Protein intake calculator — grams a day for your weight and activity

How to use the protein intake calculator

1. Enter your Body weight.
2. Choose the Unit: kg or lb.
3. Pick your Situation: General health, not training, Exercising regularly / building muscle, or Resistance-trained, in a calorie deficit.
4. Read Daily protein, Per kg of body weight and Per meal (4 meals), then compare all three situations in the Reference ranges for this body weight table.

What it does and when to use it

Protein advice online ranges from “eat a little” to “eat as much as you can”. This calculator sticks to two published reference points and scales them to your body weight. It is useful when you are planning meals for a training programme, checking whether a typical day’s food comes close, or setting a protein target in a diet app.

The three situations map to these ranges:

For a full plan of calories and macronutrients, use the macro calculator, and the TDEE calculator for an estimate of daily calories (both rely on estimated activity levels). The BMI calculator gives context on body weight.

How it works

The calculator converts pounds to kilograms if needed (1 lb = 0.45359237 kg), then:

Daily protein = body weight in kg × grams per kg

For the two ISSN situations it multiplies by the low and the high end of the range and rounds each to whole grams. The per-meal figure divides those totals by four and rounds again. The four-meal split is simply a convenient example of spreading protein through the day.

Worked examples

These figures come from the calculator’s own function.

70 kg, exercising regularly. Daily protein 98 g – 140 g, which is 1.4–2 g/kg, or 25–35 g per meal across four meals.

70 kg, general health. Daily protein 56 g at 0.8 g/kg, or 14 g per meal.

180 lb, resistance-trained and in a deficit. 180 lb is about 81.6 kg. Daily protein 188 g – 253 g (2.3–3.1 g/kg), or 47–63 g per meal. The table shows the RDA for the same weight would be 65 g.

Limits and tips

• Body weight, not ideal weight. The ranges use your actual weight. For people carrying a lot of body fat, a clinician may base targets on a different weight.
• Food or supplements. The ISSN notes that active people can meet their needs from whole foods, with supplements as a practical extra, and suggests spreading protein evenly every 3–4 hours.
• Not a medical plan. Children, pregnant or breastfeeding women, older adults and people with kidney or liver disease have different needs. Speak to a doctor or registered dietitian.
• Your entries stay in your browser.