Are protein bars and shakes good for weight loss？

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Today we are going to be talking about protein bars and shakes

Are they some sort of magical food that's going to help you to lose weight

If you guys have been around for, gosh, years like me, you've seen all the diets and fads and things come and go

You've probably also seen a lot of different types of programs or companies that are promoting protein bars or protein shakes is some sort of miracle thing for fat loss

So if you've heard these things, let me know in a comment down below

And just let me know that you're joining in live. So I know that you're here. This is live

This is interactive. So I'd love to hear from you guys as well. So we're going to dive into this topic to set the record straight today. Okay

So we're going to talk about the truth about protein bars and shakes. Should you be incorporating them into your nutrition plan

Do they actually work? Do they not work? Is it a waste of money? Is it a gimmick

We're going to be talking about all these things today. Okay. All right, guys, if we haven't met before, my name is Becky Fox. I'm a fitness and nutrition coach that has helped thousands of women over the last 19 years lose the weight for good without yo-yoing or doing crazy diet things out there. So let's go ahead and dive in. And I have a little helpful resource for you guys that are hopping in on this today. I have a high-protein breakfast recipe guide that I've put together. So I'd love to gift that to you, totally free

So just drop protein in the comment down below. I'll follow up with you and get that over to you

Okay. All right. So let's go ahead and dive in, you guys. Okay. So I want to talk about, so first thing, let's talk about protein in general

So just to set the record straight on protein and then we'll dive more into specifics of protein bars and protein shakes and those kinds of things

Okay. So first I'm going to start off with saying that protein is optimal and helpful for fat loss

Okay. So protein in general, not just a protein. talking about protein bars and shakes, but protein in general. So especially for you ladies

as you're hitting your 40s and your 50s and you're trying to lose weight, one of the first things

that we want to focus on is protein. So a lot of times when I'm working with my one-on-one clients

right, this is where we start because I hate to break it to you, but a lot of women are not getting

in enough protein. So when I look at women's food logs when they get started, a lot of times

you're only getting maybe 50 or 60 grams of protein in a day. And a lot of women need

double this. And why is protein so important? So protein is going to be helpful for weight loss

for a couple of reasons. Okay. So I'm going to talk about that real quick first. Okay. So what I love about

protein is it does a couple things, right? Specifically when it comes to fat loss. One, I don't know about

you guys, but when I have, say, a high protein breakfast or I have a lot of protein in my lunch or

something like that, I really feel full from that meal. I feel like satisfied from that meal

a lot of times I will not want to eat anything for a couple hours. So it helps keep me from

wanting to graze, from wanting to snack, from wanting to do these other things that can make it

hard for me to lose weight because I end up eating too much. I'll give you an example. So my go-to

breakfast for a lot of years was a bowl of cereal, usually like Cheerios with milk and a glass of

orange juice. Okay. And I would probably eat, I mean, I know I didn't eat one serving of those

Cheerios, it was probably like three or four, right? So I'm having like four or five hundred calories

for breakfast. But the problem was, is that an hour later, I would already be hungry again. So I find

myself grabbing a granola bar or grabbing a banana or something like that. So typically by

time lunch came around, right, I already had like two snacks along with my breakfast. So my calories

were pretty high at that point. And so when I started learning more about balanced meals and having

protein in my meals and stuff, I switch to having more things like eggs for breakfast or a lot of what I do now is I have eggs and I do chicken sausage or I do cottage cheese or something like that

And what I found is that really helps me stay full for longer I can eat breakfast and I good till lunchtime Okay So this is one of the benefits of protein is that it will keep you from snacking and from raising right And when we do

these things, it's easy to overeat. It's easy to eat too many calories when we're kind of just

munching all throughout the day versus when we sit down and have a meal. But the important thing

with that meal is we have to make sure it sticks with us, right? Because if we're getting overly

hungry or our blood sugar is crashing because we just had a bunch of carbs like I did with the cereal

Right? And our energy goes down. Our craving starts to go up. We're going to find ourselves snacking or munching or grazing. Okay

So this is where protein can be really, really helpful in your meals to help you lose fat and burn weight because it helps us control the amount of calories we're eating

It keeps us from overeating throughout the day. So this is a power of protein that's really, really helpful. Okay

Another aspect of protein that can be really helpful is that when it comes to losing weight, you guys, the number one thing is

It's being in a calorie deficit, okay? It's making sure we're not overeating

So a lot of times the reason we gain weight is because we're eating too much, right

Sometimes we know that because we're like, I eat too much junk food and I'm going out to restaurants, right

But sometimes we can even be eating healthy, right? We can be making healthy food choices and eat too much

So this is where a lot of women can find that they get stuck on their journey because we can still overeat and eat healthy things

