Why Protein Bars should be your go-to Snack

Protein bars are a convenient and helpful means to get more protein into your diet. This can benefit your health and body in a number of ways, especially for athletes. However, it’s not that simple. While protein bars, flapjacks and protein cookies are all great tools for athletes to use when improving performance, they’re also great for dieting and losing weight.

Protein plays a critical role in rebuilding and repairing our muscles tissue fibres which become damaged during strenuous exercise. If you have ever gone for a run or hit the gym a little bit too hard and felt that ache the day after? That’s your worn out muscle fibres beginning the process of recovery. The more exercise you do, or the more you wear your muscles out, the more protein you need to recover. Typically, most of us don’t quite enough if we’re physically active to recover at our best.

How much protein is enough?

The daily recommendations for men and women are between 60-80g of protein, however for folks who workout it’s beneficial consuming more than that. If your goal is to get fit and build muscle, eating protein immediately after working out is the most efficient way to do this.

Most good protein bars contain around 20g of protein making them the ideal way to increase your protein intake, especially when you’re in a rush.

Protein can help with weight loss

Protein is much more filling than carbohydrates and even fat (though fat also plays an important role in satiety) and also takes a considerably longer to digest making you feel fuller for longer.

Importantly, protein also reduces the hunger hormone ghrelin which in turn reduces your appetite helping you to eat fewer calories. A quick protein bar between meals can be the easiest way to keep hunger pangs at bay!

Helps You Build Muscle

You’ve probably heard by now of how important protein is for building muscle. The Muscle fibers that make-up our muscles are constructed nearly entirely from protein and require more protein to rebuild after we exercise. If you don’t have enough protein in your diet your muscles can atrophy, and actually weaken!

Increases Fat Burning

A number of studies have shown that consuming more protein can significantly boost your metabolism and increase the number of calories that you burn by around 100 calories, and some studies have shown that in high-protein groups they burned around 260 more calories per day than low-protein groups. The reason for this is that protein requires more effort for your body to digest, described as the thermic effect of food.

Faster Recovery

In the same way that protein is required for repairing and building muscle, it also plays a key role in repairing your body in general when injured, be it your tissues or organs. Even eating a protein bar after a minor injury can make a difference when helping you to recover quickly.