Probar MEAL Bar Nutritional Information

I occasionally like Probar’s Meal Bars,  but on the trail, I find that eating all 3 ounces is a bit much, and wondered why. So I put together this table to help sort things out –

For me, that is to much fat when maintaining a high pace.  I think they will become “dinner” bars.

YMMV

I learned lots of lessons when I hiked the JMT. One was don’t bring 18 of the same Probars for breakfast. I doubt I will ever eat another Superfood Slam ever again.

The rest still taste good to me and I feel great when I eat them.

Until I dialed in my food and snacks I used to carry a Probar as my “extra” food – I really like them but would rarely eat a whole bar in one sitting.  If I started one I’d eat a third of it and then wrap it up and leave the rest for later (or the next day).

I’m a big guy (270 lbs) and was always surprised at how a Probar could fill me up.  The EMS we had here in Lancaster (PA) closed so I’d have to order them online now.  Sad.

I really like probars and as you all have said it is really hard to eat an entire bar a one time and then try to move.  Backpacking I’ll typically eat 2 per day taking a couple bites off a bar every hour or two.  And on long dayhikes (30+ miles) I’ll eat 1/2 bar every hour.  But after a long dayhike I am happy not to see a probar for a couple weeks.

3 oz seems like a pretty big bar too, compared to most.

My strategy regarding bars and getting sick of them is to just constantly switch brands. I generally go for whatever is on sale at the grocery store right before each trip.

The only exception is Huppybars. It might be placebo effect because they’re made in Flagstaff a few blocks from my shop, or maybe I subconsciously avoid overeating them because I don’t want to get sick of them. Either way I’ve brought a few on every trip in the past couple of years and haven’t gotten tired of them yet.

I too really like ProBars.  I still buy them, but eat them mostly for breakfast at work.  For backpacking I have eschewed almost all bars in favor of “real food”.  Cereal, Oatmeal, instant Grits for breakfast.  Dates, Cheese, Salami, tortillas, PB2, gorp for lunch and snacks. Home made and dehydrated hot meals for dinner.  It’s more work that grabbing bars off the shelf, but I almost always really enjoy mealtime, and I’m very pleased with the reduced sodium intake from eliminating Freeze Dried and other commercial meals.

Another surprisingly great trail food: Fritos.  Not the flavored kind.  only 3 ingredients and not as much sodium as I would have thought.  Added benefit… they are great fire starters :)

“For me, that is to much fat when maintaining a high pace.  I think they will become “dinner” bars.”

They also contain ~8 grams of protein, which is far more difficult to digest than fat.  That said, both are more difficult to metabolize than carbs, which break down, get into the bloodstream and on to the muscle cells fastest of all.  My strategy is to rely on liquid carbs when I’m on the move and get my fat from body reserves on demand.  This strategy avoids competition between the stomach and the working muscles for blood to supply the oxygen and nutrients required to drive their respective processes.  Protein can wait until evening, when the heat generated from metabolizing it helps warm my sleeping bag.  It’s a poor source of calories in any case.  I’m a big fan of Probars, and include one in every evening meal on the shorter trips, up to 8 days, that are now about my limit.

My 2 cents.