Protein Target Calculator
Your daily protein in grams, calibrated to your goal and your training — with a post-GLP-1 setting for adults who need to actively defend lean mass during and after a taper.
0.8
RDA floor g/kg
1.6
Fat-loss range
2.1
Top of this tool
No forms. It just asks.
The panel takes one question at a time and reacts to what you tell it. Nothing is stored, nothing is emailed, and you can change your last answer at any point.
Protein Target
Question 1 of 4
Goal sets the baseline
Fat loss, muscle gain, maintenance and post-GLP-1 all sit at different published starting points. Picking honestly matters more than picking optimistically.
Training adds on top
Up to 0.20 g/kg extra at five-plus sessions a week. Below that the increment is deliberately small, because protein without a stimulus is mostly just food.
Then it splits the total
Across three and four meals, because distributed intake outperforms one large protein meal for muscle protein synthesis.
Every tier on this ladder is a different question
The gap between the government floor and a working target is bigger than most people realise — and the reason for each rung is different. Tap or hover a row to see it.
The minimum to stop nitrogen balance going negative in a healthy adult. It was never designed as an optimum, and it is routinely mistaken for one.
Adequate for adults who are not training and not dieting. Enough to hold what you have, not enough to defend it under stress.
A deficit is a demolition order your body will happily apply to muscle. Higher protein is most of what keeps the demolition pointed at fat instead.
Sufficient to support synthesis at a slight surplus. Going far above this reliably adds cost and calories rather than tissue.
The highest setting in this tool, and the one with the clearest reason behind it: appetite suppression plus rapid loss is the classic recipe for losing lean tissue you will want back.
What the grams look like on a plate
Targets in the twenties and thirties per meal sound abstract until you see the portion attached to them. Values are approximate and vary by cut, brand and cooking method.
| Food | Protein / 100 g | Typical serving | Per serving | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken breast, cooked | 31 g | 4 oz / 113 g | 35 g | Animal |
| Greek yoghurt, plain 2% | 10 g | 1 cup / 240 g | 24 g | Animal |
| Whole eggs | 13 g | 3 large | 19 g | Animal |
| Salmon, cooked | 25 g | 5 oz / 142 g | 35 g | Animal |
| Cottage cheese, low fat | 11 g | 1 cup / 226 g | 25 g | Animal |
| Lentils, cooked | 9 g | 1 cup / 198 g | 18 g | Plant |
| Firm tofu | 17 g | 150 g | 26 g | Plant |
| Whey isolate powder | 85 g | 1 scoop / 30 g | 25 g | Supplement |
On a GLP-1, protein stops being optional
Appetite suppression plus rapid loss is the classic setup for shedding tissue you wanted to keep. Substudies of semaglutide trials report that a substantial share of total weight lost is lean mass when nothing is done about it — and bone density has been shown to fall on monotherapy where exercise was absent.
During the taper
Small, frequent, protein-anchored meals. Appetite is suppressed, so protein has to be scheduled rather than felt.
Resistance work, non-negotiable
Two to three sessions a week. Protein supplies the material; the training supplies the reason to keep it.
Always with your prescriber
Alongside the person who wrote the prescription, never instead of them. Nothing here is a reason to alter a dose.
Coming off one, or thinking about it? The off-ramp cluster covers the protein floor, the training minimum and the appetite-signal problem in full.
Every number on this page has a source
0
kcal/day drop in ad-libitum intake when protein rose from 15% to 30% (Weigle 2005)
0.0 g/kg
per meal, the distribution that maximises synthesis (Phillips & Van Loon 2011)
0
peer-reviewed papers cited on this page
Straight answers
Protein questions people actually ask
It is not measuring anything in your body — it is applying a published grams-per-kilogram range to your body weight, then adjusting for how hard you train. Goal sets the baseline, training adds a small increment on top, and the two together give a daily figure in grams.
That makes it a prescription target rather than a diagnostic reading. Nothing about it tells you what your protein intake is today, only what the literature supports for someone your size with your goal.
Answers are educational. Nothing here replaces advice from a clinician who knows your history.
A protein target is one input. Your metabolism is the rest.
The assessment works out whether your profile responds better to protein-and-training first or to carbohydrate restriction first — genuinely different answers for different people, and this calculator cannot tell them apart.
Educational only, not medical advice. This calculator produces an estimate from body weight, not a diagnosis, and it cannot see your kidney function, medications or medical history. Consult your physician before major dietary changes or altering prescribed medication. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Individual results vary; no outcome is guaranteed.