Most adults need between 1.2 and 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, which is the range recommended by the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. For a 150-pound (68 kg) person, that works out to roughly 82 to 109 grams daily. Your exact number depends on your age, activity level, body composition goals, and whether you’re pregnant or recovering from an injury.
The older recommendation you may have seen, 0.8 grams per kilogram, is the bare minimum to prevent deficiency in a sedentary adult. It supplies only about 10% of total daily calories from protein. Most nutrition experts now consider it too low for anyone who exercises, is over 65, or is trying to lose fat without losing muscle.
Protein Needs by Activity Level
If you exercise regularly but aren’t trying to build significant muscle, aim for 1.1 to 1.5 grams per kilogram. That covers recreational runners, cyclists, swimmers, and people who do a mix of cardio and light resistance work. For a 170-pound person, that’s about 85 to 116 grams per day.
If you lift weights consistently or are training for a competitive endurance event, the range shifts to 1.2 to 1.7 grams per kilogram. A systematic review and meta-analysis in Nutrition Reviews found that muscle gains increase sharply as protein intake rises up to about 1.3 grams per kilogram per day. Beyond that point, you still gain muscle, but the returns diminish quickly. Resistance training helps you use that extra protein more efficiently, so lifters benefit from pushing toward the higher end of the range more than sedentary people do.
Protein for Losing Fat Without Losing Muscle
When you’re eating fewer calories than you burn, your body is more likely to break down muscle for energy. Higher protein intake counteracts this. Research on athletes cutting weight recommends 1.6 to 2.4 grams per kilogram per day during a caloric deficit. For trained individuals with aggressive fat-loss timelines, some studies suggest going as high as 2.7 grams per kilogram, though intakes above 2.4 grams per kilogram are unlikely to provide meaningful additional muscle-sparing benefits.
Where you land in that range depends on how fast you’re losing weight. A slow, moderate cut (losing about 0.5 to 1% of body weight per week) lets you stay closer to 1.6 grams per kilogram. A more aggressive deficit pushes your needs higher because the risk of muscle loss increases with faster weight loss.
Protein Needs After 65
Adults over 65 lose muscle mass at a rate of roughly 1 to 2% per year if they don’t actively work against it. The standard 0.8 grams per kilogram recommendation is the same regardless of age, but aging bodies use protein less efficiently, which means older adults need more of it to maintain the same muscle.
Current expert recommendations for older adults are 1.0 to 1.2 grams per kilogram per day as a baseline, and up to 1.5 grams per kilogram for those who are physically active or recovering from illness. At least half of that protein should come from high-quality sources like eggs, dairy, fish, poultry, or soy to ensure you’re getting enough of the amino acids that drive muscle repair.
Pregnancy and Breastfeeding
Protein needs during the first trimester barely change, only about 1 extra gram per day above your normal intake. The real increase comes later. During the second trimester, you need roughly 9 to 10 additional grams per day, and during the third trimester, that jumps to 28 to 31 additional grams per day. For a woman who normally needs about 50 to 60 grams daily, third-trimester needs can reach 80 to 90 grams.
Recovery From Surgery or Injury
Wound healing is protein-intensive. Your body uses amino acids to rebuild tissue, support immune function, and produce collagen. Mount Sinai’s guidelines recommend 1.5 grams per kilogram per day during recovery from significant wounds or surgery. For a 150-pound person, that’s about 102 grams daily, nearly double the old RDA minimum.
How to Spread Protein Across the Day
Your body can only use so much protein for muscle repair at one time. For younger adults, 20 to 25 grams of high-quality protein per meal is enough to maximize muscle rebuilding after exercising an isolated muscle group like legs or chest. After a full-body workout, that threshold rises to about 40 grams. Older adults need the higher end of this range, up to 40 grams per meal, even after lighter exercise, because their muscles respond less efficiently to smaller protein doses.
Practically, this means spreading your protein across three to four meals works better than loading it all into dinner. If your daily target is 120 grams, eating 30 grams at each of four meals uses more of that protein for muscle maintenance than eating 20 grams at breakfast, 10 at lunch, and 90 at dinner.
Plant proteins generally require larger servings to achieve the same muscle-building stimulus as animal proteins. This is because most plant sources have lower levels of the key amino acid leucine and are less digestible overall. Protein quality scores reflect this: whey protein scores 100 to 107 on the DIAAS scale (the current gold standard for measuring protein quality), soy scores 84, and pea protein scores 62. If most of your protein comes from plants, eating slightly more total protein and combining different plant sources throughout the day helps close that gap.
Can You Eat Too Much Protein?
For people with healthy kidneys, moderate increases in protein intake are safe. But consistently very high intakes can stress even healthy kidneys over time, so more is not always better. The practical ceiling for most people falls around 2.0 to 2.4 grams per kilogram unless you’re an athlete in a deep caloric deficit with specific performance goals.
If you have existing kidney disease, high protein intake forces your kidneys to work harder at a job they’re already struggling with. In that case, staying at or below the lower end of general guidelines, or even below them, is the safer approach. A blood test for kidney function (usually part of routine bloodwork) can tell you where you stand.
Quick Reference by Body Weight
- 130 lbs (59 kg): General health 71–94 g, muscle building 77–100 g, fat loss 94–142 g
- 150 lbs (68 kg): General health 82–109 g, muscle building 82–116 g, fat loss 109–163 g
- 170 lbs (77 kg): General health 92–123 g, muscle building 92–131 g, fat loss 123–185 g
- 200 lbs (91 kg): General health 109–146 g, muscle building 109–155 g, fat loss 146–218 g
These ranges use 1.2–1.6 g/kg for general health, 1.2–1.7 g/kg for muscle building, and 1.6–2.4 g/kg for fat loss during a caloric deficit. If you’re over 65, use at least the general health range even if you’re sedentary.