth and if this can satisfy this and give me 30g of protein at the same time then so be it.. it's a win win as far as I'm concerned!
And no I don't eat them becasue I see someone else eats them... that just daft that is!

kaji

I made them Typhoon and they look the same as your pictures. Only thing is, they're soggy. The first time, I added too much milk. But the second time I only added a tiny bit, but they're still moist. Any tips?

Typhoon.

if you ad too much milk they wil get very sticky

maybe drop the milk back to about 200ml... just takes longer to mix it together

mine have always been a little sticky.

I think the amount of protein powder may have something to do with it. but if you cut back on that your cutting the amount of protein per bar

fiddle around with the recipe.. more peanut butter or raw nuts or something

adamski8

kaji wrote: »

I made them Typhoon and they look the same as your pictures. Only thing is, they're soggy. The first time, I added too much milk. But the second time I only added a tiny bit, but they're still moist. Any tips?

did u try again?
I would have thought they would be soggy as there is no baking or anything so how would they set?

littlehannah96

Raekwon wrote: »

.

I was in Holland & Barrett's and thought I'd try them all so I purchased a Proto Pure Bar (31g Protein) for €2.89, a Nito-Tech Bar (30g Protein) for €5.40 ,a Meso-Tech (25g of Protein) for €5.60 & a Weider bar (32g protein) for €2.99.

I wouldn't buy anything in H&B They're a rip off! Typhoon your protein bars look brill! Am thinking of making some sesame seed bars myself. You can buy em in Holland and Barret (pardon the hypocrisy) but not the ones in yellow wrappers (sesame snaps) coz they're mostly sugar. Sunita Sesame Seed Bars are like 60% seed and 40%honey.

Anyone tried Bounce Natural Energy BAlls? They're well dacent. I like the Almond Protein one as it tastes nicer but only has 12g of protein. The Premium Protein Ball has like 15grams though but taste a bit sickly.

You can buy them in most health food/natural/mother-nature shops.

bk7

Man those look pretty tasty! Think ill have to give try making them myself sometime, is there a way you could tweak that recipe so that there would be less carbs in them??

Typhoon.

Maybe use less Oats is all I could think of

another tweak : I used freshly squeezed Orange juice and some orange zest instead of the milk, tasted like orange chocolate

timetogetfit

Mellor wrote: »

One or two of the protein bars that are available here also have about 5g creatine (amount might be off).
Now, I don't take creatine, and I'm not going to at this time (just don't like liquid calories, try to save them for solid food). I also know that if I was, buying in bulk would be better.

Ok, the pack advise to take before training (I'm a freak I read everything I pick up). I was wondering, what sort of effect would taking such low volumes of creatine have, say one bar a week. I imagine (but am not sure at all) that creatine completely counter productive to weight loss.


And again, don't bother with;
You'd be better of buying X, Y or Z
Why are you taking Creatine if you are on a diet etc.

I know and i'm not. I'm just a curious fecker

Creatine has no Calories

The Guvnor

They look nice, no chance of it lasting 8 days though!:D

Has anyone ever tried to bake the bars?

Typhoon.

they last 8 days no prob in the fridge, the milk is slimline, i dunno does hat ever go sour, or you could always use water

baking is a no no... tried that a few times, had a mental image of it coming out like a breakfast bar... pfft... I was wrong.... went hard on the outside and cardboady on the inside

if theyre too soggy just try a drier mix

bk7

Just tried making them today, i think i put too much milk in or something cuz they're a bit soggy, tasted one earlier had to use a spoon to eat it but damn they're really tasty, so easy to make as well!
Im gonna try freezing them and see how that works!

Typhoon.

Actually I think the amount of milk 1n that recipe is a bit high, i think it should be 150-200 ml

The Guvnor

Thanks Ty - I did mean that I would eat them all in a day or two as in no chance they would last 8 days around me!

There are some baked protein bars on the market but obviously the company making them will not tell you how they do it!

