Looking for opinions on the best protein bars out there, if there is such a thing.

For what purpose? I don't worry about protein while on a ride. Afterward I try to get some good protein.

The word "best" is troubling for me though. If there were a "best" wouldn't all of us be using it?

I'm interested mainly in recovery post ride. By best, I guess I mean the most effective with the least amount of things like sugars, etc. I know it's not a simple question, so if you can suggest something, I'd appreciate it.

If it's for post ride recovery or post workout recovery, then just eat a bacon cheese burger and a plate of fries. Protein bars are useless for recovery after a serious workout, you need real food to recover.

When I come back from a strenuous ride, I go for Stryve Beef Jerky from Walmart. It has little added ingredients other than salt. I don't think it has much in the way of added sugars.

I have given up on "protein bars", which are just candy bars with nuts and stuff. I have reverted to Trail Mix of various types, but when I need an emergency energy bar, it could be Snickers or Cliff Bars Peanut Butter. Cliff is organic.

Lately I've been using several of Hammer Nutrition's products for cycling. After a ride I'll mix a couple scoops of their Recoverite in a 20 oz of water and consume that within an hour of finishing my ride. Recoverite has a good bit of whey protein in it and supposedly it's a quality protein. If I have a little carb mix in my bottles from riding left, I'll mix it with that so I get more carbs too.

It's not a bar though. But after a hard and long ride you probably need to rehydrate more anyway. You still need carbs immediately after a ride too, so don't shy away from them. Unless you only rode a little and only in zone 1, then you burned some glycogen. Carbs will help replace what you burned off trying to get up a hill or any other time you went at it hard.

If I don't do well replacing my glycogen after a ride by consuming the correct amount of carbs, then I'll feel overly tired after the ride and for most of the next day. But managing carbs properly, I'll feel ready for anything. Even another ride.

All this is only for cycling. It's not a model for what your daily nutrition plan should be. That is entirely different.

If you're looking for the healthiest option, and it's for post-ride recovery, I'd try to make a protein shake. Then it's just protein, water or milk, and (most likely) a bit of flavor and sweetener. Far fewer ingredients and just a little extra work.

Looking specifically at bars, consider the ONE Protein Bar. 20 grams of protein and just 1 gram sugar.

Depends on whether your digestion can handle whey or legume based protein powders, the usual ingredients in protein snacks. I can handle whey, but not legumes.

It also depends on the sweetener. Some use sugar, which is easier to digest for most people. Some use sugar alcohols, which offer some advantages and disadvantages -- indigestion, gas, bloating.

I mostly eat meat, eggs and dairy for protein. But in 2018 my esophagus and trachea were compressed and distorted by a thyroid tumor, making it very difficult to swallow solid foods. While I was waiting for the biopsies (took two or three tries) and schedule for surgery, I was mostly on a liquid diet. I tried the vegan thing for awhile -- a friend brought over a big carton filled with vegan stuff, including vegan proteins -- and was absolutely miserable. Even with digestive enzymes I can't handle legumes even in small amounts, let alone as a primary source of protein. I did fine with whey powders and still add a little to my own homebrewed shakes before and after workouts.

But during longer bike rides or runs I usually just carry stuff for sugar and carbs. Sometimes sports oriented stuff like gels and gummies, sometimes just cookies and candy. I can handle a Clif bar or two during a longer workout, but feel sluggish if I eat a burger or whatever during the middle of a longer ride. A local discounter often stocks cartons of around 20-30 stroopwafels for $5, so I'll buy those. The thin packets fit perfectly in a jersey pocket, or my running shorts pocket. And the Mylar packets are perfect toe warmers for winter rides and runs.

Anyway, I usually get Clif or Larabars, because they're easy to digest, don't have too much protein, and the flavor and texture are okay. Occasionally I'll try other protein bars that are on sale but rarely buy them a second time if they contained much soy or legume protein, or use maltitol or other sugar alcohols.

"But during longer bike rides or runs I usually just carry stuff for sugar and carbs. Sometimes sports oriented stuff like gels and gummies..."

Gels are good if you don't mind dealing with the empty packets. As a substitute I carry a small gel flask filled with a concoction of diluted honey & molasses with a little bit of salt. This motabalizes quickly.

Nonsense.

