How much protein do you really need?

Protein has made it’s way into everything these days.

We have protein coffee, protein bread, protein pasta, protein cookies, protein pudding, protein pancakes, protein yoghurt - and now, thanks to Khloe Kardashian, we even have protein popcorn. 

What was once something that only gym bros and bodybuilders seemed to care about has made it’s way into the mainstream. 

The awareness of protein intake likely goes hand in hand with the fact that many of us (particularly women) are recently learning the benefits of building and maintaining skeletal muscle.

It’s been great to witness as a fitness professional, and I’m always thrilled to be a part of the onboarding process for that. 

If we are strength training, that does require a slightly different nutrition strategy, which involves eating more protein.

When we train with resistance, we create micro-tears in our muscle tissue from using them. In order to repair that muscle tissue, we must have adequate circulating amino acids (from protein) in order to rebuild new muscle tissue. The more training that we do, the more muscle tissue is broken down. As we get older, muscle tissue breaks down at a faster rate. If we are not resistance training or consuming adequate protein, we will continue to gradually lose more muscle tissue over time. 

And because protein has beneficial effects on satiety, protein has been championed as a core pillar of a fat loss diet. ‘Eat more protein, and you’ll be less likely to reach for that 3pm chocolate bar’. ‘Eat more protein, and you’ll be fuller for fewer calories.’ 

These statements have truth to them, and protein is a big part of the recommendations I dish out to clients.

I’m often trying to encourage basically everyone to center their main meals around a protein source and seek out high protein versions of things to make hitting protein targets easier. 

But how much protein do we actually need?

The recommended daily allowance (RDA) for protein sits at 0.8 grams per kilogram of bodyweight. The New Zealand Ministry of Health has set a blanket target for men at 64 grams per day, and 46 grams for women - with a suggestion to eat more if you are either tall or very physically active.

If you’ve ever tracked macros, you’ll recognise that those targets are quite low. In fact, very few people struggle to meet the RDA for protein in developed countries.

But research has shown that there are clear benefits to consuming more than the RDA for protein, with the American College of Sports Medicine releasing a statement in 2017 confirming that adults should consume between 1.2-2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day.

The problem is, that 1.2-2.2 g/kg bw is actually a huge range to work with. The heavier you are, the bigger that range becomes as well. 

Here’s how to guess how much protein you’re likely to need (I say guess, because we can never know for sure, but it’s a good place to start).

The older you are, the more protein you’ll need

If you’re eating in an energy deficit (e.g. losing weight), you’ll need more

If you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, you’ll need more

If you’re a bigger person, you can calculate your intake based on the lower end of that scale

If you’re a smaller person, you can calculate your intake based on the higher end of that scale

If you consume a predominantly plant based diet, you might need to consume more protein

If you’re doing a significant amount of training, you’ll need to consume more protein

But unless you’re a high level competitive athlete, you’re not really going to see any additional benefit beyond consuming 1.6 grams per kg of bodyweight. 

So most people should aim for somewhere between 1.2 and 1.6 g/kg bw per day. Where exactly, depends on the above factors. 

To figure out how that actually translates to your food choices, you can use a food tracking app such as My Fitness Pal, Cronometer or Easy Diet Diary to brainstorm a sample day of eating and see how that compares to what you’re currently doing. 

It could totally be that you were way overestimating how much you needed to be eating and you might not need to be protein-ifying everything you eat, or, this could be your reminder to start making protein a little bit more of a focus.