The short answer: protein targets by goal
Protein needs are easiest to think about per kilogram of body weight, because a 55 kg person and a 95 kg person clearly do not need the same amount. The widely used UK reference intake for general health is around 0.75 g of protein per kg of body weight a day, often rounded to 0.8 g/kg in everyday guidance. That figure is built to cover basic maintenance: replacing the protein your body uses each day to keep tissues, enzymes and the immune system ticking over.
Above maintenance, the numbers rise with how active you are and what you are training for. People who are regularly active commonly aim for about 1.2 to 1.6 g/kg, and those specifically trying to build muscle often target roughly 1.6 to 2.0 g/kg. These are ranges, not exact prescriptions, and sensible people land somewhere inside them rather than chasing a single decimal. The table below converts the bands into daily gram targets so you can see what they mean in practice.
Daily protein targets in grams
To turn a per-kg figure into a daily target, multiply your body weight in kg by the rate for your goal. The examples below show the spread for three common body weights so you can read off the bracket closest to yours.
- Maintenance (about 0.8 g/kg): 60 kg gives roughly 48 g, 75 kg gives about 60 g, and 90 kg gives around 72 g a day.
- Active (1.2 to 1.6 g/kg): 60 kg gives roughly 72 to 96 g, 75 kg gives about 90 to 120 g, and 90 kg gives around 108 to 144 g.
- Building muscle (1.6 to 2.0 g/kg): 60 kg gives roughly 96 to 120 g, 75 kg gives about 120 to 150 g, and 90 kg gives around 144 to 180 g a day.
A pattern jumps out: as your goal moves from simply staying healthy to actively building strength, your target can roughly double. That is the single most useful thing to take away. If you would rather not do the arithmetic by hand, you can run your own weight and goal through our protein intake calculator and get the gram figure directly.
A worked example: 75 kg, building strength
Take someone who weighs 75 kg and is lifting weights a few times a week with the goal of building muscle. A reasonable target inside the muscle-building band is 1.6 g/kg. The maths is one multiplication: 75 multiplied by 1.6 equals 120, so the target is about 120 g of protein a day. If they wanted to push toward the top of the range at 2.0 g/kg, that would be 150 g a day.
It helps to picture 120 g as real food spread across the day rather than one giant meal. Roughly, that might be a couple of eggs and some Greek yoghurt at breakfast, a chicken breast at lunch, a portion of fish or beans at dinner, and a snack such as cottage cheese, milk or a protein source in between. Spreading protein across three or four eating occasions is generally more useful for muscle than loading it all into one sitting, because the body can only use so much for muscle building at once.
Protein does not exist in isolation, of course. It sits inside your total calories alongside carbohydrate and fat, so it is worth seeing how the target fits your wider diet. You can balance the three with our macro calculator and estimate your daily energy needs first with the BMR and calorie calculator so the protein figure lands in a realistic calorie budget.
Why the right number depends on your goal
The reason the ranges are so wide is that protein does different jobs at different intakes. At maintenance level it mostly replaces daily losses and keeps you healthy. Once you train, you create small amounts of muscle damage that the body repairs and adapts to, and a higher protein supply supports that rebuilding. When you are dieting, a higher intake helps in a second way: protein is the most satiating of the three macronutrients and helps protect existing muscle while you are eating fewer calories, so more of the weight you lose comes from fat.
Body weight is the main lever, but a few other things nudge the figure. Older adults often benefit from the higher end of the range to counter the natural loss of muscle with age. Endurance athletes training for long hours have raised needs too. And if you carry a lot of excess body fat, basing the target on a lean or goal weight rather than current weight avoids overshooting, since fat tissue does not drive protein needs the way muscle does. Tracking body composition alongside weight, for instance with a body fat percentage calculator, can help you judge which weight to base the figure on.
Putting it together
For most people the practical approach is simple. Pick the band that matches your goal, multiply it by your body weight, and treat the result as a daily target to aim near rather than a strict quota. Spread the protein across your meals, keep the rest of your diet balanced, and adjust over a few weeks based on how you feel, train and progress. Protein intake is only one piece of overall health, so it works best alongside a sensible look at your weight using something like a healthy BMI range as a rough screening guide.
One plain note to finish on: this is general information for healthy adults, not medical or dietary advice. If you have a kidney condition, are pregnant, or have any medical concern that protein intake might affect, speak to a GP or a registered dietitian before making big changes.