Typhoon. wrote: »

they last 8 days no prob in the fridge, the milk is slimline, i dunno does hat ever go sour, or you could always use water

baking is a no no... tried that a few times, had a mental image of it coming out like a breakfast bar... pfft... I was wrong.... went hard on the outside and cardboady on the inside

if theyre too soggy just try a drier mix

Red Cortina

I've had some success with making protein bars using the recipe from this site...

http://www.stumptuous.com/make-your-own-protein-bars

TerrorFirmer

Was reading on various brands recently, and came across a very detailed post which alleged that most of the bars were useless, because of the use of collagen protein. Anyone shed any light on this?

shakencat

Ive made protein buns,

along the lines of the OP ingrediants..(egg whites added in)

but ive baked em..

and added banana, almonds and walnuts instead of the PB.

amazing they are, and last a good bit too.

Mellor

timetogetfit wrote: »

Creatine has no Calories

I know (and even if it did, the quantities are too small to matter) that has nothing to do with what I asked.

colman1212

so where do ya buy choc flavoured powder?!

Typhoon.

Typhoon. wrote: »

this is the chocolatepowder i used

and this was the liquid flavoring

theyre both basicaly the same....prob just less calories in the liquid flavouring

I'm sure ordinary cocoa powder from the suermarket would do the same job.... I hope it does because i'll be getting that in future.... i find the powder from myprotein expensive enough..... even though it is good

my protein or bulk powders

Armedocr

Mellor wrote: »

I know (and even if it did, the quantities are too small to matter) that has nothing to do with what I asked.

Well you talked about liquid calories....anyway to answer your question that small a dose of creatine (5g a week) would do nothing for you, I can see no possible benefits what so ever. Those bars are a ridiculous rip off.

littlehannah96

shakencat wrote: »

Ive made protein buns,

along the lines of the OP ingrediants..(egg whites added in)

but ive baked em..

and added banana, almonds and walnuts instead of the PB.

amazing they are, and last a good bit too.

Ah was looking for a recipe for these on the net earlier. No sign of any! How d'you make em?

shakencat

littlehannah96 wrote: »

Ah was looking for a recipe for these on the net earlier. No sign of any! How d'you make em?

i dont have exact amounts,
i judge by my eye (my left one )

porraige
protein (i use vanilla)
egg whites (i use bout four)
dollop of milk (slimline)
handfull of chopped walnuts,
same with the chopped almonds and coconut (ground)
pop in a smallish banana and mix about..

the texture shud be kinda mushy but not runny,
if it is, add more porraige and lil more protein.

scrumdiddlyumtious,

should take bout 20 mins in the oven(preheated)

the inside wil stay kinda some what moist cause of the banana so dont b afraid when you dont think there cooked!
you'l know by the look of em!

my mate ads a spoonfull of jam and a squirt of toffee sauce,
but theres no real need.


ive stil to try the PB ones,
they sound NIOCE.

Nyom.

TerrorFirmer

had a stab at some yesterday.

50g dark chocolate
half cup of nutella
8 spoons of honey
1 cup of oats
100g whey
100g walnuts

tastes fantastic. 6 bars. about 20g protein per bar.

colman1212

I just made them there,
peanut butter
oats,
milk,
protein

I found that they were unbelievable sticky when trying to cut them and kinda flopped everywhere...That was after 2 hours in the fridge,
Willl they be more like bars if i had put them in the oven? Or if i freeze them.
They look like ill nearly need a fork at work to eat them!

shakencat

i tasted the peanut butter buns,


NYOM.


i would have lovin to have chocolate on them!!

darn OH saying no :rolleyes:

Dathai

I take the 'Oh Yeah!' protein bars. They're easily the best tasting chocolate bar I've ever had. They've about 26g of protein each. They really fill you up.

http://www.discountsupplements.ie/protein-bars-research-yeah-bars-p-70.html

I recommend the vanilla toffee fudge.

kaji

If you bake your home made protein bars in the oven for say 10 mins, will that destroy the whey protein? Or am I mixing it up with Creatine? Just want to get rid of the sogginess!!