Daily protein intake: how much you need and how to hit it
How much protein you need while losing weight, building muscle or just living, how to spread it across the day, and which ordinary foods get you there without overeating. With a source table.
By the Fat Track team · Updated August 22, 2026
Short answer. The floor for an adult is 0.8 g of protein per kilogram of body weight a day, but if you are losing weight, training, or over fifty, 1.2–2 g per kg is the more useful range. For a woman at 65 kg (143 lb) that is 80–130 g a day; for a man at 85 kg (187 lb), 100–170 g. Split it across three or four meals of 25–40 g and get it from ordinary food: poultry, fish, eggs, dairy, beans and lentils.
Why protein is the macro to watch
Protein is the only macronutrient the body does not stockpile. It is what muscle, enzymes, hormones and immune cells are built from. In a calorie deficit, protein largely decides what you lose — fat or muscle. It is also the most filling of the three: a meal with 30 g of protein holds you longer than a carb-heavy meal with the same calories.
That is why every sensible way of eating sets protein first and fits fat and carbs around it.
How much you need, by goal
| Situation | Protein per kg per day | Example at 70 kg (154 lb) |
|---|---|---|
| Sedentary, weight already healthy | 0.8–1.0 g | 56–70 g |
| Losing weight, no training | 1.2–1.6 g | 85–110 g |
| Losing weight plus strength training | 1.6–2.2 g | 110–155 g |
| Building muscle | 1.6–2.0 g | 110–140 g |
| Age 60 and over, holding on to muscle | 1.0–1.2 g | 70–85 g |
Three caveats:
- With a lot of weight to lose, base the number on your target weight or a healthy weight for your height rather than what the scale says today, or the figure comes out inflated.
- The 2.2 g per kg ceiling is safe for healthy people. Above it there is nothing to gain — the research shows no further benefit.
- With kidney disease, protein intake is a conversation with your doctor, not a table.
How to spread it across the day
The body uses protein better in portions: 25–40 g per meal, around 0.4 g per kg. One enormous dinner with 100 g of protein does less than three meals of 35 g. A workable shape for the day:
- Breakfast, 25–30 g: eggs, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, porridge made with milk and a scoop of protein.
- Lunch, 30–40 g: poultry, fish, meat, or beans and lentils alongside a starch.
- Dinner, 30–40 g: much like lunch, plus vegetables.
- Snack, 10–20 g: cottage cheese, kefir, a boiled egg with a handful of nuts, a whey shake.
If you train, a protein-containing meal within a couple of hours of the session helps, but the daily total matters far more than the window. More on that in what to eat before and after a workout.
Where to get it
Per 100 g of food as you would normally eat it, averaged — exact figures are in the food database:
| Food | Protein, g | kcal | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken breast | 23–25 | 110–120 | the cheapest protein per calorie |
| Turkey breast | 20–22 | 110–130 | the same job as chicken |
| Lean beef | 19–21 | 150–190 | iron and B12 on top |
| Cod, pollock | 16–18 | 70–90 | almost no fat |
| Salmon, mackerel | 18–20 | 180–220 | omega-3, but more calories |
| Egg (1, about 55 g) | 6–7 | 75–80 | a convenient unit |
| Cottage cheese, low fat | 11–13 | 80–100 | works at breakfast and at supper |
| Quark, plain | 12–14 | 70–90 | thicker and higher in protein than cottage cheese |
| Greek yogurt | 8–10 | 60–100 | check the sugar on flavoured tubs |
| Cheddar and other hard cheese | 24–26 | 350–400 | high protein, high everything else |
| Lentils, cooked | 8–9 | 110–120 | fibre included |
| Chickpeas, beans, cooked | 7–9 | 110–140 | plant protein that keeps |
| Tofu, firm | 8–12 | 75–120 | takes on whatever you cook it with |
| Whey protein (30 g scoop) | 20–25 | 110–130 | a convenience, not a foundation |
A trick if you are dieting: favour foods with a lot of protein and few calories — chicken breast, white fish, low-fat cottage cheese and quark, egg whites, beans and lentils. Cheese, nuts and oily fish also deliver protein, but they cost far more calories per gram of it.
What that looks like on real plates
A target of 120 g sounds daunting until you write out an ordinary day:
- breakfast: 2 eggs + 150 g cottage cheese = 30 g;
- lunch: 150 g chicken breast + rice = 40 g;
- dinner: 150 g cod + vegetables = 27 g;
- snack: a glass of kefir + a handful of nuts = 12 g.
That is around 110 g with no powders and no force-feeding. A shopping list with the macros attached makes the weekly shop line up with it.
How to track protein without living in a spreadsheet
Counting by hand for a few days is worth it once, to get a feel for the scale of the numbers. After that it only sticks if logging takes seconds: photograph the plate or type "cottage cheese 150 g and a banana", and the bot in Telegram or MAX returns protein, fat, carbs and calories. By evening you can see how much protein you have accumulated and what dinner needs to fix — cottage cheese instead of biscuits, say.
Common questions
Is a lot of protein bad for the kidneys? For healthy people, no: up to 2–2.2 g per kg is safe according to the available research. With kidney disease, only under medical advice.
Is plant protein worse? It is digested slightly less efficiently and thinner in some amino acids, but a mix of beans, grains, nuts and soy covers the requirement completely. Vegetarians do well to aim at the top of the range.
Do I need protein powder? Not if food gets you there. Powder is convenience, nothing more.
Start with your target in the calorie and macro calculator, then just log your food for a week. Most people are surprised by how little protein a default day contains, and how easily that is fixed.
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