If you’re having some trouble sticking to your diet plan, you may be thinking about turning to a protein bar to get you through those busy movements. While generally you want to avoid protein bars as much as possible as most of them are nothing more than glorified candy bars, if you know what to look for when selecting a bar, you can make a fairly good decision.

While they still will never be ideal, they can be better than some alternatives you could be choosing.

Let’s look at what you should be trying to find in any bar you pick up.

At Least 15 Grams Of Protein

The first thing that you’ll want the bar to have is at least 15 grams of protein. If it contains fewer than this, unless the bar itself is only around 100 calories, it’s too little to make it fit for an actual meal or snack.

Remember that getting in enough protein is the most important thing for any diet plan, so if you’re falling short, it’s going to hinder your progress.

You should aim for 15-20 grams of protein in any snack that you’re consuming.

Less Than 5 Grams Of Sugar

Next, you should also check to see if it has less than five grams of sugar. Most protein bars are loaded with sugar, which is only going to set you up to experience a blood glucose crash shortly after you eat it.

You want any bar you eat to be as low as sugar as possible, so seek out one that is lower carb in nature. Just do be careful because some have very high levels of sugar alcohols, which some people don’t react so favorably to.

Four Grams Of Fiber

Finally, also try and find a protein bar that contains at least four grams of fiber. If you can get the low-sugar, high-fiber working for you, you’ll be picking a good bar.

The more fiber it has, the more slowly it will digest in the body, so the better it will be at calming your hunger pains.

So there you have the main points to look for when selecting a protein bar. You will have to go through quite a number to find these satisfied, but if you keep searching, you can make a wise decision.