Bars

A bar is food you can carry, not a pill. Most bars in our sports nutrition range are built on whey or milk protein, on soy and pea protein, or on a blend, bound together with syrups, fibre and fats. Protein contributes to the growth and maintenance of muscle mass. That is the role the European food safety authority (EFSA) approves for protein, and it is why the grams per bar tell you more than the front of the wrapper.

The bar types you will find on this page

• High protein bars: usually 15 to 22 g protein per bar, chewy or layered, often coated. Made for after training or as a filling snack.
• Low sugar bars: the same protein idea, sweetened with maltitol or erythritol instead of syrup. You will find most of them in the protein bar range.
• Oat and flapjack style bars: more carbohydrate, less protein, easier on the stomach before a long ride or run.
• Nut and fruit bars: short ingredient lists, moderate protein, useful when you want a snack rather than a protein hit.

Two ingredients decide how a bar sits in your stomach. Sugar alcohols such as maltitol keep the sugar figure low, but in larger amounts they can cause wind or a loose stomach. Added fibres such as chicory root inulin do the same for some people. Coatings matter as well: chocolate coating adds fat, so a bar with 20 g protein can still sit above 200 kcal. Reading those three lines, protein, sugars and fat, takes ten seconds and tells you what you are actually buying.

How we choose the bars we stock

We judge a bar on three things: the protein source, the amount per bar, and what carries the taste. We prefer bars with at least 15 g protein and an ingredient list you can read out loud, and we pass on bars where sugar and palm fat do most of the work. We stock whey based bars, such as those from Barebells, next to plant based options, so the choice follows your diet and not our margin. Every bar passes our compliance team before it goes live, we taste them ourselves, and independent labs spot-check batches. Read how we select brands and products.

Who bars genuinely suit

A bar earns its place when the alternative is skipping food or buying whatever sits by the till. It works well after training, between meetings, on a train, or in a rucksack on a walking day, because it needs no fridge and no prep. Before long endurance efforts the limiting factor is carbohydrate, not protein, so energy gels or an oat bar suit that moment better than a dense protein bar.

Be honest about the trade-off. Per gram of protein, a bar costs more than powder or than eggs and quark, and you are paying for convenience and flavour. Used two or three times a week, a bar makes a daily protein target realistic on the days when cooking does not happen. That consistency is the benefit, and it is a real one.