Protein Intake Calculator
Grams of protein a day from your weight and your goal — shown as the whole table of published bands rather than as one number, because the bands overlap and that is the finding. Calories, a per-meal split and the equivalent in real food come with it.
Weight and goal
The published ranges are per kilogram of body weight. Above roughly 30% body fat that overstates the target, because fat mass has almost no protein requirement — use lean mass instead.
Kilograms. Every band in the table below is grams of protein per kilogram of this figure.
This picks which band is broken down below. Every band is shown in the table either way — they overlap, and that is the finding.
Only used to divide the total. Spreading protein evenly is convenient, not compulsory — the daily total is what the evidence supports.
Building muscle is 1.6 to 2.2 g per kilogram, and 72 kg of body weight makes that 115 to 158 g a day. Every band below overlaps its neighbours, which is why none of them is a single requirement.
| Goal | Grams per kg | Grams a day | Why it sits there |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sedentary — the RDA floor | 0.8 | 58 g | The minimum to avoid deficiency — not an optimum for anything |
| General health and activity | 1.2 to 1.6 | 86 to 115 g | The ISSN range for people who train regularly |
| Building muscle — your goal | 1.6 to 2.2 | 115 to 158 g | Where the resistance-training evidence converges and plateaus |
| Fat loss, preserving lean mass | 1.8 to 2.7 | 130 to 194 g | The highest band, because protein is protective in a deficit |
| Older adults, 65 and over | 1.0 to 1.2 | 72 to 86 g | A raised floor, because of anabolic resistance after about 65 |
- Calories from protein
- 460 to 632 kcal
- Per meal
- 29 to 40 g across 4 meals
- Band used
- 1.6 to 2.2 g/kg
- Multiplied by
- Total body weight, 72 kg
| Food | A whole day’s protein from it alone |
|---|---|
| Chicken breast, cooked | 371 to 510 g |
| Large eggs | 19 to 26 |
| Greek yoghurt | 1,150 to 1,580 g |
| Lentils, cooked | 1,278 to 1,756 g |
- 0.8 g/kg is the RDA — the intake that meets the requirement of 97.5% of healthy adults, which is a floor for avoiding deficiency and not a target for anything. It is the single most misread number in nutrition.
- The per-meal figure is division, not a rule. Total daily intake is what the evidence supports; the “30 g per meal ceiling” is a misreading of the muscle-protein-synthesis response and not a limit on absorption.
- Food figures are approximate — about 31 g of protein per 100 g of cooked chicken breast, 10 g per 100 g of Greek yoghurt, 9 g per 100 g of cooked lentils, and 6 g per large egg. Real values move with cut, brand and cooking loss.
This is general information, not medical advice
This page multiplies a weight by a published range and explains where the range came from. It is general educational information about population-level nutrition guidance. It is not medical advice, it is not a prescription, and it cannot see anything about you beyond a weight and a goal.
It is worth knowing which populations these numbers were fitted to. The 0.8 g/kg RDA comes from nitrogen-balance studies in healthy, largely sedentary young adults, and the Institute of Medicine set it as the intake meeting the needs of 97.5% of that group. The training ranges come from studies of healthy, resistance-trained adults — younger than average, more male than female, and free of the conditions that change protein handling. The older-adult figures come from healthy community-dwelling people over 65, not from frail or hospitalised ones, who are generally advised higher still.
If you have chronic kidney disease, liver disease, diabetes, an eating disorder, or you are pregnant or breastfeeding, your requirement is different and this page cannot work it out. Ask the clinician or registered dietitian who knows your history.
How the bands are worked out
The arithmetic is one multiplication per band. What matters is which bands go into it and where they came from.
grams per day = body weight in kg × grams per kg- 0.8 g/kg
- The RDA — the minimum to avoid deficiency in healthy sedentary adults, not an optimum
- 1.2–1.6 g/kg
- General health and regular activity
- 1.6–2.2 g/kg
- Building muscle, where the resistance-training evidence converges and then plateaus
- 1.8–2.7 g/kg
- Fat loss while preserving lean mass — the highest band, because protein is protective in an energy deficit
- 1.0–1.2 g/kg
- A raised floor for adults over about 65, because of anabolic resistance
- 4 kcal/g
- The Atwater factor for protein, used for the calorie figure
Imperial weights are converted at exactly 0.45359237 kg per pound (NIST SP 811) and rounded to a tenth of a kilogram before anything is multiplied, so the printed weight, the printed grams per kilogram and the printed total always agree when you multiply them by hand. The per-meal figure is the daily total divided by your meal count and nothing more — it is a convenience, not a rule.
