I get variations on this question quite a bit. People ask me if there are any bars that they can pick up at the grocery store that are going to be as effective as the Medifast bars. I have a definite opinion on this, which I’ll share in the following article. I will also outline some of the characteristics that I think make these bars so effective to help you to understand what attributes you might want to look for if you are trying to find an alternative.
Some Of The Characteristics That Make The Medifast Bars Effective: I realize that it might seem more convenient to get your diet foods from the same place where you buy your groceries. But, having all of the characteristics of these bars is a tall order for most main stream products.
Let’s take a look at the Medifast bars so that we are comparing apples to apples. For the purposes of this article, I’m going to be talking about the crunch bars. This product contains 110 calories, 3 grams of fat, 12 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of sugars, and 11 grams of protein. When you go down your store aisles, I suspect you’re going to have a difficult time finding another bar that has such low calories, carbs, and sugars while maintaining a high level of protein. But, to look closer at the point, I’ll take a look at a couple of popular bars that are readily available and are, at least by most people, considered to be pretty healthy.
Comparing Two Popular Grocery Store Diet Bars: First, I’ll look at Special K protein snack bars. In terms of calories, this one is actually pretty comparable. It only has 110 also. And, it has 3.5 grams of fat. But, where it goes off track a bit, at least in my opinion, is in it’s sugar content and low amount of protein. This product contains a high 11 grams of sugar and only 4 grams of protein. It has 15 grams of carbohydrates.
Now, let’s look at Kashi’s Go Lean protein bar. This product has a good deal more calories at 180. It contains a 30 grams of carbohydrates, 13 grams of sugar, 5 grams of fat, and 9 grams of protein. As you can see, the sugar, calorie, fat, and carb content are all higher than you might like. It also has the lowest protein content of all of the products that I’ve looked at.
Many so called protein bars are not as good for you or as effective at weight loss as you might think. And, when you look at their ingredients, you’ll often see that one of the first ingredients listed is some form of sugar. For example, you might see corn syrup or honey listed as one of the first items. If you look at the Medifast bars, you’ll see protein listed there instead.
People often have the perception that the store bars are cheaper and are just as effective. But, I hope this article has shown you that many of them have high sugar and carb content, while lacking protein. If you accept that taking in fewer calories and carbs while upping your protein intake is important to your weight loss success, then you might also suspect that the Medifast bars are more likely to help you achieve this based on their nutritional information. And, they are not that much expensive either. Yes, you must order them online, but this is a pretty quick and easy process.
