Protein Intake Calculator (Daily Range)

How much protein do you actually need per day? This calculator answers with an honest range in grams rather than a single number pretending to false precision — enter your body weight and pick the option that matches your activity or goal, and you get a low-high gram target grounded in published nutrition guidance.

The math is g-per-kg of body weight. The RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance) sets 0.8 g/kg as the minimum for sedentary adults — enough to prevent deficiency, not necessarily to optimize body composition or performance. For people who exercise regularly, the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) position stand on protein and exercise points to roughly 1.2-1.7 g/kg for general active fitness, 1.2-1.4 g/kg for endurance athletes, and up to 1.6-2.2 g/kg for muscle gain or for weight loss where preserving lean mass while eating in a calorie deficit is the priority.

Because a gram number alone is hard to picture, the result also converts the midpoint of your range into food: roughly how many chicken breasts (about 26 g protein per 100 g), large eggs (about 6 g protein each) or grams of Greek yogurt (about 10 g protein per 100 g) it would take if that single food covered the whole target. Nobody eats only chicken or only yogurt — the point is to make the abstract number tangible, not to prescribe a meal plan.

Treat the range as a starting point rather than a prescription: true needs shift with training volume, age, total calorie intake and health status, and this tool is not medical advice. If you have kidney disease, another medical condition, or want guidance tailored to your specific situation, talk to a doctor or registered dietitian. For the calorie side of your plan — how many total calories to eat before splitting them into macros — see this site's calorie calculator.