Nutrition · free tool
Protein Calculator
How much protein a day, and roughly how much of it per meal.
Your result
How much protein a day, and roughly how much of it per meal. Fill in the boxes and press Calculate — nothing is sent anywhere and no account is needed.
How this is worked out
- Protein (g) = body weight (kg) × grams per kg.
- Grams per kg starts at 1.6 to maintain, 1.8 to build muscle and 2.0 in a deficit, then moves ±0.1 to ±0.2 with your activity level, and is held inside 1.2–2.4 g/kg.
- The per-meal figures are simply the daily total divided across three or four meals. Spreading protein across the day is easier to eat than it is to hit in one sitting.
Sources
- Morton et al. (2018), a meta-analysis of 49 resistance-training studies. Protein intake beyond roughly 1.6 g per kg of body weight per day added nothing measurable to lean mass. PMID 28698222
These are population equations. They describe averages well and individuals only roughly — which is what makes them a starting point rather than a prescription. Nothing here is medical advice.
The thinking
Why 1.6 g/kg
Why 1.6 g/kg
Morton and colleagues pooled 49 studies of people doing resistance training and looked for the point at which more protein stopped adding lean mass. It was around 1.6 g per kilogram of body weight per day. Above that, the extra protein did other useful things — it is filling, and it is hard to overeat — but it stopped buying muscle.
That is why this calculator is anchored there rather than at the far higher numbers the supplement industry quotes. A number you can actually eat every day beats a number you hit twice a week.
This is a general estimate
It uses body weight, not lean mass, because almost nobody knows their lean mass and the ones who do have a DEXA scan rather than a calculator. If you are carrying a lot of fat mass, the figure here will run high; if you are very lean, it will run slightly low.
Nothing here is a personalised target. Katia sets those for coaching clients from an intake form, a training history and what has actually been happening to a body over weeks.
Questions
Straight answers.
- Is more protein better?
- Not for building muscle. The evidence plateaus around 1.6 g per kg per day, and this calculator will not send you above 2.4 g/kg whatever you enter. More than that is not harmful for healthy kidneys, it just is not doing what people think it is doing.
- Do I need protein powder?
- No. Powder is convenient, not magic. Chicken, fish, eggs, dairy, lentils, beans, tofu and Greek yoghurt all count, and food comes with fibre and micronutrients a scoop does not.
- Should I eat protein at every meal?
- It helps. Spreading the total across three or four meals is easier than eating most of it at dinner, which is why the per-meal split is shown here.
Keep going
One number is a reading. A trend is progress.
Every calculator here gives you a starting point and nothing more. What turns it into something useful is logging what you actually do against it — which is free, takes a minute a day, and is where the 14-day START HERE challenge begins.
Start freeNo card, no plan. Or see what coaching adds.