Finding the right one shouldn’t feel like another workout. Big companies flood the shelves with options, but they rarely serve people with real goals, restrictions, or preferences. Smaller brands that try to do better often get buried under marketing noise. And for most of us, the process of picking the right bar still feels like a guessing game.

I know the frustration first-hand. I’m allergic to tree nuts, seeds, and peanuts. For years I searched online for “nut-free protein bars” only to find lists filled with products I couldn’t actually eat or I take the risk of cross-contamination. In grocery stores, I’d scan every label and walk away discouraged, excluded, and convinced I’d have to make my own recipes if I wanted something that worked. Eventually, I built my own database of major protein brands to sort out what was truly safe, and that’s where the idea for LiftStack began.