Every band is shown at once. Picking a goal chooses which one gets broken down into calories, meals and food; it does not hide the others, because the overlap between them is the most honest thing on the page.
72 kg, building muscle, four meals
The muscle-building band is 1.6 to 2.2 g per kilogram. At 72 kg that is 72 × 1.6 = 115 g at the bottom and 72 × 2.2 = 158 g at the top. Protein carries 4 kcal per gram, so the band is worth 460 to 632 kcal — somewhere near a fifth to a quarter of a typical day’s energy. Across four meals it comes to 29 to 40 g a meal.
As food, 115 g of protein is about 371 g of cooked chicken breast, or 19 large eggs, or 1.15 kg of Greek yoghurt, or 1.28 kg of cooked lentils. The top of the band is 510 g of chicken, or 26 eggs. Writing it out that way is usually more informative than the gram figure, in both directions: the bottom of the band is easier to reach than people expect, and the top is harder.
Now look at the same 72 kg through the other bands. The RDA gives 58 g. General activity gives 86 to 115 g. Fat loss gives 130 to 194 g. From 58 to 194 is more than a threefold range at one body weight, and every figure in it is defensible for some purpose. That is what a single “you need 137 g” conceals.
The 0.8 g/kg number, and the two myths around it
Almost every argument about protein turns on a misreading of one figure, so it is worth being exact about what it is.
- The RDA is a floor, not a target.A Recommended Dietary Allowance is defined as the intake sufficient to meet the requirement of 97.5% of healthy individuals in a group. For protein it was set from nitrogen-balance studies: feed people varying amounts, measure nitrogen in and nitrogen out, find the point where the balance stops being negative. That point tells you where deficiency begins. It does not tell you where anything is optimal, and the studies behind it were short, small, and run in sedentary young adults. Reading 0.8 g/kg as “how much protein a person needs” is the most consequential nutrition misreading in general circulation.
- The 30 g per meal ceiling is not a ceiling. It comes from acute studies of muscle protein synthesis, which rises with dose to roughly a plateau around 20 to 40 g of high-quality protein. A plateau in one measured response over a few hours is not a limit on digestion or absorption; the rest of the protein is absorbed and used for other things. The evidence that matters for body composition is whole-day intake, and there is not much in it for how you spread that intake around.
- More is not linearly better. The bands have tops for a reason. Meta-analyses of resistance training find gains flattening not far above 1.6 g/kg, with a confidence interval that reaches into the low 2s — which is where the muscle-building band here ends. Past that, additional protein mostly displaces other food rather than adding anything.
- Body weight is a rough proxy for what needs feeding. The bands are per kilogram of total body weight, and fat mass has almost no protein requirement. At an average body fat percentage that hardly matters; at a high one it does. Running the same multipliers against lean body mass instead is the usual correction, and the calculator above will do that if you switch the basis.
- Protein quality is not modelled here. The bands assume a mixed diet with adequate essential amino acids. Plant proteins vary in leucine content and digestibility, and a fully plant-based diet is generally advised toward the upper end of any given band rather than the lower.
Protein is one macronutrient among three, and setting it in isolation is only half a plan. Once you have a target here, the macro calculator divides a calorie budget between protein, carbohydrate and fat.
What this calculator assumes
- You are a healthy adult with normal kidney and liver function. Every band above was published for that population and none of them applies unchanged to anyone else.
- You are not pregnant or breastfeeding. Both raise the requirement in ways a body weight cannot capture.
- The weight you entered is the one the bands should multiply. If your body fat is high, that is an argument for entering lean mass and switching the basis rather than for adjusting the band.
- Your diet supplies adequate energy. Protein eaten in a large calorie deficit is partly burned for fuel, which is why the fat-loss band is the highest one here.
- Protein sources are mixed and reasonably complete. Food equivalents use round figures — about 31 g of protein per 100 g of cooked chicken breast, 10 g per 100 g of Greek yoghurt, 9 g per 100 g of cooked lentils and 6 g per large egg — and real values move with cut, brand, straining and cooking loss.
