Protein intake
Protein Intake Calculator
Find out how many grams of protein to eat per day for your bodyweight and goal — with a recommended range, a per-meal target, and a simple daily water guide.
Spreading protein across feedings helps you hit the daily total.
Target range 128–176 g/day (1.6–2.2 g per kg of bodyweight).
38g
across 4 meals
3.5L
~35 ml/kg + training
About 6 palm-sized protein servings a day (≈25 g each) — chicken, fish, eggs, Greek yoghurt, tofu, whey or legumes.
General estimates for healthy adults, not medical or dietary advice. If you have kidney disease or another condition affecting protein needs, follow your doctor's guidance.
How much protein you actually need
Protein is the one macronutrient most people under-eat and the one that does the most work: it builds and repairs muscle, keeps you full, and costs more energy to digest than carbs or fat. The official minimum — about 0.8 g per kilogram of bodyweight — is set to prevent deficiency in sedentary adults, not to support training. If you lift, run or play a sport, you need more.
For building or maintaining muscle, the evidence consistently points to 1.6 to 2.2 grams per kilogram per day. When you're cutting and eating in a calorie deficit, edging toward the top of that range — or a touch beyond, around 2.0–2.4 g/kg — helps protect the muscle you've built while you lose fat. Because the target scales with mass rather than calories, we anchor the recommendation to your bodyweight, then show a range rather than a single number, since the research supports a band.
How you distribute it matters too. Spreading your daily total across three to five meals of roughly 25–40 grams each supports muscle protein synthesis more evenly than loading it all into one or two sittings — and it simply makes a high total easier to reach. The per-meal figure here does that division so you have a concrete target for each plate.
Hitting the number is mostly about anchoring every meal with a dense source: a palm-sized portion of meat, fish, eggs, dairy, tofu or legumes, topped up with whey if you fall short. Pair that with adequate hydration — a rough guide is around 35 ml of water per kilogram of bodyweight, plus more on training days — and the fundamentals of your nutrition are in place. From there it's consistency, and that's where logging earns its keep.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
- How much protein do I need per day?
- It scales with bodyweight and goal. Sedentary adults need around 0.8–1.2 g per kg. Active people building or maintaining muscle do best at 1.6–2.2 g per kg, and dieters cutting fat often push to 2.0–2.4 g per kg to protect lean mass. Enter your weight and goal above for a personal range.
- Is protein per kilogram or per pound?
- Research targets are expressed per kilogram of bodyweight. If you weigh in pounds, this calculator converts for you — just toggle the unit. As a rough rule, the common 1.6–2.2 g/kg range is about 0.7–1.0 g per pound.
- Can you eat too much protein?
- For healthy people, intakes well above these targets are generally safe but offer diminishing returns — extra protein is simply used for energy. Going much beyond ~2.2 g/kg rarely adds muscle. People with existing kidney disease should follow their doctor's guidance on protein.
- Does it matter how I spread protein across the day?
- Somewhat. Splitting your total across three to five meals of roughly 25–40 g each tends to support muscle protein synthesis better than one or two large doses, and it makes the daily total easier to hit. The per-meal figure above does that division for you.
- What are good protein sources?
- Lean meats, poultry and fish, eggs, dairy like Greek yoghurt and cottage cheese, whey or casein powder, and plant sources such as tofu, tempeh, legumes and seitan. Each palm-sized portion of a dense source is roughly 20–30 g.
Grind Track
Track this in the app
Grind Track tracks protein against your target at every meal, with a food database and label scanner that make logging fast. Hit your number without the guesswork. Free to start on iPhone.