How much protein do you actually need?

The Recommended Dietary Allowance is 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, about 55 grams for a 150-pound adult, and it is set as the amount preventing deficiency in nearly everyone rather than as an optimum. Population surveys consistently find that adults in the United States consume well above it on average, which is why protein deficiency is rare outside of illness, poverty, and some restrictive diets. The widespread anxiety about getting enough is largely a product of marketing rather than of shortfall.

Higher intakes have genuine evidence in specific situations. People doing resistance training build and maintain more muscle at roughly 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram, and reviews find little additional benefit above about 1.6 for most. Older adults appear to need more than the RDA to counter age-related muscle loss, and distributing it across meals rather than concentrating it at dinner matters for them. Anyone in a calorie deficit for weight loss preserves more lean mass with higher protein. Pregnancy raises requirements. Kidney disease is the situation where high intake can be harmful and medical guidance applies.

Two practical notes. Protein from food comes with the rest of the food, and the sources matter: legumes, dairy, fish, eggs, poultry, and lean meats deliver it with different companions, and observational research on very high red and processed meat intake is unfavorable. Powders and bars are convenient and not necessary, and the supplement industry is loosely regulated, with independent testing periodically finding contamination and mislabeling. Spreading intake across the day and hitting a reasonable total is the whole of what the evidence supports; precise timing windows around workouts have far weaker support than gym culture suggests.