How much protein do you need a day? Grams, and a sample menu

Protein per day by body weight, in one table

Multiply your weight in kilograms by the reference you want. If you think in pounds, divide by 2.2 first, or multiply pounds by 0.36 for the 0.8 g per kg reference, 0.55 for 1.2, 0.73 for 1.6 and 0.91 for 2.0. The table is that multiplication, rounded to the nearest gram, for five body weights.

The spread is the point. At 70 kg the same person can be told 56 g or 140 g, a factor of 2.5, and all four numbers come from a source with a reason behind it. The next section says what each one is for.

Where each number comes from

0.8 g per kg, the recommended allowance. The National Academies' 2005 dietary reference intakes set the adult RDA for protein at 0.8 g per kg a day, which they give as 56 g for a reference man of 70 kg and 46 g for a reference woman of 57 kg; the slides add that the value was set after correcting for 75% efficiency of utilization (National Academies slides quoting the 2005 report). Harvard Health describes it as the amount that meets basic requirements, "the minimum amount you need to keep from getting sick," not what you are supposed to eat every day (Harvard Health). So it is a floor for avoiding shortfall, which is why the other three numbers sit higher.

1.2 to 1.6 g per kg, the newest US goal. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030, published by HHS and USDA in January 2026, tell people to prioritize protein foods at every meal and give a protein goal of 1.2 to 1.6 g per kg of body weight a day, adjusted to your calorie needs. It is higher than the 0.8 g per kg allowance. It is a goal for the general population, not a diagnosis for anyone, and the gram figures that follow from it are estimates.

Protein serving goals: 1.2–1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, adjusting as needed based on your individual caloric requirements.

1.4 to 2.0 g per kg, for people who exercise. The International Society of Sports Nutrition's position stand says an overall daily intake of 1.4 to 2.0 g per kg is sufficient for most exercising people, and says there are multiple lines of evidence that the 0.8 g per kg RDA is not an appropriate amount for a training athlete (Jäger and colleagues, 2017). Its advice is a position of that society, not a government standard.

About 1.6 g per kg, the plateau in the muscle studies. A meta-analysis of 49 trials and 1,863 healthy adults found that, with resistance training, adding protein stopped producing extra fat-free mass beyond a total intake of about 1.62 g per kg a day (Morton and colleagues, 2018). That is a result about gaining muscle in healthy adults who do resistance training and add protein. It is not a minimum for everyone and not an upper limit.

Which number is yours?

The sources do not tell you to pick one, so here is how the pieces fit, as estimated arithmetic and not as advice. If you are a healthy adult who does not train, the allowance (0.8) and the lower end of the new US goal (1.2) bracket the usual conversation, 56 to 84 g at 70 kg. If you lift or train hard, the sports and muscle sources point at 1.4 to 2.0 g per kg, and the US goal's upper end of 1.6 sits in the middle of that. The ISSN position stand also mentions higher intakes (2.3 to 3.1 g per kg) for resistance-trained people during periods of calorie restriction, which is a specialist case, not a general target.

Two cautions apply to every row of the table. First, a target in grams per kg is built on body weight, and the sources above do not say which weight to use for someone far above or below a typical weight, so take that question to a dietitian. Second, the table assumes you eat enough overall. Protein goals in the guidelines are meant to be adjusted to calorie needs, and a high protein number on a very low calorie intake is a different thing from the same number inside a normal day.

A question that comes up constantly is whether one gram per pound is too much. One gram per pound is 2.2 g per kg, above the 1.4 to 2.0 g per kg range the ISSN gives for most exercising people, so it is a high target. If you have kidney disease or another condition that affects how protein is handled, the right number comes from your doctor, not from a table.

What the grams look like on a plate

Numbers in grams are easy to say and hard to picture. This table takes 14 common foods and answers two questions with USDA values: how much protein you get per 100 calories, and how much of the food, and how many calories, it takes to reach 25 g of protein. Twenty-five grams is roughly one meal's share of the 1.6 g per kg target for a 70 kg adult spread over four meals, which is how the sample days below are built.

The spread across foods is 10 to 1. Tuna gives 25 g of protein for about 111 calories; peanut butter needs about 673 calories for the same 25 g, and brown rice about 1,122 (estimated). That does not make peanut butter or rice bad foods; they are there for other reasons. It means the protein you can fit in depends on how many calories you have, which is why a goal in grams is easier to reach on a larger intake and takes more planning on a smaller one.

Plant foods are not far behind once the portion is realistic. Firm tofu gives 12 g of protein per 100 calories, tempeh 10.6 g, and boiled lentils 7.8 g, which is more than milk (6.6 g) and about the same as an egg (8.1 g). The calories are the main difference, not the grams.