Okay. So what protein, how does protein play into this and how can it help us

it can help us eat less, again, because we're feeling full from what we're doing

But what's really cool about protein is when you compare it to carbs or fats, okay

so our main macros are carbs, proteins, and fats, protein actually requires more energy

to break it down and digest it than, say, carbs and fats do, okay

So we actually burn more calories breaking protein down. So if two people were eating the same amount of calories, say they needed 2,000 calories a day

okay, and one person was eating all carbs and fats. and another person had a higher percentage of protein in their diet

the person with more protein will lose more weight because they're burning off more energy because of the higher protein

Now, does this mean we should just eat protein all day? No, I'm not saying that we still need carbs for energy

We still need those healthy fats for hormone production and those kinds of things

So they all play together. But by simply eating more protein, we start to burn more calories

Because I know you guys, what you guys thought, you probably thought that exercise was the only way

to burn more calories, right? But there's other things like movement as well as getting more protein in our diet that

can help with that as well. So this is where protein can be really helpful on the weight loss journey

So I wanted to make sure you guys understand that before I dive specifically into bars and shakes

Okay. So what do we need? We need a calorie deficit, right? Protein can help us feel full or longer

It can help us burn more calories, right, from the composition of what we're eating

but here's the news I want to break to you guys today. So there's a lot of companies out there promoting these protein bars, promoting these

protein shakes as if there's something special. And the thing is, they're not

There's nothing special or magical. A, in protein specifically, right? Like it has some benefits to doing it

But just because we're doing it in a shake or a bar, there's no benefit to that

over, say, having a chicken breast or having some eggs, right? or, you know, getting in, you know, I don't know, some beef jerky or something like that

So, so the thing is, is that, yes, can protein bars be helpful or can protein shakes be helpful

Absolutely 100%, right? If you are struggling to get protein in, okay, like you're trying really hard to get chicken and beef and turkey and, you know, eggs and all these kinds of things

but you're just really struggling to hit that goal that you're trying to reach is that, yeah

having a shake in there, having a smoothie or something or having a bar once in a while can

really help fill the gap. So the way I like to think about protein bars and shakes is not that there's something magical

in them, not that there's anything special in them that's going to help you lose weight

but sometimes they can be used for certain people that maybe need to fill the gap because they really really struggling to get in that protein right So I worked with women who maybe they really busy in the morning and sitting down to make those eggs is a really big struggle So by making

a protein, I would rather have to make a protein smoothie, though, so maybe we can throw some veggies

in there. We can get some healthy fats from, say, avocados or nut butter or something like that

So we're getting more of a balanced meal in that smoothie versus just a protein shake by itself

right, that will help fill that gap for that person that's maybe skipping breakfast

And because of that, they're not getting enough protein. And because of that, they're getting really hungry

And they're eating too much at lunch and getting pizza instead of eating the healthy meal that they brought with them

So this is where that stuff can be helpful. But in and of itself, it is not going to magically make you lose weight just because you eat protein bars and shakes and things like that

There's something special in those things. Now, typically when I work with clients as well, I don't suggest having protein

shakes and having protein bars all day long. Again, it can be a great way to fill a gap

You know, if you're on the go and you're running around, having a protein bar in your bag, it's going to be a way better option than, say, grabbing, you know, a donut or something like

that, right? So sometimes we need it in a pinch. Sometimes it can be helpful to keep us on the right

track, okay? But a couple things that we have to be careful of when we're looking at shakes and

protein bars and things like that is one, the reason I don't want people just eating those all day long

right is because one we need a variety okay it's just like i wouldn't recommend somebody eats chicken

breast every day all day long for every meal right because there's different nutrition there's

different minerals and vitamins and all these great things and even different composition of

aminos and eggs versus chicken versus beef versus you know all these different ways that we can get

protein and so part of the reason i don't want somebody just eating a protein bar that has the

same type of protein all day long it might be a pea protein or something like that

that it's because it's taking away this variety that we get when we have all different kinds of

meats and protein type foods into our day. Okay, there's a lot of healthy benefits and a lot of

other things in those protein meals that can be really, really helpful for our health, for

those kinds of things. Okay. So that's number one is that variety. Two, a lot of stuff out there

You guys, you've got to read the labels on those protein bars. Some of them are pretty much like glorified candy bars. If you look at the label, there is a lot of

sugars added into that stuff. There's a lot of processed ingredients added into that stuff

You'd be amazed about, you know, if you're eating like four protein bars a day, how quickly

the sugars in that can add up. Now, I'm not saying we should never have sugar. Okay

I'm not one of those people that it believes in extremes, right? But I don't know about you

but if I'm going to have sugar, I'd rather have a little bowl of ice cream or maybe a cupcake or

something like that versus getting it from protein bars all throughout the day. I way would rather have

you know, some chicken or something like that and then save that sugar for a sweet treat or something

that I'm really going to enjoy. So, so that's another, that's another factor to consider in

