Don't Spend $174.96 for FullBar® Diet Bars Until You See This Recipe

You've probably seen the advertisements for the new diet bars sold under the brand Fullbar®, which were developed by Dr. Michael A. Snyder, a weight loss surgeon. According to Dr. Snyder's website, people who eat two of these bars every day lose an average of 40% of their excess body weight in just three months.

Do they work?

There's really only two ways to find out - spend almost $200 to buy a case of real FullBar cookies from the doctor's website, or just make some yourself.

(Editor's note: I just now found this site where you can get a much smaller carton of FullBar diet bars - so it looks like you can try the real thing (12 bars for $24.95) without going broke. But it's still a lot cheaper to make them yourself.

If you listen to Dr. Snyder's explanation of why the bars work, you can't help but remember something your mother said:

"Don't eat that cookie right before dinner - you'll ruin your appetite!"

Yes, a gastric bypass surgeon took that simple concept and is now selling it as an alternative to weight loss surgery.

The weight loss products he sells on his website do not contain any "diet" ingredients. He makes that clear in his video and in the text on his website. In fact, this is almost an anti-diet, because he wants you to do the things that everyone warns you about. Basically, he wants you to eat your dessert before you sit down to your two biggest meals of the day.

And, he claims, this will "ruin your appetite," just like your mother said it would.

The testimonials on Dr. Snyder's website are glowing. However, reviews on other blogs and sites are mixed, to say the least. One of the biggest complaints against the bars is that they're too expensive.

The other complaint is that people tend to use them incorrectly, and then discover that they aren't losing weight.

• Dr. Snyder does not suggest that you eat one of his FullBars whenever you feel the urge for a snack. But that appears to be what many people are doing. Naturally, they don't lose any weight.

My own concern is that the bars my contribute to sugar cravings. And although they don't contain any cane or beet sugar, they do contain brown rice syrup and honey. Anyone who is diabetic should talk to their doctor before buying the real FullBars or making up the recipe for the fake ones on this page.

The basic premise behind his concept is that you eat one of these bars and drink a full glass of water, about 30 minutes before lunch and dinner. Then when you sit down to eat you will already be full so you won't be inclined to eat too much.

This will not automatically prevent you from raiding the fridge between meals or in the evening, as many people on blogs have pointed out. It isn't a substitute for self-control. There isn't anything magic about the bars, and they don't contain any special appetite-supressing herbs or products.

They just "ruin your appetite" if you eat one before your meals.

The bars contain 170 calories, so they can only work if you eat at least 170 calories less during your meal than you normally would, and you don't make up the calories during snack time. My main concern is not about the bars themselves (they're really just cookies, after all) but in the way most people will end up using them.

The bars are made from puffed wheat, and sweetened with brown rice syrup and honey. I looked at the ingredient list on his bars and came up with the following recipe that you can use to try out this idea for yourself. You can get all the ingredients at your local health food store.

I'm not making any claims that this is a miracle cure for obesity - but if you want to try this idea, it sure makes economic sense to make these bars yourself. The recipe below is not an exact duplicate of the bars sold under the brand name FullBar - that recipe is owned by Dr. Snyder's company. I simply reverse-engineered the recipe using the ingredients list.

Many people have mentioned on blogs that the FullBar cookies don't taste all that exciting, probably because they don't have any regular sugar and because most people are not used to eating whole wheat products.

But frankly, I don't think the bars that I made myself are all that bad. And they would get a lot better by the addition of a few extra ingredients, like dates or nuts. I've given some suggestions below the recipe.

I did make a few notable changes to the ingredient list for the bars I made myself:

• I used coconut oil instead of canola oil, because recent research studies have indicated that this is a healthier alternative.
• And I left out the soy protein because there is an increasing amount of concern among nutritionists about the health benefits and safety of soy products. Dr. Snyder claims the protein is an important part of the recipe, so if you want to add it back in, just throw a tablespoon or so of soy protein powder into the syrup before mixing your bars.

The recipe easy - you don't even have to bake them!

"Fake FullBar" Recipe

Ingredients:

1/4 cup coconut oil
3/4 cup brown rice syrup (from the health food store)
3/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon cocoa (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 cups puffed wheat cereal (from the health food store)

Directions:

Measure your cereal into a large bowl. The bowl needs to be big enough so you can easily mix the syrup into the cereal.

Melt the coconut oil in a large saucepan. The syrup will bubble up a lot, so use a pan that has plenty of room.

Add the brown rice syrup and honey, (and cocoa if you're using it), bring to a boil, and boil for 3 minutes.

Remove from heat. Add vanilla and pour syrup over puffed wheat cereal.

Mix well. Press into a greased 9X12 inch cake pan.

Press down on the mixture so it will all stick together. Cover with plastic wrap and cool completely.

Cut into 24 sqares. Each square will have approximately 147 calories.

For variety, you can add up to 1 cup of any of the following in place of an equal amount of cereal. Most of these changes will increase the number of calories:

Raisins or currants
Dried cranberries and walnuts
Shredded coconut
Chopped dates
Sunflower seeds
Chopped apples and walnuts or pecans
Chopped peanuts

There you have it - a simple recipe for puffed wheat cereal bars that may (or may not) help you lose weight.

Articles About the Gastric Bypass Diet:

• The Dumping Syndrome's Affect on Your Diet
• How to Enjoy Dining Out After Gastric Bypass Surgery
• Getting Used to the Post-Gastric Bypass Diet
• This Patient Found the Surgery Easier Than the Post-Gastric Bypass Diet
• This Patient's Relationship With Food Changed After Surgery