The baseline recommendation for protein is 0.36 grams per pound of body weight per day. That’s the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) set for the average sedentary adult, and it translates to about 54 grams daily for a 150-pound person. But this number represents the minimum to prevent deficiency, not the amount that’s optimal for most people’s goals. If you’re active, losing weight, building muscle, or over 65, you likely need significantly more.
The Baseline: 0.36 Grams Per Pound
The RDA of 0.36 grams per pound (0.8 grams per kilogram) is designed to meet the basic nutritional needs of about 97% of healthy, sedentary adults. For a 180-pound person, that works out to roughly 65 grams of protein a day. Most nutrition research is published in grams per kilogram, so to convert, just divide your weight in pounds by 2.2 to get your weight in kilograms, then multiply by the target range.
This baseline is fine if you’re relatively inactive and not trying to change your body composition. But for anyone with higher physical demands, the research consistently points to higher targets.
For Muscle Building: 0.6 to 0.9 Grams Per Pound
The International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends 1.4 to 2.0 grams per kilogram per day for people who exercise regularly and want to build or maintain muscle. That converts to roughly 0.64 to 0.91 grams per pound. For a 170-pound person, the range is about 109 to 155 grams of protein daily.
If you’re in a serious muscle-building phase and training hard with weights, the higher end of that range is where most of the benefit lies. Some research has even tested intakes above 1.36 grams per pound (3.0 g/kg) in resistance-trained individuals and found positive effects on body composition, particularly fat loss, with no observed harm. That said, most people will get the vast majority of their results in the 0.7 to 0.9 grams per pound range without needing to push further.
For Weight Loss: 0.55 to 0.73 Grams Per Pound
Protein becomes especially important when you’re eating fewer calories than you burn. During a calorie deficit, your body doesn’t just pull energy from fat. It also breaks down muscle tissue for fuel. Higher protein intake helps prevent that.
Research suggests a daily intake of 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram (0.55 to 0.73 grams per pound) as the target range for preserving muscle during weight loss. One particularly striking study put young men on a steep 40% calorie deficit. The group eating 2.4 g/kg per day (about 1.09 grams per pound) actually gained 1.2 kilograms of lean mass while losing fat, compared to the lower-protein group at 1.2 g/kg who merely maintained theirs. Both groups were doing resistance training and high-intensity interval training six days a week, which was a key factor.
When protein intake drops too low during aggressive dieting, the results are poor. Studies of very-low-calorie diets found that even intakes of 52 to 77 grams per day weren’t enough to prevent significant muscle loss in overweight individuals, regardless of the percentage of calories coming from protein. The absolute amount matters, and combining adequate protein with resistance training creates a synergistic effect that neither achieves alone.
For Adults Over 65: At Least 0.55 Grams Per Pound
Aging muscles become less efficient at using protein. The same 20-gram serving of chicken that triggers robust muscle repair in a 25-year-old produces a blunted response in a 70-year-old. This is one reason age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia) accelerates over time, even in people who stay reasonably active.
Older adults need more protein per meal to hit the same muscle-building threshold as younger people. Research suggests per-meal doses as high as 0.6 grams per kilogram of body weight (about 0.27 grams per pound) for some older men, compared to roughly 0.4 g/kg for younger adults. Spread across the day, this means older adults should aim for at least 1.2 g/kg daily (0.55 grams per pound), with many experts recommending closer to 1.6 g/kg (0.73 grams per pound).
How to Spread Protein Across the Day
Your body can use protein more effectively when it’s distributed across multiple meals rather than loaded into one or two. The long-standing guideline was that muscle-building peaks at about 20 to 25 grams of high-quality protein per sitting, with anything beyond that going to energy or waste. More recent analysis suggests the ceiling is higher than once thought, but the distribution principle still holds.
A practical target is 0.18 grams per pound per meal (0.4 g/kg) across at least four meals. For a 160-pound person, that’s about 29 grams per meal, four times a day, totaling around 116 grams. If your daily target is higher, you can go up to about 0.25 grams per pound per meal (0.55 g/kg). Spacing meals roughly three to four hours apart gives your muscles repeated stimulation throughout the day.
Is Too Much Protein Dangerous?
For people with healthy kidneys, high protein intake has not been shown to cause kidney damage. Randomized trials lasting six months or longer have generally found little to no effect on kidney function, and several long-term trials observed no increase in protein spilling into urine among participants with normal kidney function.
The concern is real, however, for people who already have reduced kidney function. In the Nurses’ Health Study, which followed women for 11 years, every additional 10 grams of daily protein was associated with a meaningful decline in kidney filtration rate, but only in women who already had mild kidney impairment. Those with normal kidneys showed no such decline.
A reasonable upper boundary for most healthy adults is around 0.91 grams per pound per day (2.0 g/kg). Intakes above that, sometimes exceeding 1.36 grams per pound, have been studied in resistance-trained athletes without clear harm, but the additional benefits diminish and the practical difficulty of eating that much protein increases. Harvard Health notes that intakes above roughly 0.91 grams per pound (about 150 grams daily for a 165-pound person) enter territory where caution is warranted.
Quick Reference by Goal
- Sedentary adult (minimum): 0.36 grams per pound
- Active adult, general fitness: 0.55 to 0.64 grams per pound
- Muscle building with resistance training: 0.64 to 0.91 grams per pound
- Weight loss while preserving muscle: 0.55 to 0.73 grams per pound (higher end if training hard)
- Adults over 65: 0.55 to 0.73 grams per pound
- Dieting athletes in a steep calorie deficit: up to 1.0 to 1.4 grams per pound
To calculate your personal target, multiply your body weight in pounds by the appropriate number. A 150-pound person aiming for muscle growth at 0.8 grams per pound would target 120 grams of protein daily, ideally split across four meals of about 30 grams each.