Find your ideal daily protein intake based on your body, goals, and activity level.
| Category | g/day | g/kg body weight |
|---|
| Food (100g) | Protein | Servings to hit goal |
|---|
Enter your weight, height, age, biological sex, activity level, and primary fitness goal. Choose how many meals you eat per day, then click "Calculate Protein Intake." The tool instantly outputs your recommended daily protein in grams and shows where that number falls on an optimality scale.
Protein is the most important macronutrient for body composition, and most people are either under-eating or dramatically overcomplicating it. A sedentary 70kg adult needs roughly 56g/day just to avoid deficiency — but that's a bare minimum, not a target. Someone who lifts weights four days a week needs 2–2.4x that amount to actually build muscle.
The difference matters enormously. In one well-known study, athletes eating 2.2g/kg gained significantly more lean mass than those eating 1.2g/kg, even with identical training. For weight loss, high protein intake (1.6–2.4g/kg) preserves muscle while in a calorie deficit — a critical difference between losing fat and losing muscle. Older adults need even more: muscle protein synthesis becomes less efficient after 50, so 1.6–2.0g/kg becomes the practical minimum to prevent sarcopenia. Whether you're 22 and bulking or 58 and trying to stay strong, knowing your number changes outcomes.
This calculator accounts for all those variables — body weight, activity, age, sex, and goal — and gives you a realistic, science-backed target, not a generic internet recommendation.
The calculator uses body weight as the primary anchor, with a multiplier adjusted for activity level and goal. The general formula is:
Daily Protein (g) = Body Weight (kg) × Multiplier
Multipliers by goal:
Imperial weights are converted to kg before calculation. Age adjustments slightly increase the recommendation for users 50+ to account for anabolic resistance.
This popular rule (roughly 2.2g/kg) is actually at the high end of most research-backed recommendations, not the standard. It's a practical and safe target for people actively training, but the evidence-based sweet spot for most exercising adults is 1.6–2.2g/kg. The 1g/lb rule works, it's just slightly more than strictly necessary.
Total daily intake is the primary driver of results. That said, distributing protein across 3–5 meals — each containing 20–40g — is meaningfully better than front- or back-loading. Post-workout protein has a modest benefit, but if you're hitting your daily total, timing is a secondary optimization.
Yes, but it requires more planning. Plant proteins are generally less digestible and lower in leucine than animal sources, so plant-based eaters often benefit from targeting the higher end of the recommended range (2.0–2.4g/kg). Combining sources — legumes, tofu, tempeh, seitan, edamame — ensures a complete amino acid profile.
Yes, significantly. After age 50, muscle protein synthesis becomes less responsive to the same protein stimulus — a phenomenon called anabolic resistance. Research suggests adults over 50 benefit from 1.6–2.0g/kg minimum, with some evidence pointing to 2.0–2.4g/kg for those doing resistance training. This calculator applies a modest age-based upward adjustment for users 50 and older.