To Bar Or Not To Bar... That Is The Question. The Skinny on Nutrition Bars
Jan 03 '01 (Updated Jan 09 '04)
The Bottom Line Read the labels, know the ingredients and shop wisely!
Face it - if looking good and being fit were easy then everyone would be a supermodel or GQ centerfold. I have been a body builder for over 15 years now – and by bodybuilding I mean lifting weights, power lifting and cardio activities. I am a shade under six foot tall and weigh in at (running to the scale) 217 pounds. Now, some of you might think I am a horse or extremely over weight – wrong. My body fat percentage is a sleek 14 %. I have spend countless hours at the gym working my body – pushing it to it’s limits. I can look in the mirror and say that I am pleased with my body – but it wasn’t always that way.
If you think a protein bar is going to be a miracle cure to shed unwanted pounds or to turn you into a muscle clad man then you are sorely mistaken. Protein bars, low carb bars, low fat bars and meal replacement bars are not a cure all. In many cases people are wasting their money on these bars because they do not exercise nor do they eat properly to achieve their desired results. If you want to lose weight don’t stop eating – start eating. The key to weight loss is to build muscle and boost your metabolism. Caloric restrictive diets may work for the first week but all too soon the scale will read the same weight to you every time.
While I was a protein bar junkie - I am no longer. I would rather eat two grilled chicken breasts or a can of tuna than ingest something full of sugar and carbohydrates. Have you ever looked at the ingredients on some of these bars? Most I cannot pronounce and a few of them just plain scare me.
So who can benefit from a protein / nutritional bar? Serious athletes. The average Joe on the street who goes to the gym three or four times a week certainly doesn’t burn that many calories to warrant needing a protein bar. Again, you are better off with some chicken, a nice piece of grilled fish or even beef jerky. This goes in the same category as Gatorade – unless you are running a marathon or it is 120 degrees outside chances are that your body won’t even use 1/10th of the product you are ingesting. More wasted money.
Now, some people are going to sit there and whine and say, “I just don’t have the time to cook or start the grill”. Well, let’s do some math here. I am going to say that each bar costs roughly $2.00. Some bars (Steel Bars, Blaster and Hy Blend) are about $1.29 while some (Keto Pro, High Carb and Met RX) can run as much as $3.00 each. So if you eat packing away one a day that comes out to about $30.00 to $60.00 per month – just on bars. Sorry, but that same amount of money can buy an awful lot of chicken breasts or canned chicken / tuna.
So you are still sticking to your guns about these nutritional bars? I’m sad to say that most people use these bars as a safety blanket – that if they eat them they will be transformed. Wrong again. I have invested too much time into my body to not research the products I put in it. There are so many conflicting reports on protein bars and their nutritional content that I have stopped using any of them until I see some real laboratory reports. While the bars are manufactured to help people eat a little better when time is short – it may actually be doing more harm than good.
More harm than good you say? Yes. Let me tell you my story. I was a fat kid – teased and laughed at. I worked extremely hard to lose my unwanted weight. If I sat down and added up the hours I spent at the gym or at home on my treadmill I would probably get sick. Since I have this “fat dilemma” I maintain a very low carb intake. Usually less than 20 grams per day but I vary that number to keep my metabolism high. There are a variety of low carb bars on the market today that claim to have between 3 to 5 grams per bar. That’s great if it were true. Since I don’t worry about fat or calories and only concentrate on the number of carbs I have to think long and hard about these bars. Let’s say I eat 2 bars a day to fend off cravings for sweets – and each bar claims to have 3 grams of carbs but really has 10. Well, that means that my diet of red meat, fish, chicken, cheese and eggs is basically going to work against me. You body uses carbohydrates for energy, when carbs are not ingested then your body turns to stored fat as a source of fuel. This is not the Atkins diet – that is simply too dangerous for me.
So. Do I want to pick up a bar that may or may not have 3 grams of protein or do I want to make some scrambled eggs, bacon and ham? That is such a tough decision (extreme sarcasm). I have been in many heated discussions about bars and the dangers of them. Some people use these to replace an entire meal and other use it hoping to shed unwanted fat. The weight loss bars are a wonderful concept – if they worked. The trouble is that you simply cannot replace an entire meal with one of these bars. Your body will want more – more than 2 to 3 ounces of scientifically engineered food.
There is no short cut to weight loss or muscle growth. It takes work – and lots of it to achieve your desired goals. Putting your faith into a nutritional bar is foolish – you will be disappointed. Beyond disappointment there is the chance that someone may be discouraged completely from trying to lose weight. How many times have you been on a diet and just snapped? I would hate to think that someone wasted time and money investing in these weight loss or meal replacement bars and gave up completely. You are the key to success – you and only you can exercise and eat better.
But what about those pro body builders who advertise this stuff in magazines? OK, time for the awful truth. Bodybuilding is not what it used to be – getting big, having muscle, being strong. Now it is muscle, muscle and more muscle. Look at any muscle magazine and you will see freaks. Steroid taking freaks. I don’t feel the least bit bad about saying that because most of the endorsements are lies anyway. Do you really think Mr. Smith got to be as big as he is by taking creatine or eating some protein bar? Sure he works out at the gym but he’s got more steroids running through his system than 10 U.S.D.A. cows. It really ticks me off to see then say “all natural” since it is nothing more than a bold face lie. Yet the publishers and nutrition companies recruit then as spokespeople – to lure the unsuspecting consumer into thinking that all that muscle and fitness is just a bar away.
What it all comes down to is this – dedication. If you are dead set on getting in shape and still want to use protein, nutritional or meal replacement bars then at least research them. There are yearly reports on all the sports related products that give a details laboratory analysis of their contents. The big scam is protein powders, some are right on the money but those that are off are way off spec.
If anyone needs help – with any type of weight loss – all I can do is offer my advice on the subject and my own personal experiences. My email address is located on the Epinions home page and I will answer any letters, comments or questions that I receive. I am not a doctor and do not claim to be, I am someone who has found happiness – it just happens to be at the gym on the leg press machine – screaming at the top of my lungs.
Good luck and thanks for the read - ^V^ Freak ^V^
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