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Since granola is a mix of many foods, like grains, nuts, and fruits, a careless recipe can fail to deliver a high number of calories, which depend on the used ingredients and their ratio. For example, nuts, seeds, and oils have more calories than grains or fresh fruits.
Thus, finding granola recipes, packages, or bars with the right calories can be tedious.
The good news?
Usually, mixtures like granola or muesli have more calories than most cereals, such as oats or wheat.
If prepared right, granola becomes a high-calorie snack or breakfast that can help people meet increased energy needs, gain weight, and build muscle. Look at granola as the upgraded version of the classic cereal bowl.
Yet, the number of calories in granola recipes and products isn't the only fact that matters. Many fall into the trap of thinking every granola is healthy.
Heck, per Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, the adjective granola can describe a person "eating healthy food, supporting the protection of the environment and having liberal views."
The ugly truth? Many granola products and recipes have too much added sugar, contain additives, and are full of unhealthy fats.
As a certified personal trainer and nutritionist, it's my duty to offer you healthy alternatives.
So, we created muscle-building recipes for granola and granola bars that also serve as healthy pre-workout meals. Besides, we found the wholesome granola products with the highest calories and effects on muscle growth.
To create the homemade recipes and curate the best granola products in the most popular US stores, we focused on the following characteristics:
Ready to make or buy the best granola of your life? Let us guide you!
Before getting to the recipes, let's learn the basics of preparing high-calorie granola at home.
Homemade high-calorie granola is a breakfast cereal made by baking a mixture of grains, nuts, and seeds glued together by a combination of sweeteners and fats. Once it's out of the oven, you can add fruits (usually dried), chocolate chips, and other flavors. Also, you can pair granola with eggs, dairy, or protein powder for extra protein.
Compared to ready-to-eat granola, homemade granola is generally healthier and cheaper.
Wondering how many calories should high-calorie granola have?
Expanding on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's classification of the "high" nutrient claim, granola should meet one of these two conditions to be high-calorie:
Granola is rich in calories because most of its ingredients are high-calorie foods. The type and ratio of each ingredient will determine your granola's proportion of macros (protein, carbs, and fats).
The more fats your granola has, the more calories it's going to have.
Thus, the homemade granolas with the highest calories have an increased proportion of fatty ingredients, like nuts, seeds, and oils.
Without further ado, here's the list of ingredients you can pick from to make granola.
Grains are the core ingredient of granola. They bring complex carbs, including fiber, and some proteins.
Nuts and nut butters contain healthy fats, protein, and carbs, including fiber. They're also rich in calories. As a pro tip, choose nuts over nut butter for a crunchier granola, or vice-versa for a softer granola.
Seeds bring fats, protein, and some carbs, including fiber, to your granola. You can also use seed butter, like sunflower seed butter. When it comes to calories, seeds have similar levels to nuts.
Animal fats or oils add lots of calories to your granola and help stick everything together. Don't forget that many fat sources contain saturated fats, which you want to limit.
Sweeteners, a source of simple carbs, combine with fats to form a glue that holds granola together. Don't forget that natural sweeteners are still considered added sugars.
Fresh and dried fruits bring carbs, flavor, and plenty of vitamins and minerals to granola. If you want to add dried fruits, sprinkle them after baking the granola to avoid burning them. Choose high-calorie fruits for a granola with more calories.
Chocolate brings extra flavor, fats, and carbs to granola.
You can add protein sources to the granola mixture to increase total proteins.
When you serve granola, pair it with dairy products to get more proteins and calcium.
Learn how to make high-calorie granola at home by following these recipes.
Calories/serving: 600
An easy granola recipe with 43 g of proteins that energizes and helps you build muscle. Enjoy a crunchy but nutty flavor with notes of fruit.
Calories/serving: 604
If you lack the time to eat at home and struggle to gain weight, try these delicious granola bars. They are rich in proteins, fast to prepare, and perfect for bulking up. In comparison to our protein granola, these bars are sweeter and more peanut buttery.
You can store granola in a lidded jar, a vacuum-sealed bag, or an airtight container.
Let's explore some health benefits of adding high-calorie granola to your diet.
Here are the reasons why both of our granola recipes help you build muscle:
These characteristics above make our granola recipes perfect for people bulking up. But let us explain.
Because our granola recipes are high-calorie, they will help you stay on a caloric surplus.
After all, the recipes deliver 600-604 calories/serving, about a third of a 2000-calorie diet. This is because our granolas are made with many good sources of calories.
For example, almonds and peanut butter count among the high-calorie nuts and nut butters. Also, sunflower seeds, oats, and olive oil count among the list of high-calorie foods. Moreover, raisins are one of the fruits with the most calories.
