Blog · Nutrition
How much protein do I need?
The number is simple. Hitting it every day is the part nobody writes about.
The short answer
If you lift and you want to build or keep muscle, the range that sports-nutrition guidance generally converges on is 1.6 to 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day — roughly 0.7 to 1.0 grams per pound. For a 180 lb person that is about 130 to 180 g a day.
Most people can stop reading there. Pick a number in that range, hit it consistently, and you have done the part of nutrition that matters most for training. Everything below is why that range is the range, and how to actually land on it.
Why the RDA is the wrong number for you
The figure most often quoted — 0.8 g/kg — is the RDA. It is worth understanding what an RDA is: a floor set to prevent deficiency across a general adult population. It is not a performance target, it was not derived from people training hard four or five days a week, and it says nothing about building tissue.
"Enough not to be deficient" and "enough to build muscle with" are two different questions. The training-population guidance sits roughly double the RDA for exactly that reason.
Setting your own number
Building muscle, training regularly: aim at the middle of the range — around 1.8 g/kg (0.8 g/lb). Going higher is not harmful for healthy adults, but the returns flatten out. Past a point you are just eating expensive food.
Losing fat: push toward the top of the range, 2.0–2.2 g/kg. In a calorie deficit protein does double duty — it is the input for holding onto muscle while you lose weight, and it is the macro that keeps you full. This is the one situation where the higher end genuinely earns its place.
If you are carrying a lot of body fat: scale from a goal or lean bodyweight rather than your current scale weight. Fat mass does not have a protein requirement, and running the formula off a very high scale weight produces a target that is unnecessarily large and hard to eat.
Training but not chasing size: anywhere from 1.4 g/kg up is fine. The point of the floor is that you are not accidentally eating like someone who does not train.
Does timing matter?
Less than the internet suggests, and not zero. The "anabolic window" — the idea that you must get protein in within thirty minutes of your last set — has not held up well. The daily total is the thing that moves the needle.
What does seem to help is spreading it out: three or four servings of roughly 30–40 g across the day rather than 20 g at breakfast and 120 g at dinner. It is also simply easier to eat that way. Most people who miss their target miss it because they left two-thirds of it for the evening and ran out of appetite.
What the target actually looks like
Grams are abstract. Portions are not. Rough, practical numbers:
- Chicken breast, 6 oz cooked — about 50 g
- Two whole eggs — about 12 g
- Greek yogurt, one cup — about 20 g
- A standard whey scoop — 20–25 g
- Canned tuna, one tin — about 25 g
- Cooked lentils, one cup — about 18 g
- Firm tofu, 200 g — about 30 g
150 g a day is four of those, spaced out. Written that way it stops looking like a spreadsheet problem and starts looking like lunch.
Eating plant-based
The same range applies; the sourcing takes more attention. Plant proteins tend to be lower in leucine and less complete in their amino acid profile, so the usual advice is to aim toward the upper end of the range and vary sources across the day — legumes, soy, grains, seitan — rather than leaning on one. Soy and pea protein are the closest plant analogues to whey in amino acid profile.
The part that actually decides it
Almost nobody fails at protein because they picked the wrong number. They fail because measuring it is tedious. Weighing chicken, looking up a burrito, remembering the handful of almonds at 4pm — the tracking costs more willpower than the eating does, and after ten days most people quietly stop.
Which is worth saying plainly, because it changes what "how much protein do I need" is really asking. The number is settled and has been for years. The open problem is knowing what you actually ate without turning every meal into data entry.
Where Senvera fits
This is the problem Senvera was built around. You photograph the plate; the app reads what is on it and estimates the protein, calories, and the rest — no searching a database, no weighing, no logging. If it reads something wrong you correct it, and the correction sticks. Your coach then works from what you have actually been eating rather than what you meant to eat, which is the difference between a plan and coaching.
These are estimates, and Senvera says so. A photograph cannot know how much oil went in the pan. But an estimate you will still be making in March beats a precise log you abandoned in January.
Not medical advice. This article is general information for healthy adults, not a prescription. Protein needs change with kidney disease, pregnancy, some medications, and other conditions. Talk to a doctor or a registered dietitian before making significant changes to how you eat, and if something is wrong, stop and ask a professional.