Guide · Protein

How much protein do you need a day?

By SachLabel · Published 24 October 2026 · Information, not medical advice.

Short answer: most healthy adults need about 0.8 g of protein per kg of body weight a day: about 54 g for a 65 kg man and 46 g for a 55 kg woman in India. People who train hard, older adults and pregnant or breastfeeding women need more. People with kidney disease may need less, and should follow their doctor.

Why we wrote this

A popular blog post by Dr Eric Berg, “Protein Requirements”, recommends 3 to 6 ounces (85 to 170 g) of protein per meal. That figure is easy to misread, and some of the post's other claims go further than the evidence. Here is what the official reference values and the research reviews say, with a source for every number.

The baseline: 0.8 g per kg

Expert bodies agree closely on what healthy adults need to stay in protein balance:

These are amounts that meet the needs of almost all healthy adults, not a minimum to scrape by on. To find yours, multiply your weight in kg by 0.83.

Baseline protein at 0.83 g per kg (healthy adults)
Body weightProtein a day
50 kgabout 42 g
60 kgabout 50 g
70 kgabout 58 g
80 kgabout 66 g
90 kgabout 75 g

Ounces of meat are not grams of protein

The “3 to 6 ounces per meal” in Dr Berg's post reads like an amount of protein, but it makes sense only as the weight of a portion of meat or fish. Cooked chicken breast, for example, is roughly 30% protein,8 so a 3-ounce (85 g) portion gives about 25 g of protein, and 6 ounces about 50 g. Taken literally as grams of protein, 85 to 170 g a meal (255 to 510 g a day) would be three to ten times what the reference values above suggest, even for athletes.

The same post says two eggs (about 14 g of protein) are not enough for most people per meal. That is fair for a main meal if you are aiming for the higher intakes below, but two eggs are already about a quarter to a third of a typical adult's baseline for the whole day.

Who needs more

Who may need less: kidney disease

Dr Berg's post is right that people with poor kidney function should be careful. For adults with chronic kidney disease (stages 3 to 5) who are not on dialysis, the US kidney guideline (KDOQI 2020) suggests a low-protein diet of 0.55 to 0.6 g per kg a day, under medical supervision; people on dialysis need more, about 1.0 to 1.2 g per kg.6 If you have kidney or liver disease, follow your doctor's advice rather than any general figure.

Is a lot of protein harmful?

For healthy adults there is no official upper limit. The European Food Safety Authority found that intakes up to about twice the reference value (roughly 1.7 g per kg) are safe for healthy adults, and that there was not enough data to set a firm limit beyond that.7 Dr Berg's post links high protein to insulin release and weight gain. Protein does raise insulin after a meal, but the reference sources above do not treat protein within these ranges as a cause of weight gain; total calories matter more.

Animal and plant protein

Animal foods, soy and dairy provide all the essential amino acids in good amounts. Most single plant foods are low in one or more of them, but combining them fixes this: pulses with cereals (dal with rice or roti), for example, complement each other. ICMR-NIN's 0.83 g per kg assumes the mixed protein quality of a typical Indian diet.1 Vegetarians can meet their needs with dairy, pulses, soy, nuts and seeds; vegans may need a little more total protein and more variety.

Do you need a protein powder?

Most people who eat enough food can reach their target without one. Powders are a convenient way to add 20 to 30 g when meals fall short, especially for people training hard or vegetarians with high targets. If you buy one, check what is actually inside: some powders contain less protein than their label claims, or are padded with cheap amino acids. Our protein powder comparisons show each product's protein per serving, price per day and any independent lab result.

The bottom line

This guide is information, not medical advice. Check with your doctor before changing your diet, especially if you are pregnant, have kidney or liver disease, or take medicines.

Sources

  1. ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition. A Brief Note on Nutrient Requirements for Indians, the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) and the Estimated Average Requirements (EAR). 2020. Table 2a.
  2. WHO, FAO, UNU. Protein and amino acid requirements in human nutrition. WHO Technical Report Series 935. 2007.
  3. Health Canada. Dietary reference intakes: reference values for macronutrients (US and Canada values, from the Institute of Medicine).
  4. Jäger R, et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: protein and exercise. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2017;14:20.
  5. Bauer J, et al. Evidence-based recommendations for optimal dietary protein intake in older people: a position paper from the PROT-AGE Study Group. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2013;14(8):542–559.
  6. Ikizler TA, et al. KDOQI Clinical Practice Guideline for Nutrition in CKD: 2020 Update. Am J Kidney Dis. 2020;76(3 Suppl 1):S1–S107.
  7. EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies. Scientific Opinion on Dietary Reference Values for protein. EFSA Journal. 2012;10(2):2557.
  8. USDA FoodData Central. Chicken, broiler, breast, meat only, cooked, roasted (about 31 g protein per 100 g).
  9. Berg E. Protein Requirements. Dr. Berg's blog. The post discussed above.