By now you’ve heard about the power of protein. It’s the magic macronutrient that helps you stay full and maintain muscle mass while losing weight. And you’re probably wondering, “How much protein do I need?” Well, we can help you find out.
The MyFitnessPal The Protein Calculator is a simple, easy-to-use tool that helps you determine your approximate daily protein needs based on your individual lifestyle and health goals.
What you should know about the MyFitnessPal Protein Calculator
This tool takes the guesswork out of how much protein you should aim for. All you need to do is enter some basic information about yourself, including:
- Age: Protein needs may vary depending on age, especially as muscle mass naturally decreases over time.
- Sex: Although this is just a consideration, men and women tend to have different protein needs.
- Weight: Your weight helps determine your protein needs. It directly affects the amount your body needs for maintenance and growth.
- Activity level: Whether you’re sedentary or very active, your activity level plays a big role in how much protein your body uses.
- Fitness goals: Whether you want to lose weight, gain muscle, or maintain your current health, the calculator will tailor your recommendations accordingly.
Protein is essential for building and repairing tissue, producing enzymes and hormones, and maintaining muscle mass. The calculator uses evidence-based guidelines to ensure your protein intake supports your goals without overdoing it (1).
However, as always, the recommendations are merely guidelines provided for your information. For individual advice or if you have health problems, you should always speak to your doctor or nutritionist.
Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of protein
The recommended daily intake of protein for most adults is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight. However, this amount is the minimum Amount needed to support basic body functions and prevent muscle loss (7).
The RDA amount is probably not enough to meet the needs of active people or people with specific fitness goals. How much protein you need to build muscle or maintain muscle mass is another question.
Protein Intake Guidelines
Other organizations that make recommendations, such as: Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the International Society for Sports Nutritionrecommend 1.2 to 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. (1)
For a 150-pound person, that’s between 82 and 136 grams of protein per day. Plug your own numbers into the calculator to get a better feel for what would be a good protein goal for you.
How to calculate protein intake in meals
Your protein goal for the day may seem like a big number at first glance. It can be helpful to work toward this goal one meal and snack at a time.
Here are two good strategies for figuring out how much protein is in each meal:
Read nutrition labels
Nutritional information indicates the protein content per serving. Multiply this number by the number of servings you consume to calculate your total protein intake from packaged foods.
Use MyFitnessPal
With MyFitnessPalTracking protein is easy. Simply enter your meals into the app and the app will calculate your daily protein intake so you can stick to your goals.
Protein-rich food sources
Many everyday foods contain a lot of protein. Here are some of the most common foods that can help you meet your protein and overall nutrition goals:
Risks of inadequate or excessive protein intake
Protein is needed by every cell in our body. Without them, muscle growth, muscle building and tissue repair do not occur as they should (2).
But it can be too much of a good thing. Focusing on consuming proteins can lead to crowding out other nutritious foods. “It’s getting harder to include all of your food groups, it’s getting harder to add variety to your meals and build your meals, it’s getting harder to balance your carb and fat needs,” says Stephanie Nelson, senior nutritionist at MyFitnessPal .
To avoid these problems while optimizing your health, it’s important to find the right balance.
FAQs
Use the MyFitnessPal protein calculator by entering your weight, age, activity level and goals.
Build your meals around protein-rich foods like eggs for breakfast, grilled chicken for lunch, and tofu stir-fry for dinner.
Most people benefit from 1.2-1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight when losing weight (1).
Building new muscles and maintaining muscle mass requires a positive muscle protein balance. Research shows that strength training combined with protein consumption stimulates muscle protein synthesis (muscle growth) (3).
This means that it is important to consume adequate amounts of protein when lifting weights to build muscle, but also to maintain existing muscle mass. Although the body can technically build muscle from amino acid reserves, this is not ideal and has not been proven to be as effective. Therefore, protein intake recommendations for physically active people are higher than for sedentary people (4).
Although not consuming enough protein isn’t ideal, consuming too much protein can also have negative effects. The kidneys filter the byproducts of ingested protein, so anyone with impaired kidney function should avoid consuming large amounts of protein. Additionally, fluid is required to break down and flush out these byproducts, so occasionally hydration may be compromised if one consumes too much protein (5).
Remember that the source of protein is just as important as the quantity. Research has shown that excessive consumption of red meat and processed meat can increase the risk of overall mortality. You may want to choose more frequent protein sources such as fish, poultry, nuts, legumes, and low-fat dairy products (6).
Additional resources for further learning
- The Essential Guide to Protein for Optimal Health
- Carbohydrate, Protein and Fat Ratio: The Role of Macronutrients in Weight Loss
- Free macro calculator
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