- The per-meal split is arithmetic. Nothing here claims that dividing your intake evenly changes the outcome, and the total is the part the evidence supports.
Protein intake FAQ
How much protein do I actually need a day?
It depends on what you are asking the protein to do, and the honest answer is a band rather than a number. The Recommended Dietary Allowance is 0.8 g per kilogram of body weight — a floor for avoiding deficiency in sedentary adults. People who train regularly land between 1.2 and 1.6 g/kg for general health, 1.6 to 2.2 g/kg when building muscle, and 1.8 to 2.7 g/kg when losing fat while trying to keep lean mass. Adults over about 65 need at least 1.0 to 1.2 g/kg. At 72 kg those bands run from 58 g a day to 194 g, which is why a calculator that prints one number is hiding most of the answer.
Is 0.8 g per kilogram enough?
Enough for what it was designed for, and misread almost everywhere else. The RDA is the intake estimated to meet the requirement of 97.5% of healthy adults — the point at which nitrogen balance stops being negative. It was derived largely from short nitrogen-balance studies in sedentary young adults, and nitrogen balance measures whether you are losing body protein, not whether you are thriving. It is a deficiency threshold, in the same family as the RDA for vitamin C, and reading it as a target is the single most common protein mistake there is.
Can the body only absorb 30 g of protein per meal?
No. The 30 g figure comes from studies showing that muscle protein synthesis rises to roughly a plateau at about 20 to 40 g of high-quality protein in a single feeding — a ceiling on one acute response, measured over a few hours, not a ceiling on absorption. Protein above that dose is still digested and absorbed; it is used for other things, oxidised, or its absorption is simply slower. Longer studies looking at whole-day intake find the total matters and the distribution does not much. Eating 60 g in a sitting is not wasting 30 g of it.
Should I use body weight or lean body mass?
Total body weight is what the published ranges are stated in, so at an average body fat percentage the two approaches land in the same place. They diverge at higher body fat, because fat mass has almost no protein requirement and multiplying by total weight prescribes protein for tissue that does not use it. Above roughly 30% body fat, running the same multipliers against lean mass is the more sensible correction — and it lands close to the lean-mass-referenced figures used in the training literature, where about 2.3 g per kilogram of lean mass is the bottom of the recommended band for people dieting down.
Does protein timing around workouts matter?
Far less than the total. The anabolic window was originally described as a period of about an hour after training in which protein had to be consumed, and larger and longer studies have not supported anything like that urgency — the effect, where it exists at all, is small next to the effect of hitting an adequate daily total. Spreading intake across meals is convenient and probably marginally helpful for older adults, who need a larger per-meal dose to trigger the same response. It is not a requirement for anyone else.
Is a high protein diet bad for the kidneys?
In people with healthy kidneys there is no good evidence that higher protein intakes cause kidney damage; controlled trials at intakes well above the RDA have not shown a decline in function. The concern comes from the genuine and important fact that people who already have chronic kidney disease are often advised to restrict protein. That is a treatment for an existing condition, not evidence that protein causes it. If you have kidney disease, diabetes, liver disease, or are pregnant, the numbers on this page are not for you — ask the clinician who is managing it.
Do I need protein powder to hit these numbers?
No. The food table on this page exists to make the target concrete: 115 g of protein is about 371 g of cooked chicken breast, or 19 large eggs, or 1.15 kg of Greek yoghurt, or 1.28 kg of cooked lentils. Most people reach the general-health band from food without thinking about it. Powder is a convenience for people whose targets are high or whose appetite is not, and nothing more than that.
Sources and review notes
- International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: protein and exercise (Jäger et al., Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2017) — the source of the training ranges, the energy-deficit argument and the position that total daily intake matters more than timing
- Institute of Medicine — Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids, the report that sets the 0.8 g/kg RDA and defines what an RDA is
- Morton et al., British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2018 — the meta-analysis of protein supplementation and resistance training that puts the plateau near 1.6 g/kg
- NIST Special Publication 811 — the exact pound definition used for the imperial conversion
The multiplication cannot go stale; the bands can. They are consensus positions revised as evidence accumulates, and the two headline documents above are the versions this page reports. The older-adult floor of 1.0 to 1.2 g/kg follows the PROT-AGE and ESPEN expert group recommendations, which sit above the RDA that formally applies to the same people — a disagreement worth knowing about rather than smoothing over.