GoMacro Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip MacroBar: 11g Protein, Labelgrade B (75/100)
B 75 / 100 — Organic + vegan whole-food bar — only 6 ingredients, all recognizable. The differentiator vs Quest/Barebells: no isolates, no sugar alcohols, no artificial sweeteners. The trade-off: organic brown rice syrup is the first ingredient by weight, pushing total sugar to 14g and calories to 290. A 'real food' bar, not a macro-optimized one.
🛒 Buy on Amazon →The short answer
The GoMacro Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip MacroBar gives you 11 g of plant protein for 290 calories in a 69 g bar — roughly 16 g of protein per 100 g (USDA FDC 2677577). The whole label is six organic ingredients you’d recognize in a kitchen: brown rice syrup, peanut butter, a sprouted-rice + pea protein blend, chocolate chips, puffed brown rice, and peanuts. It earns a Labelgrade B (75/100). The honest summary: this is a soft, whole-food energy bar with meaningful protein, not a macro-optimized protein bar — and the thing that defines it (organic brown rice syrup as the #1 ingredient) is also the thing that holds its grade down.
Why the B
| Dimension | Grade | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protein density | B- | 74 / 100 | 16 g per 100 g — modest. Three whole-food sources (sprouted rice + pea + peanuts) instead of an isolate, so it’s less dense but amino-acid complete |
| Ingredient quality | B | 78 / 100 | Six organic ingredients, all recognizable. No isolates, no sugar alcohols, nothing artificial — among the shortest panels in the bar aisle |
| Saturated fat load | B+ | 81 / 100 | 2 g per bar (~3 g per 100 g) — low, from the cocoa butter and peanuts |
| Sodium load | A+ | 100 / 100 | 10 mg per bar — effectively none. Almost nothing in the snack-bar category beats this |
| Sugar load | D | 52 / 100 | 14 g total (12 g added) — the single biggest drag on the grade, driven by brown rice syrup doing double duty as sweetener and binder |
| Fiber | D | 50 / 100 | 2 g per bar — thin for a 290-calorie bar built on rice and peanuts |
Read the table as a clean trade. GoMacro is at or near the top on the “is this real food?” axis (ingredients, sodium, sat-fat) and at the bottom on the “is this engineered for macros?” axis (sugar, fiber, protein density). The B is the average of a bar that’s exactly what it says it is — and never pretends the sugar isn’t there.
The brown-rice-syrup problem (and why GoMacro keeps it)
It would be easy to call 14 g of sugar a flaw and move on. It’s more useful to understand it as a structural consequence. This is a no-bake, flourless bar; something has to bind it. GoMacro’s answer is organic brown rice syrup, listed first by weight — and that one decision produces most of the sugar and a chunk of the 290 calories. The chips add a little more via organic coconut sugar.
What you get in exchange is the absence of the usual workarounds. There’s no erythritol or maltitol that can leave you bloated, no sucralose, no glycerin-and-fiber-syrup engineering to fake a low sugar number. GoMacro even carries a FODMAP-friendly certification, which a sugar-alcohol-heavy bar generally cannot. So the sugar line is real and it’s the right thing to dock — but it buys a panel that’s genuinely gentle and genuinely short.
Where the protein actually comes from
Most plant bars lean on a single isolate. GoMacro stacks three sources: sprouted brown rice protein, pea protein, and the peanut content (peanut butter + whole peanuts) that’s there for flavor but pulls real protein weight too. Rice protein is low in lysine; pea is low in methionine; together they close each other’s gaps, which is why 11 g of plant protein here behaves like a complete protein rather than a partial one.
The cost of doing it this way is density. Whole-food and lightly-processed proteins simply carry more co-travelers (carbs, fat, fiber) per gram of protein than a stripped isolate, so you land at 16 g/100 g instead of the 30–40 g/100 g an engineered bar hits. If your goal is the most protein per calorie, that’s a real strike against it. If your goal is whole-food fuel that still counts toward your protein, the stack is the point.
How it stacks up against other “clean” bars
| Bar | Protein | Sugar | Calories | The short read |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GoMacro PB Choc Chip (this) | 11 g (69 g) | 14 g | 290 | Shortest list (6 ingredients), lowest sodium — but highest sugar and calories |
| Aloha Cookie Dough | 14 g (56 g) | 5 g | 240 | Organic + vegan and the macro winner: more protein, far less sugar, 10 g fiber |
| RXBAR Chocolate Chip | 12 g (52 g) | 13 g | 220 | Whole-food (egg whites + dates), 5 g fiber — but not vegan |
| Kind Fruit & Nut Delight | 6 g (40 g) | 9 g | 200 | A snack bar, not a protein bar — half the protein |
Numbers above are from each product’s USDA-sourced page. The takeaway: among vegan whole-food bars, Aloha out-positions GoMacro on the protein-to-sugar ratio (14 g / 5 g vs 11 g / 14 g) and adds 10 g of fiber, so if macros are the deciding factor, Aloha wins. GoMacro’s defensible advantages are the six-item ingredient list and the 10 mg sodium. Against an engineered bar (Quest, Barebells), GoMacro will always lose on protein-per-calorie and sugar — by design, because it refuses the isolates and artificial sweeteners those bars rely on. The choice isn’t “which is better,” it’s “which trade-off do you want.”
