Often when we want to lose weight and improve our body composition, we focus on changing our caloric intake.

But, especially if we want to change our body composition and not just lose weight on the scale, we can’t just focus on cutting calories.

If you want to create body composition changes, you need to focus on not only how many calories you consume, but on the type of calories you consume.

Not all calories are created equal.

If you are concerned with building and retaining lean muscle mass (which you should be) while you lose body fat, you need to make sure that you focus on consuming enough protein.

One great way to add in more protein to your diet, especially to support muscle growth from your workouts is by consuming Whey Protein Powder.

Don’t like the taste of protein powder in a protein shake?

Then here is a Homemade Protein Bar recipe that not only hides the taste of the Whey Protein but is also a great pre-workout snack because of the macro balance (and the little bit of caffeine from the coffee). These Vanilla Almond Coffee Oatmeal Protein Bars will give you energy to power through your workout so you can build lean muscle mass!

Homemade Protein Bars – Vanilla Almond Coffee Oatmeal Protein Bars

These Homemade Protein Bars are a great healthy snack or breakfast option for when you are short on time because you can make them ahead of time and eat whenever you need something quick.

To make these Vanilla Almond Coffee Oatmeal Protein Bars, you will need the following ingredients:

Ingredients:
1 cup Gluten Free Rolled Oats
1/4 cup Natural Creamy Almond Butter
1/2 cup Cold Coffee (we used Trader Joe’s Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate)
3 scoops Natural Vanilla Whey Protein Powder (we used Optimum Nutrition)
1/2 tbsp Organic Honey

Measure out all ingredients and add to one big bowl. Mix all the ingredients together until everything is completely combined.

Then scoop out the dough into a either a brownie pan or a small rectangle tupperware container (we used the tupperware so we could then just refrigerate and store it in the same thing).

Refrigerate for 30 minutes and then cut into 8 bars. You can then either store it in the tupperware or choose to individually package each bar to make it an even easier quick snack to grab. Store in the refrigerator.

If you make 8 bars out of the recipe, the nutritional breakdown is below.

Nutritional Breakdown Per Bar:

Calories: 139
Fat (g): 5.6
Carbs (g): 11.4
Protein (g): 12.2

With this recipe, you can also change up the bars by using a different flavor of protein powder or even a different nut butter! What is your favorite homemade protein bar recipe?