They aren’t ideal, but sometimes, they are life savers. I actually lived on snack bars the entire time I was on my National Guard Annual Training (AT) last year, and it taught me that I can get enough calories from them and feel sufficiently full after eating them to be able to get the right nutrition.

While the snack bars can keep me from feeling hungry and provide me with the requisite amount of calories, they don’t make me feel full, and I find myself getting very hungry sooner than after a real meal. Then, there’s the fact that these bars are typically fruit-based or nut-based and have a lot of calories for their mass. Aside from that, the fruit bars have lots of sugars, albeit natural, and I try to stay away from that.

Snack bars are a great way to replace a meal when there are no healthy options available, but in my experience, they’re best used as a last resort and not a true meal replacement. If you can food prep, that’s the best option. Finding a good, real-food meal is better, and sometimes you can even find these at a decent restaurant, but when the group at the office is going to lunch at a pizza parlor or to a burger joint, you might be better off with a snack bar.