If you don't know what caloric surplus means, know it's eating more calories than you consume. And it's essential for building muscle.
The International Society of Sports Nutrition has the same position. In 2017, after reviewing over 140 scientific articles, they concluded that people who want to build muscle efficiently should follow diets that get them into a "sustained caloric surplus."
You can eat high-calorie granola when cutting too. In this case, you'll need to make sure you stay on a caloric deficit.
Besides increasing calories, our granola recipes will maximize your muscle-building efforts. Why? First, a serving of either recipe has a whopping amount of 43 g of protein, which is optimum for gaining muscle.
What is optimum, you ask?
Trying to find out how much protein can the body use in a single meal for muscle-building, researchers came to the following conclusion.
"To maximize anabolism one should consume protein at a target intake of 0.4 g/kg/meal across a minimum of four meals in order to reach a minimum of 1.6 g/kg/day. Using the upper daily intake of 2.2 g/kg/day reported in the literature spread out over the same four meals would necessitate a maximum of 0.55 g/kg/meal," Brad Schoenfeld and Alan Aragon concluded in 2018.
For example, to maximize muscle-building, a 176 lbs (80 kg) individual needs 32-44 g of protein from one meal. Do you remember how much protein our granola recipes have? 43 g.
Right on target.
Second, since they're also rich in carbs, our granolas are some of the best pre-workout meals for muscle gain.
One of the vitamins in our granola dishes that impacts muscle growth is vitamin B12. Both recipes pair the granola with nonfat Greek yogurt, a source of B12.
Don't take our word for it. Here is scientific proof published in the Advances in Nutrition journal. Researcher Lindsay Allen states that one of B12's roles is to restore methionine, an amino acid used in protein synthesis.
Besides B12, another compound that improves muscle growth is choline. It's present in our granola recipes because of the oats and the nonfat Greek yogurt.
The researchers behind a 2020 review of scientific studies that examined choline highlighted the compound's contribution to muscle growth and physical performance.
Our granola recipes fight muscle cramps and reduce muscle damage during exercise. Thus, they increase performance. The granolas do this because they contain peanut butter and olive oil, which have vitamin E.
A 2013 Nephro-Urology Monthly study of 20 patients with renal disease showed Vitamin E significantly reduces muscle cramps.
Moreover, a 2009 study of 21 participants published in The Journal of Physiological Sciences reached interesting results. The researchers concluded that vitamin E supplementation protects against oxidative stress and muscle damage.
More recently, a 2022 review published in Nutrients showed that even a low dose of vitamin E could prevent "exercise-induced muscle damage."
Another mineral you get from consuming our granola recipes is zinc. And guess what? Oats, the core ingredient of our recipes, are a good source of zinc.
According to a 2020 Redox Biology review, zinc helps you form new muscular cells and regenerate depleted muscular tissues.
No matter when you eat them, our high-calorie granola dishes energize you for many hours. They're rich in complex carbs, low in added sugars, and abundant in vitamins and minerals that help your body produce energy.
The American Heart Association backs this up. Complex carbohydrates will give you energy for a longer period than simple carbs, like the ones found in white bread or candies.
Fortunately, our granola recipes are full of foods that contain complex carbs:
The only added sugar in our granola recipes comes from honey. Both recipes respect the recommendation of the 2020-2025 edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
According to the DGA, the calories we get from the added sugar in our diet should not exceed 10% of our daily calories.
Besides carbohydrates, our granolas have compounds that help the body get and use energy found in foods:
Let's look at some proof regarding the above micronutrients' roles.
A 2020 scientific review of B vitamins, vitamin C, iron, magnesium, and zinc is titled "vitamins and minerals for energy, fatigue, and cognition."
Sources of B vitamins in our granola recipes:
The only good source of vitamin C in our recipes is the strawberries.
As for magnesium, oats and peanut butter contain plenty of it.
Some ingredients rich in iron found in both of our recipes are peanut butter and cocoa powder.
When it comes to phosphorus, the National Institutes of Health describe it as a component of "the body's key energy source, adenosine triphosphate (ATP)."
The best source of phosphorus in both of our granola recipes is the nonfat Greek yogurt.
The same NIH state that copper is involved in energy production. In our recipes, sunflower seeds, peanut butter, and cocoa powder bring most of it.
As for manganese, a 2015 article reviewed manganese's effects on health. The research states that the mineral plays a role in significant physiological processes, including energy metabolism. Most of the manganese in our recipes comes from oats.
Our granolas also contain chromium, which "might play a role in carbohydrate, lipid, and protein metabolism," per NIH. In our recipes, chromium comes from peanut butter.
