Most adults need at least 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, which works out to about 0.36 grams per pound. For a 165-pound person, that’s roughly 60 grams of protein daily. But that number is a floor to prevent deficiency, not a target for optimal health. Depending on your age, activity level, and goals, you likely need more.
The Baseline for Sedentary Adults
The Recommended Dietary Allowance of 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight applies to average sedentary adults. Here’s what that looks like at common body weights:
- 130 pounds (59 kg): about 47 grams per day
- 150 pounds (68 kg): about 54 grams per day
- 180 pounds (82 kg): about 65 grams per day
- 200 pounds (91 kg): about 73 grams per day
These amounts are enough to keep your body functioning and prevent muscle wasting if you’re relatively inactive. Most people eating a standard diet hit this number without trying. The more interesting question is whether “enough to prevent deficiency” is the same as “enough to feel and perform your best,” and for many people, it isn’t.
How Exercise Changes the Number
If you’re physically active, the baseline RDA is almost certainly too low. Your muscles break down during exercise and need protein to repair and grow. The more intense or frequent the activity, the higher the demand.
Endurance athletes, such as runners and cyclists, do well with 1.2 to 1.4 grams per kilogram of body weight daily. For a 170-pound person, that’s about 93 to 108 grams. Strength-trained athletes need even more: 1.6 to 1.7 grams per kilogram, or roughly 123 to 131 grams for the same person. These ranges come from a systematic review and meta-analysis published in Frontiers in Nutrition, and they’re consistent with what most sports nutrition guidelines recommend.
You don’t need to be a competitive athlete to benefit from these higher intakes. If you lift weights a few times a week, do CrossFit, or play recreational sports regularly, aiming for the 1.2 to 1.6 gram range gives your muscles the raw material they need to recover and adapt.
Protein Needs After 50
Starting around age 50, your body becomes less efficient at using protein to build and maintain muscle. This gradual muscle loss, called sarcopenia, accelerates with each passing decade and contributes to frailty, falls, and loss of independence. The standard RDA of 0.8 grams per kilogram doesn’t account for this shift.
A review published in The Journals of Gerontology suggested that older adults benefit from 1.0 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram daily. For a 180-pound person, that translates to about 82 to 130 grams per day. The higher end of that range is especially relevant if you’re also strength training, which you should be. Research consistently shows that protein intake combined with heavy resistance exercise leads to the greatest improvements in muscle mass and strength in older adults. Protein alone helps, but the combination is far more effective.
During Pregnancy
Pregnant women need more protein to support fetal growth, placental development, and expanded blood volume. UCSF Health recommends a minimum of 60 grams of protein per day during pregnancy, accounting for about 20 to 25 percent of total calorie intake. That’s a meaningful increase over what many women eat before becoming pregnant, and it’s worth tracking during the second and third trimesters when fetal growth accelerates.
When You’re Losing Weight
Cutting calories puts your muscle at risk. Your body, faced with an energy shortage, will break down muscle tissue for fuel unless you give it a strong reason not to. That reason is protein. Eating more protein during a caloric deficit helps preserve lean mass so that more of the weight you lose comes from fat rather than muscle.
The same 1.0 to 1.6 grams per kilogram range recommended for older adults applies well during active weight loss too. If you’re a 180-pound person trying to lose weight, aiming for 100 to 130 grams of protein per day helps protect muscle while supporting satiety. Protein is the most filling macronutrient, so higher-protein meals tend to reduce hunger and make it easier to stick to a calorie deficit without feeling deprived.
How to Spread It Across the Day
Your body can only use so much protein at once for muscle building. Research suggests that 20 to 25 grams of protein every three to four hours optimizes the muscle-building response in younger adults. A more practical framework: aim for 0.4 to 0.55 grams per kilogram of body weight at each of four meals throughout the day. For a 170-pound person, that’s about 31 to 42 grams per meal.
This matters because the typical eating pattern for many people is protein-light at breakfast (a bowl of cereal, toast, or a pastry), moderate at lunch, and heavily concentrated at dinner. Redistributing your protein more evenly gives your muscles a steady supply of the building blocks they need. A breakfast with eggs or Greek yogurt, a lunch built around chicken or legumes, and a dinner with fish or tofu does the job without requiring supplements or careful calorie counting.
Animal vs. Plant Protein
Not all protein sources trigger muscle building equally. Animal proteins like whey, eggs, and meat are rich in leucine, an amino acid that plays a key role in switching on muscle repair. Plant proteins individually tend to be lower in leucine and may be digested differently, which initially raised concerns about their effectiveness.
However, blending plant sources can close the gap. Research published in Clinical Nutrition found that 30 grams of a plant-protein blend (wheat, corn, and pea protein) stimulated muscle building at levels similar to 30 grams of milk protein, even though both contained the same 2.4 grams of leucine. The practical takeaway: if you eat a plant-based diet, combining different protein sources at each meal (rice and beans, tofu with whole grains, lentils with nuts) gives you a more complete amino acid profile that performs comparably to animal protein.
How Much Is Too Much
There is a ceiling. Consuming more than about 2 grams per kilogram of body weight daily (roughly 150 grams for a 165-pound person) offers no additional muscle-building benefit and can be harmful over time. Very high protein diets increase the workload on your kidneys, which filter the nitrogen waste products of protein metabolism. For people with healthy kidneys, this is manageable in the short term but becomes a concern with sustained excess intake.
The practical risk of extremely high protein consumption is less about acute danger and more about what it displaces. People eating 200-plus grams of protein a day often do so at the expense of fiber, fruits, and vegetables. A varied diet that includes adequate protein alongside whole grains, produce, and healthy fats serves your long-term health better than maxing out on protein alone.
A Quick Reference by Goal
- Sedentary adult: 0.8 g/kg (about 54 g for a 150-lb person)
- Recreationally active: 1.0 to 1.2 g/kg (68 to 82 g for 150 lbs)
- Endurance athlete: 1.2 to 1.4 g/kg (82 to 95 g for 150 lbs)
- Strength athlete: 1.6 to 1.7 g/kg (109 to 116 g for 150 lbs)
- Older adult (50+): 1.0 to 1.6 g/kg (68 to 109 g for 150 lbs)
- Weight loss: 1.0 to 1.6 g/kg (68 to 109 g for 150 lbs)
- Pregnancy: minimum 60 g per day