Choose custard creams for an occasional sweet treat that you can portion for your gym bag, rather than assuming they meet your needs before or after training. Tesco and Sainsbury’s each list 0.7g protein per biscuit in the examples considered here, while University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust describes a different nutrient pattern for a planned pre-exercise snack. Chocolate-coated custard creams are still biscuits, not a box of chocolates for gifting.
If the biscuit is simply something sweet to eat around a gym visit, decide how many to take rather than carrying an opened family pack. Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s product listings give per-biscuit nutrition to help compare portions.
If the snack has a specific purpose before or after a session, check its nutrients and when you intend to eat it. University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust describes carbohydrate, protein and minimal fat among its considerations for a planned pre-exercise snack.
Compare the exact packs rather than treating the coating as a change in purpose. Marks & Spencer lists 43.2g sugars and 26.0g fat per 100g for its milk-chocolate-coated custard creams.
Decide whether you want a treat, food chosen around exercise, or a gift; then compare the pack and nutrition information for that purpose.
| Priority | What to check | Your needs |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose and timing | Decide when you will eat the snack and whether it is just a treat. University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust discusses carbohydrate, protein and minimal fat for a planned snack 60–90 minutes before exercise when no meal was eaten 2–3 hours beforehand. | I’m packing something sweet for later, or I’m choosing food for a particular point around training. Those are different buying decisions. |
| Nutrition per portion | Compare the stated serving with what you intend to carry. Tesco and Sainsbury’s each list 59 kcal and 0.7g protein per custard cream; their listed sugars are 3.4g and 3.3g per biscuit respectively. | A per-biscuit figure helps me judge the portion I plan to take, rather than treating the whole pack as one snack. |
| Chocolate coating | Check figures on the same per-100g basis when comparing products. Marks & Spencer lists 43.2g sugars and 26.0g fat per 100g for its milk-chocolate-coated custard creams. | If I want chocolate as well as biscuit, I’ll choose it for that flavour preference—not assume the coating makes it more suited to exercise. |
| Pack and storage | Check pack size, how you will carry a portion, and the storage instructions after opening. The Tesco and Sainsbury’s standard packs are labelled 400g and 200g. | For one trip, I’d rather take a chosen portion than leave an opened biscuit pack in my bag. |
| Ingredients and gifting | Read the current pack’s ingredients and allergen statement. If the purchase is a gift, check whether it is actually presented as a gift box: a chocolate-coated biscuit snack pack is not necessarily a box of chocolates. | I need to check the exact product for ingredients, and I don’t want a gym-bag biscuit pack mistaken for a boxed-chocolate gift. |
Tesco and Sainsbury’s each list 0.7g protein per custard cream. That figure alone does not tell you whether a portion fits the timing and purpose of your snack.
Choose the purpose first, then compare the portion’s nutrients with what you are looking for around that session.
The Tesco pack is 400g and the Sainsbury’s pack is 200g, so either is larger than a single biscuit portion.
Take the amount you intend to eat and follow the pack’s storage instructions for what remains.
The retailer listings describe different allergen statements across standard and chocolate-coated products, including a possible sesame presence for Tesco’s biscuits and soya in the Marks & Spencer chocolate-coated product.
Check the current packaging of the exact variant before buying or packing it.
Department of Health and Social Care guidance addresses promotion and placement restrictions for certain foods; Department for Education guidance concerns food provided in state-funded schools in England. Neither description, by itself, classifies a particular custard cream or describes an adult’s privately packed gym snack.
If buying food for a school or organised activity, check the rules and policies that apply to that setting rather than assuming a rule for personal gym-bag use.
These examples show differences between specific custard-cream packs, not a ranking of the brands or a list of Joybuy stock.
Tesco lists a 400g pack of standard custard cream biscuits.
Sainsbury’s lists standard custard creams in a 200g pack.
Marks & Spencer lists milk-chocolate-coated custard creams as a chocolate-and-biscuit snack.
These are bars, lentil cakes and granola to consider alongside the custard-cream decision. They are not custard creams or boxed-chocolate gifts; compare each product’s pack format and current label with the snack you intend to take.
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A savoury cake rather than a sweet biscuit or chocolate gift. The 100g pack may need portioning before you put it in a gym bag; check its nutrition and ingredients for your intended snack.
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A peanut-and-chocolate bar option when you want a bar rather than custard creams. The pack contains four 40g bars; compare the label’s per-bar nutrition and ingredients with your intended portion.
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A red-berry cereal bar if you would prefer a different sweet format from custard creams. The pack contains six 21.5g bars; check the per-bar figures and ingredients rather than comparing pack totals with a single biscuit.
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A chocolate-flavoured granola option, not a biscuit or a bar. If you want some for one gym visit, decide how you will portion and carry it from the 400g pack, then check the label for the amount you plan to eat.
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A crunchy variety pack to compare with taking biscuits from a larger pack. It contains ten 42g portions; check the flavour and nutrition information for the portion you choose.
Choose them as a sweet treat, not solely because they are easy to pack. For a planned snack 60–90 minutes before exercise when no meal was eaten 2–3 hours beforehand, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust describes carbohydrate, protein and minimal fat among its considerations; Tesco and Sainsbury’s each list 0.7g protein per custard cream.
Chocolate coating does not, by itself, establish that a biscuit suits your exercise plans. Marks & Spencer lists 43.2g sugars, 26.0g fat and 5.4g protein per 100g for its milk-chocolate-coated custard creams. Compare the portion you would eat with what you want from the snack.
Take a chosen portion and follow the pack’s storage instructions, particularly after opening it. The Tesco and Sainsbury’s standard packs are 400g and 200g respectively, so neither pack size tells you what one gym-bag portion should be.
Read the current label on the exact pack. The Tesco and Sainsbury’s listings identify wheat and milk in their standard custard creams; Tesco also gives a possible sesame warning. The Marks & Spencer chocolate-coated product lists milk, wheat and soya.