Besides, a 2022 study on 138 soccer players states from its beginning that molybdenum plays an important role in adapting our bodies to physical training. Oats and peanut butter bring molybdenum in our recipes.
Both of our high-calorie granola recipes strengthen your bones and connective tissues because they contain calcium, copper, manganese, boron, and vitamin C.
A 2012 scientific review of the essential nutrients for bone health agrees. It found that calcium, copper, manganese, boron, and vitamin C are commonly used to improve bone health.
You can make the protein granola or the granola bars on a Sunday and have servings for a whole week.
Another great thing about choosing granola?
You can eat one serving of either of our high-calorie granola recipes in about 5 minutes. You don't need much time to eat our granolas since they're made with low-volume high-calorie foods, like olive oil, seeds, and peanut butter.
If you go outside, it's easy to bring a couple of granola bars with you. They're especially handy if you love backpacking or hiking. Hey, you can even have them with a healthy Starbucks drink on your way to work.
When it comes to our protein granola, you can stay classy and eat it from a bowl, or you can get fancy and use it as a topping for pastries and desserts, or in high-calorie smoothies.
If you don't have time to bake granola at home, you can buy a package of ready-to-eat granola or a snackable granola bar.
How many calories should high-calorie granola products have?
Following the FDA's guidance on the "high" nutrient claim, ready-to-eat high-calorie granola should meet any of the next conditions:
For example, a 150-calorie granola bar weighing 50 g is not high in calories since neither the 50 g serving size nor its 100 g version reaches 400 calories.
To find the healthy varieties of granola with the highest calories and effects on muscle growth, we analyzed the bestselling granola products at 3 of the most popular US stores: Amazon, Walmart, and Costco.
Among the 66 examined granola and granola bars, only 3 products could be a reasonable addition to a healthy diet. The results of our investigation paint a harsh reality. Most granola products have too much added sugar and too many saturated fats.
Nonetheless, let's see which are the best granola products you can buy.
Disclaimer: Unfold Today or its authors had no affiliation with the selected brands. They are purely the winners of our objective analysis.
The best granola bars you can buy are KIND's Peanut Butter Breakfast Bars. They are high in calories and have a decent amount of protein.
Moreover, the bars are low in added sugars and saturated fats. Only 11% of the bars' total calories are from added sugars, and only 6% are from saturated fats.
Also, the bars are largely made of natural ingredients, like peanuts, peanut butter, and whole grains, that will level up your vitamin and mineral intake.
A downside is that you need to eat four of these 25 g bars to reach a 100 g serving.
| Calories | 440 |
| Proteins | 10 g |
| Carbohydrates | 58 g |
| Fiber | 6 g |
| Added sugars | 12 g |
| Fats | 20 g |
| Saturated fats | 3 g |
| Unsaturated fats | 16 g |
The second-best granola product in our analysis is the Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Granola Bar from 88 Acres.
These bars contain 444 calories per 100 g. One of the best things about these bars is that most of its ingredients are organic.
Another good thing is that only 10% of the bars' calories come from added sugars and only another 10% come from saturated fats.
As for vitamins and minerals, the blend of seeds and oats bring most of them. Bonus, organic dark chocolate brings flavonoids.
You'll need to eat about 2 bars to get to 100 g since 1 bar weighs 45 g.
| Calories | 444 |
| Proteins | 13 g |
| Carbohydrates | 49 g |
| Fiber | 7 g |
| Added sugars | 12 g |
| Fats | 24 g |
| Saturated fats | 6 g |
| Unsaturated fats | 18 g |
The podium is completed by Fiber One's 70 Calorie Chocolate Peanut Butter Chewy Bars. These bars have fewer calories than our first two choices. But, they still hold enough energy to provide significant help with meeting high caloric needs.
Also, we picked this bar because it contains 17 g of proteins, which is more than our first two choices, and 0 g of added sugars. Instead of added sugars, Fiber One chose to sweeten the bars with erythritol and stevia extract.
Another nice thing about these bars is that they're low in saturated fats.
One downside is that 1 bar weighs only 23 g. You'll need to eat 4 of these bars to get to 100 g. Another minus is that the bars contain many artificial ingredients, like cellulose gum and caramel color.
| Calories | 304 |
| Proteins | 17 g |
| Carbohydrates | 56 g |
| Fiber | 26 g |
| Added sugars | 0 g |
| Fats | 11 g |
| Saturated fats | 4 g |
| Unsaturated fats | 7 g |
Unfold Today has rigorous sourcing principles adhering to the top journalistic standards, so our writers always look for official, experienced, and first-hand sources. Read more about how we keep our content trustworthy and updated by reading our editorial process.
