Most people need 1.4 to 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day to build muscle. For a 180-pound person, that works out to roughly 115 to 165 grams daily. The exact amount depends on your training intensity, whether you’re cutting or bulking, and your age.
The Daily Target for Most People
The International Society of Sports Nutrition puts the range at 1.4 to 2.0 grams per kilogram of body weight per day for building and maintaining muscle. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends a slightly narrower window of 1.2 to 1.7 grams per kilogram. These ranges overlap enough to give you a reliable target: aim for roughly 1.6 g/kg as a starting point, then adjust based on your goals and how your body responds.
To find your number, divide your weight in pounds by 2.2 to get kilograms, then multiply by your target intake. A 160-pound person weighs about 73 kilograms, so at 1.6 g/kg they’d aim for around 117 grams of protein per day. A 200-pound person (91 kg) would shoot for about 145 grams.
If you’re already hitting the lower end of this range and not seeing progress, bumping up toward 2.0 g/kg is reasonable before looking at other variables like training volume or sleep. Going above 2.0 g/kg hasn’t shown meaningful extra muscle-building benefits for most people eating at maintenance calories or in a surplus.
Why Cutting Calories Changes the Math
When you’re eating fewer calories than you burn, your body is more likely to break down muscle for energy. Protein acts as insurance against that loss. During a caloric deficit, the recommended intake jumps to 2.3 to 3.1 grams per kilogram per day for trained individuals who want to hold onto as much muscle as possible. That’s a significant increase. For the same 180-pound person, the upper end of that range means over 250 grams of protein daily.
This is one of the most common situations where people under-eat protein. If you’re trying to lose fat while keeping your muscle, protein should take up a larger share of your total calories than it would during a bulk. There’s also evidence that very high protein intakes above 3.0 g/kg may actively promote fat loss in resistance-trained people, though this level of intake takes deliberate planning.
How to Spread Protein Across Your Day
Total daily protein matters more than any single meal, but distribution still makes a difference. Your muscles can only use so much protein at once to repair and grow. Research consistently shows that roughly 30 grams of protein in a single meal is enough to maximize the muscle-building response for that sitting. Going beyond about 45 grams per meal doesn’t appear to stimulate additional growth.
The practical takeaway: split your protein into relatively even portions across three to four meals rather than loading most of it into dinner. One study compared people eating the same total protein but distributed differently. Those who ate about 30 grams at breakfast, lunch, and dinner built more muscle protein over 24 hours than those who ate a pattern more typical of how most people actually eat (10 grams at breakfast, 15 at lunch, 65 at dinner). The even-distribution group ate the same amount of protein total, yet got better results simply by changing when they ate it.
For someone targeting 150 grams per day, that might look like four meals of roughly 35 to 40 grams each, or three meals of 40 grams with a protein-rich snack filling the gap.
The Post-Workout Window Is Overrated
The idea that you need to chug a protein shake within 30 minutes of your last set has been a gym staple for decades, but a large meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that post-exercise protein timing and dose did not significantly affect muscle gains. What mattered was total daily intake and how it was spread across the day. The researchers concluded that roughly 0.25 g/kg per meal (about 20 to 25 grams for most people), consumed across regular meals, was more influential on muscle growth than any specific post-workout dose.
That doesn’t mean eating after training is pointless. If your last meal was hours ago and you won’t eat again for a while, having protein after a workout makes sense. But if you ate a solid meal an hour or two before training and you’ll eat again within a couple hours after, there’s no need to rush.
Protein Needs After Age 50
Older adults face a challenge called anabolic resistance: their muscles don’t respond to protein as efficiently as younger muscles do. The same 30-gram meal that maximally stimulates growth in a 25-year-old may produce a weaker response in a 65-year-old. Current recommendations for older adults sit at 1.0 to 1.2 grams per kilogram per day just to maintain muscle, and those actively strength training likely need to push toward the higher end of the general range or beyond.
Spreading protein evenly across meals becomes even more important with age. Research in older adults found that distributing protein into three equal doses throughout the day stimulated muscle-building more effectively than the typical pattern of eating most protein at dinner. If you’re over 50 and strength training, aiming for at least 30 to 40 grams of protein at each meal is a practical strategy to counteract that reduced muscle response.
Putting It All Together
Your daily protein target depends on three main factors:
- Eating at maintenance or in a surplus: 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg body weight per day. For most people, landing around 1.6 g/kg is a solid default.
- Cutting calories to lose fat: 2.3 to 3.1 g/kg per day to preserve muscle while in a deficit.
- Over age 50: At least 1.0 to 1.2 g/kg per day for maintenance, and higher if actively training.
Divide your daily total into three or four meals with at least 30 grams of protein each. Prioritize consistency over timing. The protein source (chicken, eggs, dairy, legumes, protein powder) matters far less than hitting your total and distributing it across the day. If your current intake falls well below these targets, even a modest increase of 20 to 30 grams per day can make a noticeable difference over weeks of consistent training.