Two real days at 112 g

Here is the part that makes the numbers concrete. We composed a day for a 70 kg adult aiming at 1.6 g per kg, which is 112 g of protein, using foods from a US supermarket, and recounted every line with USDA values. Weights are as noted: oats dry, almonds and seeds as sold, meat, fish, rice, lentils and potato cooked. The first day uses meat, fish and dairy. These are examples, not recommendations to eat them, and the calories are not a target: we fixed the protein and let the rest follow.

The day lands 3.8 g over the target (3%) at about 1,645 calories (estimated). Protein by meal is 25.8 g at breakfast, 40.1 g at lunch, 14.0 g at the snack and 35.9 g at dinner. The calories are low for many adults; with a larger intake the same 112 g is easy, and with a smaller one the foods at the top of the density table do the work. The next day shows the plant-based version.

The plant-based day reaches the same 112 g, but it takes about 1,937 calories (estimated) against 1,645, 18% more. Per 100 calories, the omnivore day gives 7.0 g of protein and the plant-based day 5.8 g. If your calories are limited, that gap is the practical difference between the two; if they are not, it is a non-issue. We did not adjust for how well each protein is digested, so treat the plant-based total as the grams on the label, not as a verdict on quality.

Spreading it across the day

The International Society of Sports Nutrition suggests, for a single dose, 0.25 g of high-quality protein per kg of body weight or an absolute 20 to 40 g (Jäger and colleagues, 2017). For a 70 kg adult that is 17.5 g by the first rule and 20 to 40 g by the second. Four meals at 25 g each give 100 g; add a larger lunch or dinner and you are at 112 g. Across our two days the meals range from about 14 to 42 g, which is realistic, because the snack is rarely the place to hit 25 g.

The US guidelines word it as prioritizing protein foods at every meal, not as a dose. Practically, the easiest way to do either is to anchor each meal on one item from the top half of the density table, then let the grains, vegetables and fruit fill in around it. It is also easy to fall short: on our first day, rice, potato and oats together supply only about 20 g of protein (estimated), so the protein foods have to carry the rest.

When to ask a professional instead

This is general information, not medical advice. If you have kidney disease or any other chronic condition, are pregnant or breastfeeding, are under 18, are an older adult with a medical reason to eat differently, have or have had an eating disorder, or take medication that affects your appetite or blood sugar, ask a doctor or a registered dietitian for your protein number before you follow any table on this page. If a professional has already given you a number, follow it, not ours.

Doing this every week without the spreadsheet

This part is written by the team behind MacroRecipe, so read it with that in mind. The method above works, but a day of food took us 15 lines and a week of different days is more than 100. If you enjoy the arithmetic, a kitchen scale and USDA FoodData Central are enough. Our guide to calculating macros shows the full method, and our macro-friendly meal prep guide applies the same USDA counting to five recipes.

MacroRecipe does the matching step instead. It plans your week of menus around your macros and the goal you choose, from dishes you pick, with ingredient data from USDA and CIQUAL (ANSES). It sizes portions toward your estimated calorie and protein targets, and when you swap a dish the portions and the grocery list follow.

Who it isn't for: MacroRecipe runs on iPhone only, not on Android. It has no barcode scanner, no food database to search and no complete daily food diary, though a photo scan of a meal eaten elsewhere comes with the subscription. You can preview your first menu for free, after which it is a paid subscription. If you would rather log what you eat, see our MacroFactor alternatives guide.

How we calculated

Every food line is the portion in grams multiplied by its value per 100 g in USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy, from the April 2018 CSV downloaded from the USDA dataset page on 2026-10-22. Calories are USDA's own energy values, not recomputed. Carbohydrate is by difference, as USDA lists it. We used the first matching food for each item and did not mix brands.

• Targets. Grams per day = body weight in kg × the reference, rounded to the gram. 1.6 g per kg × 70 kg = 112 g, the target of both sample days. Pounds were converted at 2.2 lb per kg.
• Density table. Protein per 100 calories = protein per 100 g ÷ calories per 100 g × 100. Grams for 25 g = 25 ÷ protein per 100 g × 100; calories for 25 g = that weight × calories per 100 g. One large egg is taken as 50 g.
• Protein share. The 7.0 and 5.8 g per 100 calories come from 115.8 g ÷ 1,644.5 calories and 112.2 g ÷ 1,936.5 calories; they use USDA's calories, not 4 per gram.
• Rounding. Table rows are rounded; a total can differ from the sum of its rows by a few calories or a tenth of a gram.
• Not tested. We did not weigh these days in a kitchen or measure anyone's intake, and we did not adjust for protein digestibility. They are recounts of composed menus, not a trial.

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