Energy Bars

thegodplato

When I'm out I like to take a bar with me and have been eating Protein Plus bars from Holland & Barrett ( they were half price so though worth a punt ), plus a few other makes of bars. I also have the High 5 gels too. I like to eat a bar, don't ask me why and wondered what other good makes there are out there. I came across 9Bar which seem to me quite high in fat content, although maybe I don't properly understand good fat / bad fat. I was going to get some Maxifuel Active bars as they were BOGOF but thta offer has just finished. Damn!
Any recommendations would be appreciated, thanks.

MattC59

Cliff bars, or Mule bars particularly the apple strudle flavour.

simona75

Clif bars are delicious. They're expensive over here but if you or anyone you know is going to the US you can get boxes of six in Walmart for $5 - thats about 60-70p each.

verloren

Another vote for Mule bars, and another vote for the Apple Strudel

tiredofwhiners

Soreen Banana Bread slices, with something in the middle. You can vary the 'something' to be sweet, savoury or neutral.

amaferanga

Nutrigrain Elevenses are £1 for a box of 6 in Asda at the moment. As good as any energy bar, but much cheaper.

apreading

Mulebars Liquorice are the business, apple strudel good too.

Clif bars are fantastic too - peanut butter or especially the walnut one. There are some new flavours that look exciting too, but not tried them yet.

Nutrigrain are good if you want something cheap.

apreading

amaferanga wrote:

Nutrigrain Elevenses are £1 for a box of 6 in Asda at the moment. As good as any energy bar, but much cheaper.

Not quite as good, but certainly very cheap by comparison.

amaferanga

apreading wrote:

amaferanga wrote:

Nutrigrain Elevenses are £1 for a box of 6 in Asda at the moment. As good as any energy bar, but much cheaper.

Not quite as good, but certainly very cheap by comparison.

In what way are the 'not quite as good'? Having used several makes of expensive energy bars (currently have a box of Zipvit bars that I got for nowt) I don't believe that the expensive energy bars are any better than regular muesli bars, soreen, etc.

apreading

Nutrigrain arent as filling as a mulebar or clif bar or zipvit (I like the blueberry and yoghurt ones and the choccy orange) and are also a bit drier. I have a massive stock of Nutrigrain (always buy in bulk when Tesco do a BOGOF on them) so am a big fan - they are an important part of varying what I eat on long rides. I think its important to mix things up a bit so that you dont get bored or fed up with what you are eatgin.

Nutrigrain are also pretty low fat snack if dieting - much less bad stuff than alot of other snacks - so the family have them on days out too.

I may be wrong but I feel the Nutrigran dont have as much energy in them as the bars I prefer.

Liquorice mulebars as soooo nice that its almost worth going on a long cycle ride just to have the excuse to eat one!

amaferanga

I agree that Nutrigrain are a bit dry. Strangely I only notice them being dry if I eat them on the bike. They work for me though so I don't buy energy bars.

ShutUpLegs

WAIST OF MONEY

springtide9

Only thing really to check is that fat content which can be a bit high on some own brand cereal bars.
And there is the obvious one of some of them being a bit 'dry' on the bike.

As for cost, I've tended to buy them in bulk at about £1 a bar. They are convenient as they seem to have a half life of about a thousand years, and cope with being stuffed into a sweaty jersey for hours before being returned to the cupboard for later consumption.

I'm now also very taken with the Cliff Shot Bloks. These seem to taste OK, and seem to be very easy to consume, but unlike gels don't upset your stomach; they also have the calories of a bar.

As for them being 'a waste of money', that is a matter of opinion. They are food and are relatively inexpensive compared to even the wheels on my bike. I don't eat huge quantities of them, so convenience wins over cost.
TBH, I spend more per week on good coffee in the weekly shop than I do on energy bars, so it's all relative.

Penfold06

Zipvit are my bar of choice. Yogurt coated apricot or banana are the best tastin bars iv tried.

SIS bars are pretty good as well, great value. The bars are pretty big in comparison to most bars and they tend to be pretty cheap, tasted better but they're still pretty nice.

As for them being a waste of money it depends what sort of riding your doing and how hard you pushing yourself guess. The pro's eat them so they must do something, yes I know most of us on here aren't pro's...

ThatBikeGuy

I use clif bars, packed with energy and pretty damn cheap in the US!

nickel

amaferanga wrote:

Nutrigrain Elevenses are £1 for a box of 6 in Asda at the moment. As good as any energy bar, but much cheaper.

I buy a box of Asda's own brand version, 18 bars for £2.48. Don't taste quite as good as actual nutrigrain but they taste ok and do the job. Don't really get why people buy energy bars.

Herbsman

ShutUpLegs wrote:

WAIST OF MONEY

:?

Is that when you keep cash in a special belt?

springtide9

Nickel wrote:

amaferanga wrote:

Nutrigrain Elevenses are £1 for a box of 6 in Asda at the moment. As good as any energy bar, but much cheaper.

