Best protein bars for post-exercise recovery in 2023

Looking for another way to get your protein fix throughout the day or after exercise? We put a range of bars to the (taste) test…

By Rob Slade

Published: Tuesday, 30 May 2023 at 12:00 am

While a standard, balanced diet should typically provide ample protein for people who only exercise lightly, triathletes can often benefit from additional protein to help their body recover and adapt to the strain put on it by a high volume of training.

High-protein foods are great for upping your protein intake, as are protein powders, but if you’re on the go or want something that tastes a little more indulgent, protein bars can be a solid choice.

Here, we put a range of bars to the test to find out which ones are worth your money.

Best protein bars

Tribe Nut Butter Triple Decker

£22 for 12

This morsel couldn’t be in greater contrast than the last Tribe bar I consumed, the Infinity Banofee; its dry, grainy texture proved hard to masticate and reprised memories of bars of old.

Thankfully, this nut-butter bonanza’s the opposite end of the chow-down spectrum, its texture and taste top-notch.

It’s billed as the UK’s best-selling plant-protein bar and we can see why, the crunchy honeycomb base covered in a thick peanut-butter filling and finished off with a vegan-chocolate topping.

Surprisingly, it comes in at just 184kcals with 8g from pea protein. As it features just 9.6g carbs, plus 12g fat, this is definitely more snack/recovery bar than energy bar. Good for vegans and coeliacs, too.

Verdict: Cracking bar for snacking and to stimulate recovery

Score: 87%

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Foodspring Protein Bar

£25.99 for 12

Foodspring might be new to many of us in the UK but the German-born company’s pretty popular in mainland Europe, in part due to Mars’ acquiring a major stake in it in 2019.

Foodspring’s sell is ‘targeted nutrition’, which as far as we can see means a range of nutritious products plus online workouts and coaching.

But let’s focus on this recovery bar, which delivers 13g of protein within 166 calories (for the crunchy peanut bar).

That’s a solid amount of protein from milk sources for a broad amino-acid profile.

Taste and texture’s similar to a Snickers – perhaps not surprising as this falls beneath the Mars’ umbrella – so is rather nice, but we’re not huge fans of an ingredients list that stretches to 20- plus. That doesn’t smack of wholesome. Price is middling.

Verdict: Solid protein bar, but would prefer a more refined ingredients list.

Score: 78%

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Clif Nut Butter Bar

£2.29

We’ve been fans of Clif for years after they were one of the first sports-nutrition brands to create bars that were actually palatable, moist and easily digested.

That Holy Trinity of contentment continues with this organic offering, though its 7g protein content suggests it’s more at home post-exercise than during.

That muscle-repairing sprinkling comes in the form of pea protein. Total calorie count comes in at 227, of which 23g is from carbs and 11g from fat.

Again, it smacks of snacking over on-the-fly fuelling. And snack you might as this is a terrifically tasty package, the chocolate-and-peanut-butter blend proving more delightful than imagined.

Sadly, for a brand proud of their environmental credentials, marks are dropped through the inclusion of the modernday evil that is palm oil.

Verdict: More suited for snacking than on-bike fuelling.

Score: 79%

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Veloforte Mocha

£2.99

Veloforte’s mission highlights just how much influence the laboratories have had on our sports nutrition over the years, and is why Veloforte make great noise about using ‘natural food’.

It sounds obvious, but as we know with mass food production, it can often be anything but. To that end, the key ingredient of this 70g bar is hazelnuts – and not just a powdered facsimile, but real nibbed hazelnuts.

They’re blended with dates, brown rice syrup, cocoa and pea protein for a total 310kcals broken down as 37g carbs, 14g fat and 10g protein.

This 4:1 carb:protein ratio has been shown to maximise the muscle-recovery process and is why this is billed as a protein bar.

Taste is good and, despite being dense, it’s easily chowed down. Just don’t expect a caffeine rush as the coffee flavour comes from the decaffeinated variety.

Verdict: Expensive but you get what you pay for.

Score: 82%