Is 0.8 g/kg of protein enough?

It prevents deficiency in sedentary adults, but people who train, diet, or are older generally do better at 1.2 to 2.2 g/kg depending on goal.

Can I eat too much protein in one meal?

Nothing is wasted, but muscle protein synthesis responds best to about 25 to 40 g per meal, so spreading intake across 3 to 5 meals is the practical optimum.

Should protein be based on body weight or lean mass?

Lean mass is more precise when you know your body fat percentage, especially at higher body-fat levels where per-kg-of-weight targets overshoot.

How Much Protein Per Day: A Practical Guide

"Eat more protein" is the most repeated advice in fitness, and the least specific. This guide puts numbers on it: what the RDA actually means, the evidence-based ranges for training and dieting, when to calculate from lean mass instead of body weight, and how to split the total across meals. The protein intake calculator applies all of it in one step.

Open Protein Intake Calculator

The RDA Is a Floor, Not a Goal

The Recommended Dietary Allowance — 0.8 g per kg of body weight — answers one question: how little protein can a sedentary adult eat without becoming deficient? It says nothing about optimizing muscle retention in a diet, recovery from training, or satiety. Treat it as the floor below which nobody should sit, and start your actual target from the ranges below.

Ranges by Goal

Situation	Protein (g per kg body weight)
Sedentary, maintaining	0.8–1.0
Active, maintaining	1.2–1.6
Building muscle (training)	1.6–2.2
Cutting while training	1.6–2.4
Cutting, per kg of lean mass	2.0–2.6

The muscle-gain range tracks the widely cited Morton et al. meta-analysis (benefits plateau around 1.6–2.2 g/kg); the higher cutting ranges follow contest-prep research, where protecting lean mass in a deficit is the priority. Deeper cuts and leaner starting points justify the top of each range.

Body Weight or Lean Mass?

Per-kg-of-body-weight rules overshoot at higher body-fat levels — fat tissue has little protein requirement. If you know your body fat percentage (a tape measure and the Navy method get you close enough), calculate from lean mass instead: an 80 kg person at 25% body fat has 60 kg of lean mass, so a cutting target of 2.0–2.6 g/kg LBM lands at 120–156 g — noticeably saner than 190+ g a naive 2.4 g/kg-of-weight rule would demand.

Per-Meal Distribution

Muscle protein synthesis responds to each protein feeding, and roughly 25–40 g per meal is where the response saturates for most people. Split a 150 g daily target into 4 meals of ~38 g rather than one 100 g dinner: same total, better signal, and much easier to actually eat. Older adults benefit from the upper end of the per-meal range.

Common Mistakes

Aiming at the RDA while training hard or dieting — the floor is not the target.
Copying a bodybuilder's grams instead of scaling by your own weight or lean mass.
Counting protein only from supplements: whole-food sources carry the rest of your nutrition with them.
Ignoring protein on rest days — muscle repair does not take days off.
Chasing protein while the calorie budget is unaddressed: protein sets composition, calories set the trend. Start from maintenance calories if you have not.

These ranges are well supported for healthy adults. Kidney disease or other medical conditions change the picture — set targets with a clinician or registered dietitian in that case.

Macro Calculator Guide, Keto Macro Guide, TDEE Calculator Guide, Navy Body Fat Guide

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