Bar tab: the skinny on nutrition bars: the best nutrition bars are designed to fit your personal patterns.

Puzzled over her inability to lose weight, a woman, 30-ish and in reasonably good shape, approached Denver, Colorado-based certified fitness trainer and nutrition consultant Liane Seiwald.

Seiwald's client ran 30 minutes, five days a week, weight-trained four times a week and thought she was eating a healthy diet. Yet she was gaining weight.

Seiwald asked for specifics about her client's diet, and in seconds knew all she needed to know.

"She was eating three healthy meals a day, but supplementing with energy bars because she thought they were a healthy snack and that she needed the extra protein and carbohydrates to fuel her workouts.

"In fact, the bars were adding way too many calories to her diet, and her body was storing excessive amounts of sugar from the carbohydrates in the bars. She might as well have been eating Snickers."

bar bites

It would have been a better idea if Seiwald's client had actually replaced one of her meals with a nutrition bar because, when incorporated wisely into your diet, bars can be a healthy choice. "They work well for a lot of people," says Liz Applegate, PhD, author of the Encyclopedia of Sports and Fitness Nutrition and Bounce Your Body Beautiful. "Bars are convenient, and they sure beat eating a bag of pretzels for lunch. If you do better with a restricted diet plan, substituting a meal replacement bar one or two meals a day aids in weight loss."