The Clif Bar protein bars are pretty good. Whey protein (ideal for recovery), low sugar, ample fiber.

Nice; I didn't know about them. Some good advice in this thread, except for the bacon cheeseburger. Love them, but man, the fat!

Most of these are like candy - with lots of sugar and sometimes seed oils / soy, canola, whathaveyou. Primal Kitchen Dark Chocolate Almond Collagen are good ingredients wise. It's not going to taste like a pop tart.

I am trying a meal replacement protein shake with natural sweetness.

I agree. If you want more protein, the simplest and best thing is to dissolve about 30g of flavored whey protein (I like chocolate!) in a cup of water or so. I use one of those shaker bottles. Drink it down. If you're using a high quality product, almost nothing but protein is going down your gullet. The ingredients list on my container: whey protein isolate, sunflower lecithin, cocoa powder, natural and artificial flavors, acesulfame potassium, sucralose.

I use the same whey powder I used when I was in the gym. It tastes well, mixes well, has good reviews, ingredients have little trash by the looks of it, and it has a lot of proteins (at the upper range) and not much else, i.e. you get that protein that you want without anything else. Whey powder is also much cheaper per gram of protein than bars. Edit: 1 scoop of mine (40g) is 31g protein, and a bit under 2g of fat and carbs. The latter two are negligible after long ride or hard session, but the 31g of protein is a nice addition to get protein into your system if you wouldn't otherwise.

Recovery drinks/mixes are such rip offs. They don't offer you anything you can't get otherwise but are quite expensive. I usually eat enough carbs to not need the carbs from them, but probably not enough protein, hence why I use whey (after interval sessions or long rides) to get the protein for which you'd otherwise need to plan (dairy, meat, lentils maybe or nuts etc). Pound for pound nothing comes close in getting you just protein. And voila, you have everything a "recovery shake" has.

Thanks for sharing, I will try that.

Sometimes, a meal or the blender isn't possible after a ride.

Power Crunch Protein bars, Kind bars, and some keto friendly bars with not too many carbs but for the life of me, I cannot remember the name. I keep a cliff bar or two in my emergency bag, they seem to last a long time.

2 scrambled eggs & toast

I make up my recovery drink the evening before and put it in the fridge. If I drive to the start. I put it in a small cooler along with my bottles, which I also made up the night before and some blue ice. And yes, Clif Bars are eternal. I usually put a bagel with cream cheese in the cooler, too.

Since about this last July I've been simply drinking chocolate flavored soy milk for a recovery drink. A full 24 fl oz within the forty minutes after a ride. Chocolate milk is good too if you aren't avoiding milk products. Sometimes I'll throw a little of my drink mix that I use while I'm on the bike into it to up the carbs a little.

Since the 1970's I have made my own snack bars so I can chose what goes into my body. My first recipe was carob based brownies that included peanut butter as a prime ingredient. Many thousands of snack bar recipes on the internet and I substitute monk fruit for the sugar component and use a non-wheat flour as I am allergic to wheat and get sinus congestion from it.

I do not want man made chemicals in my food and also do not want animal protein in snack bars and so avoid anything with whey protein as an ingredient. Animal protein is known to feed cancer cells, in particular breast, colon, and prostrate cancer cells, and so I consume very little in my diet.

For energy while cycling nothing beats raisins and bananas. Even doing more than 100 miles a day on week long tours, raisins were my primary snack and source of energy along with a high carb pancake breakfast.

https://minimalistbaker.com/pecan-pi...n-gluten-free/

About 2014 there was a big surge of "Fear This!" about animal protein. Those longitudinal studies lumped all animal sourced protein together, so the reported animal protein was mostly beef, chicken, and pork, and included processed meats, which raises some obvious questions..

Besides that, there are studies which found that whey protein might actually be beneficial in preventing cancer or preventing its spread or recovering from cancer::
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29565716/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/...1002/cam4.2517
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4278910/
https://nakednutrition.com/blogs/protein/can-whey-protein-reduce-risk-cancer
https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/370/bmj.m2412.full.pdf

I also have my own recipe for snack bars which include (shudder) whey protein and (natural) sugar. They're quite tasty and easy to eat, but are not eternal.
On our bike tours, our favorite snacks were toffee coated peanuts and Snickers bars, both of which are eternal and a lot easier to eat than Clif or Power bars.