How much protein do you actually need? (Probably more than you eat)

Protein is the one macronutrient most people get wrong in the same direction: not enough. Not dramatically — you're not deficient — but consistently below the amount that would actually help you hold onto muscle, recover from training, and stay strong as you age. Part of the reason is that the number everyone half-remembers, the RDA, was never meant to be a target for thriving.

The RDA is a floor, not a goal

The Recommended Dietary Allowance for protein is about 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. That figure answers a narrow question: how little protein can most people get away with before deficiency appears? It's a floor for survival, not an optimum for an active body. Treating it as a target is like treating the minimum oil level as the ideal amount to run your engine on.

What the evidence supports for most adults

For adults who exercise — or simply want to preserve muscle and function — the research points considerably higher, generally landing in the range of 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram per day, with athletes and those actively trying to build muscle sometimes going higher still.^[1] For a 70 kg (154 lb) person, that's roughly 85–110 grams a day, versus the ~56 grams the RDA implies. Most people undershoot this without realizing it, because protein is the macronutrient that's easiest to skimp on at breakfast and lunch.

Timing: spread it out

Your body can only use so much protein for muscle-building in one sitting; muscle protein synthesis largely saturates somewhere around 20–40 grams per meal for most people. A typical Western pattern — a little protein at breakfast, some at lunch, a large hit at dinner — wastes that capacity. Spreading protein more evenly across three or four meals gives your muscles repeated building signals through the day rather than one oversized one they can't fully use.

It's not just how much protein you eat — it's that your muscles get the signal more than once a day.

Why older adults need more, not less

This is the counterintuitive part. As we age, muscle becomes less responsive to protein — a phenomenon called anabolic resistance. It takes a larger dose to trigger the same muscle-building response a younger body gets easily. Yet older adults often eat less protein, not more, which is part of why muscle loss accelerates with age. Expert groups focused on aging recommend older adults aim toward the higher end of the range to protect against that decline.^[2] Combined with resistance training, adequate protein is the most powerful lever there is against age-related muscle loss.

The kidney myth, retired

You've probably heard that high-protein diets damage your kidneys. For people with healthy kidneys, that's simply not supported by the evidence — reviews consistently find no harm to kidney function from higher protein intake. The myth comes from advice that's genuinely correct for people who already have kidney disease, where protein does need managing. If your kidneys are healthy, you can stop worrying. If you have existing kidney problems, that's a real exception — talk to your doctor before increasing protein.

Practical sources

You don't need powders, though they're convenient. Whole-food sources do the job: eggs, dairy and Greek yogurt, poultry, fish, lean meat, and on the plant side, legumes, tofu and tempeh, edamame, and soy. Animal proteins are "complete" (all essential amino acids in good proportion); plant eaters can easily get there by varying sources across the day, and they collect a fiber bonus in the bargain. A simple heuristic that gets most people most of the way: include a palm-sized portion of protein at every meal, and front-load some into breakfast, the meal where it's usually missing.

None of this requires precision tracking. Aim a bit higher than the RDA, spread it across the day, and lean a little harder into it as you get older. That alone puts you ahead of most people.