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 150-pound person, that’s roughly 54 grams. But that baseline number is designed to prevent deficiency, not to optimize your health, and many people benefit from significantly more.
Your ideal intake depends on your activity level, age, and goals. Here’s how to find the right number for you.
The Baseline for Sedentary Adults
The official Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of 0.8 g/kg/day is the minimum needed to meet basic nutritional needs if you’re not particularly active. In practical terms:
- 130-pound person: ~47 grams per day
- 160-pound person: ~58 grams per day
- 200-pound person: ~73 grams per day
Newer research using more precise measurement methods suggests even sedentary young men may actually need closer to 1.0 g/kg/day. That bumps a 160-pound person up to about 73 grams. The 0.8 figure remains the official guideline, but many nutrition researchers consider it a floor rather than a target.
How Exercise Changes Your Needs
Physical activity increases protein requirements substantially, and the type of exercise matters. Endurance athletes training at high volumes need roughly 1.6 to 1.8 g/kg/day. One study of endurance athletes running 35 km over three days found their actual requirement landed at 1.83 g/kg/day. Female athletes doing variable-intensity intermittent exercise (think team sports like soccer or basketball) need about 1.71 g/kg/day.
Strength training pushes the number higher. Male bodybuilders require around 2.2 g/kg/day even on rest days. If you’re lifting weights regularly but aren’t a competitive athlete, aiming for 1.6 to 2.2 g/kg/day covers most people well. For a 170-pound person, that range translates to roughly 123 to 170 grams per day.
Protein Needs During Weight Loss
When you’re eating fewer calories than you burn, your body is more likely to break down muscle for energy. Increasing protein helps protect against that. Current recommendations for athletes losing weight are 1.6 to 2.4 g/kg/day. Resistance-trained athletes cutting weight may need even more: 1.8 to 2.7 g/kg/day.
Even if you’re not an athlete, eating more protein during a calorie deficit helps you hold onto muscle while losing fat. Staying in the 1.2 to 1.6 g/kg range is a reasonable starting point for recreational exercisers who are dieting. That’s roughly double the standard RDA, but the context of calorie restriction makes the extra protein important for preserving the muscle you have.
Why Older Adults Need More
After about age 65, your body becomes less efficient at using protein to maintain muscle. This gradual loss of muscle mass, called sarcopenia, accelerates with age and increases the risk of falls, fractures, and loss of independence. To counteract this, researchers recommend older adults consume 1.0 to 1.2 g/kg/day. For a 150-pound older adult, that means 68 to 82 grams daily, a meaningful step up from the standard 54-gram minimum.
Spreading protein across multiple meals becomes especially important with age, since the body’s muscle-building response to each meal appears to have a threshold that needs to be met.
Protein During Pregnancy
Pregnant women should aim for a minimum of 60 grams of protein per day, accounting for roughly 20 to 25 percent of total calorie intake. This supports fetal growth, placental development, and the expansion of blood volume that happens during pregnancy. Many women who were already active or eating higher-protein diets before pregnancy will naturally exceed this number.
How to Spread Protein Across Meals
Your body can only use so much protein at once for building and repairing muscle. Research suggests that about 20 to 25 grams of high-quality protein per meal maximizes the muscle-building response in younger adults. Anything beyond that still provides calories and other nutritional value, but the muscle-specific benefit tapers off.
A more personalized approach: aim for 0.4 g/kg per meal across at least four meals. For someone targeting 1.6 g/kg/day (the lower end for active people), that means four meals of about 0.4 g/kg each. If you’re aiming for the higher end of 2.2 g/kg/day, that works out to roughly 0.55 g/kg per meal. In real numbers for a 160-pound person, that’s about 29 to 40 grams of protein per meal, four times a day. This approach is more effective than loading most of your protein into a single large dinner.
Upper Limits and Safety
For healthy adults who aren’t elite athletes or serious bodybuilders, keeping protein intake at or below 2 g/kg of ideal body weight per day is a sensible ceiling. That’s about 125 grams daily for a 140-pound person. People who eat very high-protein diets do have a higher risk of kidney stones, and those with existing kidney disease need to be more cautious about protein intake.
For most people, though, the bigger issue is getting too little protein rather than too much. The average American diet provides enough to meet the 0.8 g/kg minimum, but many people, particularly older adults and those trying to lose weight, fall short of the higher intakes that would actually serve them well.
Quick Reference by Body Weight
These ranges cover the spectrum from sedentary baseline (0.8 g/kg) to active adult (1.6 g/kg) to serious athlete (2.2 g/kg):
- 130 lbs (59 kg): 47 to 130 grams per day
- 150 lbs (68 kg): 54 to 150 grams per day
- 170 lbs (77 kg): 62 to 170 grams per day
- 200 lbs (91 kg): 73 to 200 grams per day
Where you fall in that range depends on how active you are, whether you’re losing weight, and your age. Most moderately active adults who exercise a few times per week land comfortably in the 1.2 to 1.6 g/kg range.