And also for a lot of people, one thing that I noticed, and for me, myself as well, when I just

have a protein shake, you know, like one of those little bottled protein shakes or I have

you know, just a protein bar by itself, I don't, because a lot of times it's protein that's already

pre-digested, right? So if you think, you know, you know, when you eat a chicken breast, there's a lot of chewing

There's a, it tends to stick with you a lot longer than say, I can drink a protein

shake and feel hungry again, an hour later. So it typically often won't stick with me as long and I find myself hungrier

I find my cravings going up more. So maybe you guys have noticed that as well before

So even though it's a great way to get that protein in, you know, it's easy for me to

overeat because I find myself grazing or wanting to snack an hour or two hours later and it doesn't

hold me over my next meal. So again, that's another reason why when I do have women do smoothies, right, as part of a plan to fill the gap, I want to bulk that smoothie up

Because I know for me for me to have a smoothie that sticks with me I got to have protein but I also typically will throw stuff like avocados in there and a big handful of spinach and things like that so that the fiber and the protein together as well as some of the fats from the avocado will stick with me for longer and I not going to find myself snacking and grazing right So here the thing guys just like anything else a lot of it comes down to that calorie balance

So we can overeat protein bars. We can overeat protein shakes, and that can keep us from losing weight

And there's nothing special in that stuff that's going to all of a sudden just make you guys drop the pounds

Now, how can it work is sometimes we're going from eating a lot of

we're overeating a lot of foods, and it might help us, right? So, you know, there's some of these companies like Octavia, Herbalife or things like this, where we're doing a lot of these bars and shakes and things like that

And yes, we may lose weight because we're eating less because we're eating these things instead of, say, you know, donuts for breakfast or this muffin that has a lot of calories or things like that

So that's why you'll see people lose weight, not because there's something special in those bars and things, but because now we're actually eating less calories than we were before

And it's putting us in a calorie deficit, right? And maybe, yes, we are getting more protein than we were before

So it's helping with that thermic effect. Okay, we're burning more calories, digesting that protein than we were before

But the thing is, is we can get the same result by simply, you know, having eggs for breakfast

instead of donuts or, you know, having a big salad with some chicken on it or some salmon

on it or something like that for lunch, okay? And the thing with this for a lot of people, too, is that having a, you know, having a big salad

with salmon and maybe some, you know, some crunchy, like nuts on it and a salad dressing that

tastes really good. That's going to be more satisfying. That's going to be more filling than, say, just having a quick little protein shake that

you chugged down. And then you kind of, like, missed out on eating. Like, I like to chew stuff

I like to chew my food. So even the satisfaction of, like, really enjoying the taste and the textures in the meal

can make a big difference and actually helping you stay on track or not

And anytime you're assessing anything, any type of program, time of diet or anything like that, it's ask yourself, could I do this for the rest of my life

And so the other thing to factor in is, do you want to be drinking protein shakes and protein

bars for the rest of your life? Okay, do you want to? I certainly don't. I don't know that you

would either. And so, you know, the thing that we do to lose the way, we also want to make sure

that we can actually continue to do that, you know, as a habit so that we keep that weight off

And if we can't, right, if we see these protein bars and these shakes is something we do for a while

and stop, what's going to happen? You're going to go right back to old habits and you're going to do the thing that got the weight on in the first place

Okay, so it's important as we're losing weight that we're doing it in a way that's something that we can see ourselves continuing to do in the long run so that that that

that weight doesn't just come off and then come right back on, right? And for a lot of people, you know, eating meals, being able to eat meals with your family, being able to go out to restaurants and figuring out how to do that, right

Nobody wants to be taking a protein bar to a restaurant, right, and watching everybody else eat

So what is the longevity of what you're doing? So that's really something to factor in as well when you're looking at something

especially a program that's heavily focused on protein bars and shakes and things like that

Is there some longevity there? Okay. All right, guys. So that is my tips for you guys today on protein bars and shakes

Let me know in a comment below. Did you find this helpful? Did you have a takeaway from today

Let me know what that was. And hopefully this will give you some insight on deciding, is this something I should do

or something that maybe isn't the best route for me. And hey, just a reminder, I, so one of the things I love is starting your day with a high

protein meal and it doesn't have to be a shake. It doesn't have to be a protein bar

Now, it could be a shake or a smoothie, like I mentioned, if that works for you

So I actually have a, the breakfast guide that I put together, it has a few smoothies in there

for you guys, but it also has a lot of other things like some eggs and some using locks and

things like that for your breakfast. So just drop protein down below in a comment

get that over to you, you know, as a way for you guys to start your day with that protein

Because I can guarantee when you start your day with a higher protein, you're going to feel

full, satisfied. It's going to set your day up for success. And no, it doesn't have to be a protein bar or a protein shake

All right, you guys, thank you so much for being here with me today. I really truly appreciate it

And I look forward to seeing you next time