I buy a box of Asda's own brand version, 18 bars for £2.48. Don't taste quite as good as actual nutrigrain but they taste ok and do the job. Don't really get why people buy energy bars.

Sound like a bargain. Do you know the fat content percentage?

klep

Herbsman wrote:

ShutUpLegs wrote:

WAIST OF MONEY

:?

Is that when you keep cash in a special belt?

nickel

springtide9 wrote:

Nickel wrote:

amaferanga wrote:

Nutrigrain Elevenses are £1 for a box of 6 in Asda at the moment. As good as any energy bar, but much cheaper.

I buy a box of Asda's own brand version, 18 bars for £2.48. Don't taste quite as good as actual nutrigrain but they taste ok and do the job. Don't really get why people buy energy bars.

Sound like a bargain. Do you know the fat content percentage?

Just checked, 2.6 to 3g of fat per bar (varies slightly according to flavour) with 0.7g of that being saturates. So not too bad really!

Oh and in terms of carbs they're 24g per bar split fairly equally between 12g of sugar an 12g of complex carbs.

edhornby

oats, value bag of sultanas, some honey and butter to bind it, bake it in the oven and hey presto

nickel

edhornby wrote:

oats, value bag of sultanas, some honey and butter to bind it, bake it in the oven and hey presto

The trouble is the amount of fat in homemade flapjack is pretty insane.

velvetytoast

Being someone who can't eat oats - anyone got any ideas for alternatives? I do eat soreen but it would be nice to have something else for a change

Alibran

Nickel wrote:

edhornby wrote:

oats, value bag of sultanas, some honey and butter to bind it, bake it in the oven and hey presto

The trouble is the amount of fat in homemade flapjack is pretty insane.

But it beats any bars for taste IMO (including Nutrigrain Elevenses, although I'd kill for one of those now that people have mentioned them, and I can't get them over here).

My personal favourite ride fuel is chocolate chip and banana cake (recipes online).

nickel

Alibran wrote:

Nickel wrote:

edhornby wrote:

oats, value bag of sultanas, some honey and butter to bind it, bake it in the oven and hey presto

The trouble is the amount of fat in homemade flapjack is pretty insane.

But it beats any bars for taste IMO (including Nutrigrain Elevenses, although I'd kill for one of those now that people have mentioned them, and I can't get them over here).

My personal favourite ride fuel is chocolate chip and banana cake (recipes online).

Oh don't get me wrong I love flapjack, I love it so much I'll end up eating half the batch I've just made and realising thats the equivalent of eating half a pack of butter

redvision

best energy bars i have used are powerbar energise bars.
however, they are pricey, although worth every penny in my opinion.

at the moment i use rice crispie squares. cheap, tasty and pretty good for energy.

springtide9

Nickel wrote:

springtide9 wrote:

Nickel wrote:

amaferanga wrote:

Nutrigrain Elevenses are £1 for a box of 6 in Asda at the moment. As good as any energy bar, but much cheaper.

I buy a box of Asda's own brand version, 18 bars for £2.48. Don't taste quite as good as actual nutrigrain but they taste ok and do the job. Don't really get why people buy energy bars.

Sound like a bargain. Do you know the fat content percentage?

Just checked, 2.6 to 3g of fat per bar (varies slightly according to flavour) with 0.7g of that being saturates. So not too bad really!

Oh and in terms of carbs they're 24g per bar split fairly equally between 12g of sugar an 12g of complex carbs.

So about 5% fat... that sounds OK.... definitely better than when I checked some of them out a year or so ago. Not as low as some of the energy bars, but similar to others (the ones that taste better!). And the fat sounds like it probably comes mostly from the nut content.

Thanks for the info. Useful!

MattC59

ShutUpLegs wrote:

WAIST OF MONEY

Is that the thin bit at the middle of the note ?

scottarm

I buy a box of Asda's own brand version, 18 bars for £2.48. Don't taste quite as good as actual nutrigrain but they taste ok and do the job. Don't really get why people buy energy bars.[/quote]


What he said

turbo_hamster

I like Trek bars. They seem to be aimed at hillwalkers. One bar saw me through the first 25 miles of a 100 mile TT recently. (Then I switched to energy drinks.)

Also like Nakd bars. The ginger flavoured one is especially good on cold training rides. These bars are made from fruit (mostly dates) and nuts (mostly cashews) and I think they are OK for people who can't eat grains.

But most of my long training rides are fuelled by Sainsbury's fig rolls. They are very cheap (about 60p for a pack) so long as you like the taste, I don't think you can do better.

thegodplato

My wife has recently got a cook book called Saved By Baking and in it there are some flapjack style bars called Defibrilator Bars that has Oats, Dried Banana's, Peanut Butter and some other bits that I can't remember. So full of energy they could bring people back from the dead so the author says! So she's going to bake some for me and we'll see if I go bouncing down the road!
Are peanuts any good for you? Thought they had a high fat content.