Most adults need at least 0.36 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day, which works out to about 54 grams for a 150-pound person. But that baseline number, set by the Recommended Dietary Allowance, represents the minimum to prevent deficiency, not the amount for optimal health. The newest U.S. Dietary Guidelines (2025–2030) now suggest a higher range of 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight, reflecting growing evidence that most people benefit from more protein than the old minimum.
The Baseline for Sedentary Adults
The long-standing RDA of 0.8 grams per kilogram (0.36 grams per pound) was designed to meet the basic needs of 97.5% of the population. For a 165-pound person, that comes to roughly 60 grams per day. It’s enough to keep your body functioning, but many nutrition researchers now consider it a floor, not a target. If you’re relatively inactive and not trying to lose weight or build muscle, aiming for the updated guideline of 1.2 grams per kilogram is a reasonable starting point. For that same 165-pound person, that bumps the daily goal up to about 90 grams.
How Exercise Changes the Number
If you regularly lift weights or train for endurance events like running or cycling, your muscles break down and rebuild at a faster rate. That turnover demands more raw material. The recommended range for active people is 1.2 to 1.7 grams per kilogram per day. A 160-pound runner would aim for roughly 87 to 123 grams daily, while a 200-pound lifter might target 109 to 154 grams.
The higher end of that range matters most when you’re training hard or trying to add muscle. If you’re exercising moderately a few times a week, the lower end is typically sufficient.
Protein Needs During Weight Loss
When you cut calories to lose weight, your body doesn’t just burn fat. It also breaks down muscle for energy, especially if protein intake is low. Eating more protein during a caloric deficit is one of the most effective ways to preserve muscle while losing fat.
Research on athletes cutting weight suggests a range of 1.6 to 2.4 grams per kilogram per day during a calorie deficit. For a 170-pound person, that translates to roughly 123 to 185 grams daily. Going above 2.4 grams per kilogram doesn’t appear to offer additional muscle-sparing benefits. You don’t need to be an elite athlete to apply this principle: if you’re dieting and want to hold onto the muscle you have, pushing your protein toward the higher end of your range is a smart move.
Why Older Adults Need More
After about age 50, your body becomes less efficient at using dietary protein to build and repair muscle. This gradual loss of muscle mass, called sarcopenia, accelerates with age and contributes to falls, fractures, and loss of independence. The standard RDA of 0.8 grams per kilogram often isn’t enough to slow this process.
Most experts working in aging and nutrition recommend that adults over 65 aim for at least 1.0 to 1.2 grams per kilogram daily, with some suggesting up to 1.5 grams per kilogram for those who are active or recovering from illness. Equally important is how that protein is distributed across the day. Older adults appear to need about 25 to 30 grams of protein per meal to effectively trigger the muscle-building process, compared to roughly 20 grams for younger adults. Loading most of your protein into a single meal, which many older adults do at dinner, is less effective than spreading it across breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
During Pregnancy
Protein demands increase during pregnancy to support the growth of the baby, placenta, and expanded blood supply. The general recommendation is a minimum of 60 grams per day, accounting for about 20 to 25 percent of total calorie intake. Many women already meet this threshold without trying, but those who eat small meals, deal with nausea, or follow a plant-based diet should pay closer attention to their intake during the second and third trimesters, when the baby’s growth accelerates.
Spreading Protein Across Meals
Your body can only use so much protein at once for muscle repair and growth. Eating 90 grams at dinner and 10 grams at breakfast is far less effective than eating 30 to 35 grams at each meal. The key driver is an amino acid called leucine, which acts as a trigger for muscle protein synthesis. You need roughly 2.5 to 3 grams of leucine per meal to flip that switch, and that amount naturally shows up in about 25 to 30 grams of a high-quality protein source like eggs, chicken, fish, or dairy.
A practical approach: build each meal around a palm-sized portion of protein, then fill in any gaps with snacks like yogurt, nuts, or a protein shake.
Animal vs. Plant Protein
Not all protein is absorbed equally. Animal sources like eggs, dairy, meat, and fish deliver all the essential amino acids in proportions your body uses efficiently, and they score higher on digestibility measures that track how much of the protein actually gets absorbed in your small intestine. Plant proteins from beans, lentils, grains, and nuts tend to be lower in one or more essential amino acids and are slightly less digestible overall.
This doesn’t mean plant-based diets can’t meet your needs. It just means you may need to eat a bit more total protein and combine different sources throughout the day. Pairing rice with beans, or oats with nuts and seeds, fills in the amino acid gaps. If you eat exclusively plant-based, aiming for the higher end of your recommended range gives you a comfortable margin. Plant proteins also come with an added benefit for kidney health: they produce fewer acidic byproducts, which means less workload for your kidneys compared to high intakes of animal protein.
When Too Much Becomes a Problem
For healthy adults, eating more protein than the minimum is generally safe. But there is an upper boundary. Consuming more than about 0.9 grams per pound of body weight per day (roughly 150 grams for a 165-pound person) can create problems over time. High protein intake increases the acids and waste products your kidneys need to filter, and it may raise inflammation and oxidative stress in the body.
If your kidneys are already healthy, a moderate increase in protein is unlikely to cause harm. But consistently very high intakes, especially from animal sources, put extra strain on the system. People with any degree of kidney disease, even early-stage, need to be particularly careful, since damaged kidneys can’t handle the increased filtering demand. If you’re eating well above 1.6 grams per kilogram and you’re not an athlete in serious training, there’s likely no benefit to justify the added kidney workload.
Quick Reference by Body Weight
- 130 lbs (59 kg): 71–94 g/day (general health), up to 142 g (weight loss with exercise)
- 150 lbs (68 kg): 82–109 g/day (general health), up to 163 g (weight loss with exercise)
- 180 lbs (82 kg): 98–131 g/day (general health), up to 197 g (weight loss with exercise)
- 200 lbs (91 kg): 109–146 g/day (general health), up to 218 g (weight loss with exercise)
The “general health” range uses 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram. The “weight loss with exercise” number uses 2.4 grams per kilogram, which is the upper end supported by research for people in a caloric deficit who are training regularly.