Who it’s actually for
Reach for this when calories are a feature, not a bug: a long hike, a bike ride, a gap between meals where 290 kcal of recognizable food beats a foil-wrapped macro brick. It’s a portable, organic, fully vegan, peanut-forward fuel bar — closer to a structured PB&J than to a cutting-diet protein hit. Skip it if you’re counting protein-per-calorie, watching added sugar, or have a peanut allergy (it’s peanut butter and whole peanuts).
Ingredients
Organic brown rice syrup, organic peanut butter, organic protein blend (organic sprouted brown rice protein, organic pea protein), organic chocolate chips (organic coconut sugar, organic cocoa, organic cocoa butter), organic puffed brown rice, organic peanuts. (Verbatim from the USDA Branded Foods entry, FDC 2677577 — six organic ingredients, no isolates, no sugar alcohols, nothing artificial.)
Where to buy
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Quick Facts
Per serving · 1 bar (69 g)
Full nutrition facts
| Nutrient | Per Serving (1 bar (69 g)) |
|---|---|
| Calories | 290 |
| Protein | 11g |
| Total Fat | 11g |
| Saturated Fat | 2g |
| Trans Fat | 0g |
| Total Carbohydrates | 39g |
| Dietary Fiber | 2g |
| Total Sugars | 14g |
| Added Sugars | 12g |
| Sodium | 10mg |
| Cholesterol | 0mg |
| Calcium | 14mg |
| Iron | 1mg |
Scope: This page applies specifically to GoMacro Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip MacroBar (2.4 oz (69 g) bar) · UPC 181945000062. Other sizes, flavors, or formulations may differ.
How this fits each diet
Each score is computed from the same USDA nutrition + ingredient data, against the published rules of each diet. They tell you "does this food fit this diet" — not whether the diet is right for you.
contains animal-derived ingredients
contains no listed meat or fish
no wheat, barley, rye, or malt detected in USDA ingredient list
Frequently Asked Questions
How much protein is in a GoMacro Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip bar?
11 g per 69 g bar (USDA FDC 2677577) — about 16 g per 100 g. The protein comes from three whole-food sources stacked together: a sprouted brown rice + pea protein blend plus the peanut butter and whole peanuts. That's why the density is lower than an isolate bar but the amino-acid profile is complete (rice and pea cover each other's gaps).
Why is brown rice syrup the first ingredient?
Because it does two jobs at once: it's GoMacro's sweetener and its binder — the syrup is what holds a no-bake, flourless bar together. Being first by weight is what drives the 14 g of total sugar (12 g added). It's a deliberate formulation choice: a whole-food syrup instead of the sugar alcohols or sucralose that let engineered bars hit ~1 g sugar.
Is this a protein bar or an energy bar?
Functionally it's an energy bar that happens to clear the FDA 'high protein' bar. At 290 calories and 39 g of carbs for 11 g of protein, the calorie-to-protein ratio (~26 cal per gram) is built for sustained fuel — hiking, long rides, a meal-bridge — not for a lean, protein-per-calorie hit. A bar in the 200-cal / 20 g range is the opposite tool.
Is it vegan and allergen-friendly?
Yes — fully plant-based and Certified Vegan. The chocolate chips are dairy-free (coconut sugar + cocoa + cocoa butter), and the protein is rice + pea, not whey. It's also certified gluten-free and soy-free. The one allergen that matters here: it's peanut-forward (peanut butter and whole peanuts), so it is not nut-allergy safe.
What does the 14 g of sugar actually cost me here?
It's the reason this bar grades D on sugar (52/100) and lands at B overall instead of A. The mitigating context: the sugar is from recognizable sources (brown rice syrup, coconut sugar in the chips) rather than a sugar-alcohol load that can cause GI distress — GoMacro is in fact FODMAP-friendly certified. You're trading a cleaner panel for a higher sugar number.
GoMacro vs RXBAR vs Aloha — which clean bar wins?
Aloha Cookie Dough is the macro winner among the three: 14 g protein, 10 g fiber, and just 5 g sugar for 240 cal — also organic and vegan. RXBAR Chocolate Chip brings 12 g protein and 5 g fiber for 220 cal from egg whites + dates, but it isn't vegan. GoMacro's distinct edge is the shortest list (6 ingredients) and near-zero sodium (10 mg); its weak spot is being the highest in sugar and calories of the three.
What is 'sprouted' brown rice protein, and does it matter?
It's brown rice germinated before the protein is extracted. Sprouting is claimed to aid digestibility and nutrient availability, but the practical difference vs standard rice protein is modest — it's primarily a positioning choice that fits GoMacro's whole-food story. The protein still has to be paired with pea (as it is here) to be amino-acid complete.