If you are lifting and want a number today: most people training for muscle land between 1.6 and 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day—roughly 0.7 to 1.0 grams per pound. For a 180 lb lifter that is about 130 to 180 grams a day. Use the protein calculator below to scale that to your own bodyweight and goal.
That is the whole answer to "how much protein do I need," and it takes about four seconds to get. The part nobody tells you is that the target is the easy half. Hitting 160 grams on a Tuesday you forgot to plan is the half that decides whether the number ever mattered—which is why ChatRPE gives you the target and keeps the running count from that point on.
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Protein calculator
Scale a published grams-per-kilogram range by your bodyweight and goal to get a daily protein target you can actually hit.
Daily protein target
155 g/day
- Reasonable range
- 130–180 g
- Across 4 meals
- ~39 g each
These are population-level ranges scaled by bodyweight, not a personal prescription. If you carry a lot of fat mass, the lower end of each range is usually the better starting point, because protein needs track lean mass more closely than total weight. Talk to a clinician before raising protein sharply if you have kidney disease or another medical reason to limit it.
How much protein per day, by goal
The three bands the calculator uses are conventional coaching ranges scaled by bodyweight. They are starting points, not prescriptions.
| Your situation | Daily protein | Where the range comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Active, not training for size | 1.2–1.6 g/kg | Comfortably above the basic adult requirement, without chasing muscle gain |
| Lifting, at maintenance or in a surplus | 1.6–2.2 g/kg | A meta-analysis of protein and resistance training found gains in lean mass stopped improving past about 1.62 g/kg/day |
| Lifting in a calorie deficit | 1.8–2.7 g/kg | A review of lean athletes in caloric restriction recommends 2.3–3.1 g/kg of fat-free mass, which lands near this band for most lifters once you scale it to total bodyweight |
Two honest caveats on any protein intake calculator, this one included. First, protein needs track lean mass more closely than total weight, so if you carry a lot of fat mass the bottom of each range is the better starting point. Second, going higher than the top of a band is not a mistake—it is just unlikely to buy you more, and it costs calories you could spend elsewhere. None of this is medical advice; if you have kidney disease or another reason to limit protein, that conversation belongs with a clinician.
Grams of protein per pound of bodyweight
If you think in pounds, the shortcut most coaches use is 0.7 to 1.0 grams per pound of bodyweight, with the higher end when you are dieting. That is the same math as the table above, and it is close enough that rounding to a flat "1 gram per pound" is a reasonable simplification for anyone under roughly 25% body fat. It gets expensive—in calories and in cooking—for people well above that, which is where scaling from lean mass is worth the extra step.
The number is the easy part
Every protein calculator on the internet stops here. You now have a target and no system, which is the exact point where most people quietly stop hitting it.
Here is the honest failure mode: protein misses are predictable and they happen late. You eat a light breakfast, a sandwich at noon, and by 4 p.m. you are 90 grams short with one meal left to cover it. A calculator cannot see that coming. A coach with your running total can.
That is the job ChatRPE does after the calculation. Tell it your target once and every meal you mention—typed, spoken, photographed, or scanned—updates a live daily count.
Try this: "My protein target is 160 g. Breakfast was three eggs and Greek yogurt, lunch was a chicken burrito. Where am I, and what does dinner need to look like?"
You get the total, the gap, and a concrete suggestion built from food you actually eat. Ask for a 7 p.m. nudge on the days you are short and the target becomes a behavior instead of a number you wrote down in January. The full workflow lives in the protein tracker guide.
Get the grams right, not just the guess
A protein target is only as good as the numbers you count against it. ChatRPE handles both ends of the precision spectrum in the same conversation:
- Packaged food: send a photo of the barcode and it looks the product up for exact per-serving protein rather than estimating, which is covered in the food barcode scanner guide.
- Real meals: describe or photograph the plate and you get an estimate that is clearly labeled as one, with the coach asking for detail when precision actually changes the answer.
Both land in the same logbook, so your daily total is a real number rather than a vibe.
Recalculate from your own data, not the formula
The reason to use a coach instead of a bookmarked calculator is what happens in week three. Your bodyweight moves, your training volume changes, and the population-average band that fit you in January is now a guess about a different person.
ChatRPE can chart your daily protein against your target as a reference line, sit that trend next to your bodyweight and training history, and tell you which of the three is actually explaining the other two. If your lifts stalled while protein averaged 40 grams under target for a month, that is a finding, not a coincidence—and it is the kind of thing only a system holding all three data types can surface.
Pair this with the macro calculator to set calories and the other two macros around the protein number, then track the whole thing in the macro tracker. If your goal is fat loss specifically, the weight loss tracker guide covers how the weight trend and the intake data get read together.
Frequently asked questions
How much protein do I need to lose weight?
More than you need at maintenance, not less. Dieting is when protein matters most, because a calorie deficit is the situation where your body is most willing to break down muscle for fuel. The review of lean athletes in caloric restriction linked above recommends 2.3–3.1 g/kg of fat-free mass, which for most lifters works out near the 1.8–2.7 g/kg of bodyweight band in the calculator. Protein also happens to be the most filling macro, which is a useful side effect when calories are tight.
Is this a protein calculator for muscle gain?
Yes—choose "Build muscle" and it uses the 1.6–2.2 g/kg band. The meta-analysis behind that range found additional protein stopped adding lean mass past roughly 1.62 g/kg/day in trained and untrained adults alike, so the top of the band is headroom rather than a requirement. Total calories and progressive training still do more for muscle gain than the difference between 1.7 and 2.1 g/kg.
How many grams of protein per pound of bodyweight should I eat?
About 0.7 to 1.0 grams per pound for most people who lift, leaning toward 1.0 while dieting. "One gram per pound" persists because it is easy to remember and it lands inside the supported range for anyone at a typical body-fat level—it is a rounding convenience, not a separate finding.
Do I need to hit my protein target exactly every day?
No. Weekly averages matter more than any single day, and a day 20 grams short is noise. The reason to track it anyway is that untracked misses are rarely 20 grams—they are 60, several days a week, and invisible without a count. ChatRPE keeps the running total so you can see the average instead of guessing at it.
Can ChatRPE adjust my protein target as my weight changes?
Yes. Your target, your logged intake, and your bodyweight trend all live in the same Universal Logbook, so you can ask it to review the last month and revise the number rather than re-running a calculator against a stat that has since changed. Ask for the chart too, and it can plot daily protein against your target line so the gap is visible instead of theoretical.
Does protein have to come from shakes and chicken?
No, and a coach is more useful here than a calculator. Tell ChatRPE what you actually eat—including the constraints, whether that is vegetarian, budget, a small appetite, or no time to cook—and ask it to find the gap. Most people are short because two specific meals contribute almost nothing, not because their whole diet needs rebuilding.