Short answer: for most adults who train, somewhere between 1.6 and 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day covers it. The reason you see wildly different numbers is that the official 0.8 g/kg figure is a minimum designed to prevent deficiency, not a target for building or keeping muscle. Two situations push the number higher: being in a calorie deficit, where 1.8 to 2.4 g/kg protects muscle better, and being over 65, where the body responds to protein less efficiently. Below roughly 1.6 g/kg, more protein reliably helps. Above 2.2, the evidence for extra muscle runs out.
Ask five people how much protein you need and you will get 0.8, 1.2, 1.6, 2.2 and "one gram per pound". All five can cite something. That is what makes this question so frustrating to look up.
The numbers are not really in conflict. They answer different questions, and nobody tells you which question you are asking. This article sorts that out first, then gives the number for your situation.
Why do the recommendations contradict each other?
The gap comes down to one distinction: the official figure answers "how little can I get away with", while the sports nutrition figures answer "how much helps". Those are different questions with different answers, and most articles quote one without naming which.
The widely cited 0.8 grams per kilogram per day is a recommended dietary allowance. It is set to cover the requirements of almost all healthy adults, meaning it is a floor that prevents deficiency.
Nothing about that figure was designed around building muscle, keeping muscle while dieting, or ageing well. Using it as a target for those goals is a category error rather than a disagreement about evidence.
So when you see a number, ask what it is for. Almost every apparent contradiction on this topic dissolves once you do.
| Your situation | Grams per kg of body weight per day | For a 75 kg person |
|---|---|---|
| Sedentary, avoiding deficiency | 0.8 | 60 g |
| Active, maintaining | 1.2 to 1.6 | 90 to 120 g |
| Building muscle | 1.6 to 2.2 | 120 to 165 g |
| Losing fat while training | 1.8 to 2.4 | 135 to 180 g |
| Over 65, maintaining muscle | 1.2 to 1.6 | 90 to 120 g |
Ranges for healthy adults, based on the sources at the end of this article. If you have kidney disease or another condition affecting protein metabolism, these do not apply to you.
How much protein to build muscle?
For muscle growth, around 1.6 grams per kilogram per day is where the returns flatten out. A systematic review and meta-analysis by Morton and colleagues, covering 49 studies and 1,863 participants, identified a breakpoint at 1.62 g/kg, beyond which additional protein produced no further gains in fat-free mass.
The authors noted that the confidence interval around that figure reached as high as 2.2 g/kg. That is why the sensible recommendation is a range rather than a single number, and why aiming for the upper end costs you nothing.
What the same analysis makes clear is that protein only matters alongside training. Protein supplementation increased gains in people doing resistance training. It is raw material, not a stimulus.
If you are not yet training in a way that uses that material, the protein question is premature. Our article on progressive overload covers what that training looks like.
How much protein when losing fat?
In a calorie deficit the requirement goes up, to roughly 1.8 to 2.4 grams per kilogram per day. When energy is scarce your body will take some of what it needs from muscle tissue, and protein intake is the main dietary lever against that.
A controlled trial by Longland and colleagues put two groups of young men through four weeks of a substantial deficit with intensive training. The group eating 2.4 g/kg gained lean mass and lost more fat than the group eating 1.2 g/kg.
There is a second benefit that matters more in practice than it does on paper. A review by Leidy and colleagues found that higher-protein energy-restricted diets produced greater weight loss, greater fat mass loss and better preservation of lean mass than lower-protein versions, alongside a modest increase in fullness.
The same review flagged the real obstacle: in longer studies, the benefit showed up in people who actually stuck to the higher intake, and disappeared in those who did not. Adherence is the variable, not the theory. How this connects to body composition is covered in our article on lowering body fat without losing muscle.
Does the number change with age?
Yes, and the direction surprises people: older adults need more protein per kilogram, not less. A meta-analysis by Nunes and colleagues found that in adults aged 65 and over, additional protein improved gains in lean body mass at intakes of roughly 1.2 to 1.59 g/kg per day, whereas people under 65 only saw further benefit at 1.6 g/kg or above.
The mechanism is that ageing muscle responds less efficiently to a given amount of protein. The same meal produces a smaller building response than it would have done at thirty.
