How much Protein should I be consuming?

Good question and it is asked more than you realize.

How much protein do you need? How much protein you need depends on a few factors, but one of the most important is your activity level.

The basic recommendation for protein intake is around  0.36 g per pound of body mass in untrained, generally healthy adults. For instance, a 150 lb person would consume around 54 grams a day.

However, this amount is only to prevent protein deficiency. It’s not necessarily optimal, particularly for people such as athletes who train regularly and hard.

 For people doing high intensity training, protein needs might go up to about 0.64-0.9 g/lb of body mass.  Our hypothetical 150 lb person would thus need about 95-135g of protein per day.

These suggested protein intakes are what’s necessary for basic protein synthesis (in other words, the creation of new proteins from individual building blocks). The most we need to consume throughout the day for protein synthesis probably isn’t more than 1.4 – 2.0 g/kg.

But wait – there’s more!

Beyond the basics of preventing deficiency and ensuring a baseline of protein synthesis, we may need even more protein in our diets for optimal functioning, including good immune function, metabolism, satiety, weight management and performance.  In other words, we need a small amount of protein to survive, but we need a lot more to thrive.

We can only store so much protein at one time. The body’s protein stores fluctuate over the course of a day. The amount of protein in the body just cycles up and down as we eat or fast.


The take-home here is that you can’t simply eat a 16-pound steak once and be done with it. The body needs its protein stores to be continually replenished, which means that you should consume moderate amounts of protein at regular intervals – which just happens to be one of my daily regiments.

Consuming more protein may help maintain an optimal body composition (in other words, help you stay leaner and more muscular) and a strong immune system, good athletic performance, and a healthy metabolism. It may promote satiety (i.e. make you feel full longer) and consequently help you manage your body weight. Indeed, physique athletes such as bodybuilders have long relied on the rule of 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight – or 150 g per day for a 150 lb individual.