How Much Protein Per Day Do You Need? A Table by Body Weight

A healthy adult who doesn't train needs about 0.83 g of protein per kg of body weight a day, according to ICMR-NIN, which is about 54 g for a 65 kg person. If you exercise regularly or want to build muscle, aim for roughly 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg (about 90 to 130 g at 65 kg), split across three or four meals. Older adults need a little more than younger adults, people with kidney disease often need less, and pregnancy and breastfeeding add a fixed amount on top.

The tables below give the number for your weight. If you'd rather not do the maths, the protein calculator works it out by goal and suggests Indian foods.

How much protein per day for your body weight?

Each column is a different evidence-based figure, explained in the sections below.

Which column is yours?

• Little or no exercise: the 0.83 g/kg column
• Over 65: at least 1.0–1.2 g/kg, more if you're active
• Lifting weights to build muscle: 1.6 g/kg is a good target; going up to 2.2 g/kg is optional
• Losing fat while training: towards the higher columns (see below)

What does ICMR-NIN recommend for Indian adults?

The Dietary Guidelines for Indians 2024 from ICMR-NIN (Guideline 8) set:

• Estimated average requirement: 0.66 g of protein per kg of body weight a day
• Recommended dietary allowance (RDA): 0.83 g/kg a day for healthy men and women
• For a 65 kg person, that's 43 g (average requirement) or 54 g (RDA), "regardless of physical activity or gender"

The RDA is set to cover nearly everyone's basic needs. It's a floor for health, not a target for building muscle.

The same guidelines make three points worth knowing. Protein isn't used well for muscle unless you also eat enough carbohydrate and fat. Without physical activity or resistance exercise, extra protein won't build muscle. And most athletes can meet their needs from food without supplements.

How much protein if you work out or want to build muscle?

The ISSN position stand on protein and exercise (Jäger et al., 2017) says 1.4–2.0 g/kg a day is enough for most exercising people to build and maintain muscle.

A 2018 meta-analysis by Morton and colleagues in the British Journal of Sports Medicine pooled 49 trials with 1,863 people doing resistance training. Gains in fat-free mass levelled off at a total protein intake of about 1.62 g/kg a day. The 95% confidence interval for that break point ran from 1.03 to 2.20 g/kg, so the authors suggested about 2.2 g/kg for people trying to get every last bit of muscle. ICMR-NIN's guidelines cite the same plateau: intakes above about 1.6 g/kg didn't add further gains.

Two other findings from Morton are useful. Protein supplements helped resistance-trained people more than beginners and helped less with age. And training itself was "the much more potent stimulus". Protein supports the work; it doesn't replace it.

How much protein should you eat to lose weight?

More than the RDA usually helps. A 2012 meta-analysis of 24 trials compared higher-protein and standard-protein diets at the same calories. The higher-protein diets led to slightly more weight and fat loss, less loss of fat-free mass, and better satiety in 3 of 5 studies that measured it. The benefits were described as "modest".

For people who lift, the ISSN says intakes of 2.3–3.1 g/kg may be needed to keep as much lean mass as possible during a calorie deficit. That figure comes from resistance-trained people, so it's on the high side for most.

If you're carrying a lot of extra weight, multiplying your current weight by 2 g/kg gives a number that's hard to eat and probably more than you need. A practical fix, and the one our protein calculator suggests, is to use your goal weight instead. Work out your calories with the calorie calculator and keep the deficit moderate. Don't go below about 1,200 kcal a day (women) or 1,500 kcal (men) without medical supervision.

Do women need less protein than men?

Per kg of body weight, no. ICMR-NIN's 0.83 g/kg RDA applies to both, and Morton's meta-analysis found no obvious difference between men and women, while noting that far fewer studies included women. A woman who weighs less will need fewer grams in total, which the table handles.

Pregnancy and breastfeeding

The Dietary Guidelines for Indians 2024 add a fixed amount on top of the usual requirement:

Follow your obstetrician or dietitian if they've given you a different figure.

How much protein do older adults need?

More than younger adults. The PROT-AGE study group recommends people over 65 eat at least 1.0–1.2 g/kg a day to keep muscle and function, 1.2 g/kg or more if they're exercising or active, and 1.2–1.5 g/kg for most older adults with acute or chronic illness. The exception is severe kidney disease, where protein may need to be limited.

Older adults also respond less to protein supplements, as Morton's data showed, which makes strength training and enough total food more important.

When should you limit protein?

Kidney disease is the main reason. The KDIGO 2024 guideline for chronic kidney disease suggests 0.8 g/kg a day for adults with CKD stages G3–G5, and says to avoid intakes above 1.3 g/kg a day in adults with CKD at risk of progression. ICMR-NIN's guidelines also say high protein intakes should be taken with care by anyone who already has kidney disease.

If you have diabetes, high blood pressure or a family history of kidney disease, get your kidney function checked before you move to a high-protein diet. Talk to a doctor before raising your protein if you have liver disease or gout, are pregnant, or are under 18.

How much protein per meal?

The ISSN suggests about 0.25 g/kg per serving, or 20–40 g, spread every 3–4 hours. A 2018 review by Schoenfeld and Aragon goes a little higher for people trying to maximise muscle: 0.4 g/kg per meal across at least four meals, reaching 1.6 g/kg a day.

For a hypothetical 70 kg lifter:

• 0.4 g/kg × 70 = 28 g a meal
• Four meals × 28 g = 112 g, which matches the 1.6 g/kg column

The most common Indian pattern is a light breakfast (chai and biscuits, or poha) and a heavier dinner. Moving 15–20 g of protein into breakfast is the easiest fix. Our high-protein Indian breakfast ideas show how.

Which Indian foods give you the protein?

Values are from IFCT 2017 unless noted, and are approximate.

The thickness of your dal matters a lot, because the protein comes from the raw dal that went into the pot, not the water.

What a day looks like

A hypothetical vegetarian day of 2 katoris of dal (60 g raw), 250 ml milk, 150 g curd, 4 rotis (120 g atta) and a katori of rice (45 g raw) adds up to about 44 g using IFCT values, before vegetables. That's a little short of the RDA for a 60–65 kg adult. Getting to 100 g or more takes deliberate choices: paneer, soya, more milk products, or whey. Our 100 g protein vegetarian Indian diet lays out a full day, and the soya chunks guide covers one of the most protein-dense vegetarian foods.

ICMR-NIN's tip for vegetarians is to eat cereals and pulses together in about a 3:1 ratio by raw weight, plus about 250 ml of milk, to cover all the essential amino acids.

The short version

• Healthy adults: 0.83 g/kg a day (ICMR-NIN RDA), about 54 g at 65 kg
• Training to build muscle: 1.4–2.0 g/kg; gains level off around 1.6 g/kg on average
• Losing fat: higher protein helps keep muscle; lifters may go above 2 g/kg
• Over 65: at least 1.0–1.2 g/kg, more if active or unwell
• Pregnancy adds 8–18 g a day; breastfeeding about 11–14 g
• Kidney disease: usually 0.8 g/kg; talk to your doctor before going higher
• Spread it over 3–4 meals of 20–40 g each; fix breakfast first

Useful links

• ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines for Indians 2024
• ICMR-NIN Indian Food Composition Tables 2017
• ISSN position stand: protein and exercise (2017)
• Morton et al. 2018 meta-analysis
• PROT-AGE recommendations for older people (2013)
• KDIGO 2024 chronic kidney disease guideline
• Schoenfeld and Aragon 2018: protein per meal

This is general information, not medical advice.