The same analysis found that in adults under 65, higher protein intake also produced greater gains in lower body strength, though not in upper body strength or overall strength measures.
Combine that with the steady loss of muscle mass from middle age onward and the practical conclusion is straightforward: protein becomes more important with age, not less, and it needs resistance training alongside it to do its job.
Is there a limit to how much protein you can use in one meal?
No, and this is the most confidently repeated piece of misinformation on the topic. The claim that your body can only use 20 to 30 grams per meal, with the rest wasted, was tested directly and did not survive.
Researchers at Maastricht University, led by Trommelen, used a quadruple isotope tracer approach to follow what happened after participants ate either 25 or 100 grams of protein following exercise. The 100 gram dose produced a larger and considerably more prolonged response, still measurable beyond twelve hours.
Protein ingestion had negligible effect on whole-body protein breakdown or amino acid oxidation rates. In other words, the excess was not burned off as the myth claims.
The authors concluded that the magnitude and duration of the response had previously been underestimated. Practically, this means a large protein meal is not wasted, and if your schedule suits two or three bigger meals rather than five small ones, that is fine.
Does it matter whether protein is plant or animal?
Total intake matters far more than the source. This is worth stating plainly, because the "plant proteins are incomplete" line gets repeated well past what the evidence supports.
A twelve-week trial by Hevia-Larraín and colleagues compared nineteen habitual vegans with nineteen omnivores through the same supervised resistance training programme, with both groups brought to 1.6 g/kg per day. Gains in leg lean mass, muscle cross-sectional area, muscle fibre size and leg press strength were statistically indistinguishable between the groups.
There is a real difference underneath that result. Plant sources are generally less concentrated and have a less favourable amino acid profile per gram, which is why the vegan group in that trial used a soy protein isolate to reach the target.
So the practical advice for plant-based eaters is not "you need animal protein". It is that you need to be more deliberate about quantity and variety to reach the same total.
Is a lot of protein bad for your kidneys?
In healthy adults, no. This concern originates in advice for people who already have kidney disease, where protein restriction is genuinely part of treatment, and it got generalised to everyone else.
A systematic review and meta-analysis by Devries and colleagues pooled 28 trials covering 1,358 participants without kidney disease. Higher-protein diets were associated with a somewhat higher glomerular filtration rate after the intervention, but when the researchers compared the change in filtration rate from before to after, dietary protein had no effect.
The authors concluded that higher protein intakes do not adversely affect kidney function in healthy adults.
The qualifier matters, though. If you have kidney disease, diabetes affecting the kidneys, or any condition that changes how you handle protein, talk to your doctor before raising your intake. This section is about healthy adults only.
Which foods actually get you there?
The reliable approach is to build each meal around a protein source rather than adding one afterwards. Most people fall short not from lack of intent but because protein is the thing they think about last.
| Food | Typical portion | Protein |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken breast | 150 g cooked | about 45 g |
| Salmon | 150 g | about 32 g |
| Greek yoghurt, 0 percent | 200 g | about 20 g |
| Cottage cheese | 200 g | about 25 g |
| Whole egg | 1 egg | about 6 g |
| Lentils, cooked | 200 g | about 18 g |
| Firm tofu | 150 g | about 24 g |
| Tempeh | 150 g | about 30 g |
| Whey or soy protein powder | 1 scoop, 30 g | about 24 g |
Approximate values. Brands vary considerably, so check labels for dairy and packaged products.
Three anchor foods you genuinely like will carry most of the work. Variety matters less than repeatability, particularly on weekday mornings.
How do you hit it without it taking over your life?
Put a protein source in every main meal and stop there. That single habit gets most people from roughly 70 grams a day to somewhere near 120 without any tracking at all.
Breakfast is where most people lose the most ground. A typical bread or cereal breakfast delivers under ten grams, which means the day starts in a hole that dinner has to dig you out of.
If you want to be more precise, weigh and log for one week rather than forever. A week tells you where you actually are, which is usually the only surprise you need. If you would rather go through it with someone, that is what a free intake session is for.
Protein powder is a convenience, not a requirement. It earns its place when a real meal is not going to happen, which for most working people is once or twice a day rather than never.
Key points
- The 0.8 g/kg figure prevents deficiency. It was never a target for building or keeping muscle.
