Honest Review: Built Protein Bars

Are they worth all the hype?

So I've talked about protein bars on the blog before and mentioned how I can't really find any that I like. They either sit too heavy in my stomach, taste awful, or give me major gas cramps from the sugar alcohols.

This was all before we ordered a mixed box of Built Bars to try out and review for the blog. They were not provided to me, I purchased them myself and wanted to give an honest review because of how much hype they receive on the bariatric Facebook groups. So here we go...

First impression: the packaging is nice. They look like candy bars instead of massive, thick squared off protein bars. Because we ordered a mixed box with each variety, we had two each of the top nine different flavors to try. This included Cherry Barcia, Raspberry, Strawberry, Orange, Cookies 'n Cream, Mint Brownie, Double Chocolate, Coconut, and Salted Caramel. The cost was $39.70, but you can get a 12% discount by using the clicking the picture below and using the code SAVE12:

We both tried a Cookies 'n Cream bar first. You guys. For real. From the first bite: I could tell that this was going to be the best candy bar I mean protein bar that I ever tried. The outside is coated in real chocolate and the inside reminds me of the nougat inside a Three Musketeers bar. It's soft and smooth and creamy and just a little chewy like marshmallow and oh my gosh. It has it all - taste, mouth feel, and nutrition. The nutrition in the flavors vary but from what I can see, they run about 130 to 160 calories, 17 grams of protein, and about 5 net carbs per bar. Winner!

The best part for me? While these do have sugar alcohols, they describe them as "digestion resistant". I noticed no ill effects after eating one. In fact, the other day when I was super busy, I ate two bars in one day and I was fine! No extreme gas cramping that made me want to die. It was amazing!

The other flavors are just as good. In fact, my favorite was the Coconut - it was so close to a Mounds bar I had to double check to see what I was eating. It's unbelievable and I can see why there's so much hype on the boards about these. Mike and I both liked these so much that we ordered three more boxes 😳 because they had two limited edition flavors in full boxes - Grasshopper Cookie and Toffee Almond, plus we mixed a box of our three favorite flavors from the sample pack - Cookies 'n Cream, Coconut, and Cherry Barcia. If you know me in person, do you really think I'd drop over $100 on three cases of protein bars if they weren't consuming my thoughts every day?! Luckily (hopefully) those three cases will last us several months!

Simply put - they live up the hype and we love 'em. Try them, you won't be disappointed!