Protein Targets Based on Body Weight

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Daily protein targets come from studies that tracked changes in muscle size and strength over time. These ranges use grams per pound of body weight.

Muscle maintenance:
Eat 0.5 to 0.8 g/lb per day if you train and want to maintain your current muscle. A 170 lb person would aim for 85 to 136 g per day.

Muscle growth:
Eat 0.8 to 1.0 g/lb per day. Research shows lean mass gains level off near the top of this range. A 170 lb person would aim for 136 to 170 g per day.

Fat loss with muscle retention:
Eat 0.8 to 1.1 g/lb per day. A deficit raises muscle protein breakdown, so higher protein helps protect lean mass. A 170 lb person would aim for 136 to 187 g per day.

How much protein to eat per meal

Your body absorbs almost all the protein you eat. What varies is what that protein is used for. The dose that maximizes the muscle building response scales with body weight.

Most adults do well with 0.18 g/lb per meal, which is about 31g for a 170 lb person. This level produces a strong rise in MPS.

Older adults often need 0.18 to 0.27 g/lb per meal to overcome age related reductions in MPS sensitivity. For a 170 lb person, that is about 31 to 46 g per meal.

This does not mean protein beyond these ranges is wasted. These ranges are how much protein is used to stimulate MPS. The excess supports organ and immune protein turnover, connective tissue repair, and enzyme and hormone production. Only the MPS response plateaus, not absorption or usefulness.

As for the minimum, MPS turns on at roughly 0.11 g/lb per meal, which is about 19g for a 170 lb person. This is the minimum effective dose to stimulate MPS, so try to hit this each meal.

Why you should care

Muscle gain and muscle retention comes from net protein balance over the full day, not from one isolated meal. You build muscle when daily synthesis outweighs daily breakdown. You lose muscle when breakdown wins for too many hours.

Two things matter most:

1. Total daily protein: This sets the size of your amino acid pool. If intake is too low, you simply don’t have enough raw material to support repeated synthesis pulses, protect muscle during training, and keep up with the ongoing turnover in organs, connective tissue, and the immune system. You can’t “time” your way out of a daily deficit.

2. Meal distribution: Spacing protein across three or four meals creates multiple MPS spikes and fewer long stretches where muscle protein breakdown dominates. Daily intake creates the foundation. Meal distribution helps you use that foundation efficiently.

Strong, healthy muscle is one of the best long-term health protectors you have. Adequate protein helps you:

Calculate your total protein intake based on your goals:

And your per meal thresholds:

Protein intake is one of the rare levers you fully control.

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