- For muscle growth, gains flatten out around 1.6 g/kg per day, with the range reaching 2.2.
- In a calorie deficit the requirement rises to roughly 1.8 to 2.4 g/kg, because muscle is at risk.
- Over 65, the body responds less efficiently to protein, so the requirement per kilogram goes up.
- The 30 grams per meal ceiling is not real, and higher protein does not harm healthy kidneys.
Frequently asked questions
Is 100 grams of protein a lot per day?
For a sedentary person, 100 grams a day is considerably more than the minimum requirement. For someone who trains and weighs 75 kilograms, it sits below the range associated with building or keeping muscle, which would start closer to 120 grams. Whether 100 grams is a lot depends entirely on your body weight and what you are asking your body to do, which is why the useful figure is grams per kilogram rather than a flat number.
What are the signs you are not getting enough protein?
Genuine protein deficiency is rare in countries with a reliable food supply and produces serious clinical signs, so most people asking this question are not deficient but simply under-consuming for their goals. What suboptimal intake looks like in practice is slow recovery between training sessions, strength that stalls despite consistent training, persistent hunger between meals, and losing weight that includes more muscle than you intended. None of these is specific enough to diagnose on its own, which is why tracking for a week is more informative than symptom-spotting.
Are two eggs enough protein for a day?
Two eggs provide roughly twelve grams of protein, which is well short of a day's requirement for almost anyone. They are a good breakfast component rather than a day's supply, and pairing them with Greek yoghurt, cottage cheese or an extra couple of egg whites turns a ten gram breakfast into a twenty-five gram one. That single change is often the difference between falling short and hitting your target.
Do you need protein powder?
Protein powder is convenient rather than necessary, and trials comparing whole food with supplemental protein at matched intakes find no meaningful difference in results. It is genuinely useful in two situations: when you are a long way from your target and real meals are not practical, and when you eat plant-based and need concentrated protein to reach the same total. If you are already hitting your number with food, powder adds nothing.
How much protein should a woman eat per day to lose fat?
The requirement in a deficit is the same in grams per kilogram for women as it is for men, roughly 1.8 to 2.4 grams per kilogram of body weight, which works out lower in absolute grams simply because of body weight differences. For a woman weighing 65 kilograms that means around 115 to 155 grams per day. The reason the range is higher than for maintenance is that a calorie deficit puts muscle at risk, and protein alongside strength training is the main protection against losing it.
Want to turn this into a training and nutrition approach that fits your week? Have a look at English-speaking personal training in Amsterdam or our 12-week programme.
Sources
Scientific claims in this article were verified via PubMed.
- Morton RW, Murphy KT, McKellar SR, et al. Protein supplementation and resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength. Br J Sports Med. 2018;52(6):376-384. DOI
- Longland TM, Oikawa SY, Mitchell CJ, Devries MC, Phillips SM. Higher compared with lower dietary protein during an energy deficit combined with intense exercise. Am J Clin Nutr. 2016;103(3):738-746. DOI
- Leidy HJ, Clifton PM, Astrup A, et al. The role of protein in weight loss and maintenance. Am J Clin Nutr. 2015;101(6):1320S-1329S. DOI
- Nunes EA, Colenso-Semple L, McKellar SR, et al. Protein intake to support muscle mass and function in healthy adults. J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle. 2022;13(2):795-810. DOI
- Trommelen J, van Lieshout GAA, Nyakayiru J, et al. The anabolic response to protein ingestion during recovery from exercise has no upper limit in magnitude and duration in vivo in humans. Cell Rep Med. 2023;4(12):101324. DOI
- Hevia-Larraín V, Gualano B, Longobardi I, et al. High-protein plant-based diet versus a protein-matched omnivorous diet to support resistance training adaptations. Sports Med. 2021;51(6):1317-1330. DOI
- Devries MC, Sithamparapillai A, Brimble KS, Banfield L, Morton RW, Phillips SM. Changes in kidney function do not differ between healthy adults consuming higher- compared with lower- or normal-protein diets. J Nutr. 2018;148(11):1760-1775. DOI
- Murphy C, Koehler K. Energy deficiency impairs resistance training gains in lean mass but not strength. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2022;32(1):125-137. DOI
