How much protein do you actually need?

This is the question we get most often, usually somewhere between ordering and paying. The answer people expect is a single number. The honest answer is a range, and the range is narrower than the internet suggests.

The short version

For most people who train with any regularity, somewhere between 1.6 and 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day covers it. Below about 1.6 g/kg you tend to leave muscle on the table when you are dieting. Above roughly 2.2 g/kg the extra stops doing much except cost money and crowd out other food.

For a 75 kg person that is 120 g to 165 g a day. Not 250 g. Not the number printed on a shaker.

Bodyweight matters more than your goal

People assume protein needs swing wildly between cutting and building. They do not, much. What actually changes is the calories around the protein. When you are in a deficit, protein does more work — it protects muscle you would otherwise lose and it keeps you full — so we push toward the top of the range, around 2.2 g/kg. When you are eating at maintenance or in a surplus, the bottom half of the range is fine, because the surplus is doing the building.

If you are carrying a lot of body fat, calculate against your target weight rather than your current one. A 110 kg person does not need 240 g of protein a day.

What that looks like on a plate

Numbers are abstract until you can see them. Roughly, in the portions we serve:

• A palm-sized piece of grilled chicken: about 30 g of protein
• A comparable portion of paneer: roughly 18–20 g, and considerably more fat
• Two eggs: about 12 g
• A scoop of whey in a shake: 24 g, give or take the brand
• A cup of cooked dal: 8 g, which is why dal alone will not get you there

Getting to 140 g is three solid meals with a real protein source in each, plus one shake. It is not exotic. It is just deliberate.

The Indian vegetarian problem, honestly

It is genuinely harder on a vegetarian diet here, and pretending otherwise helps nobody. Roti, rice, sabzi and dal is a carbohydrate-led plate with protein distributed thinly across it. The usual fixes work: paneer and tofu as an actual centrepiece rather than a garnish, curd and hung curd at more than one meal, soya chunks if you can tolerate them, and a whey or plant protein to close the gap.

The other fix is portion honesty. A vegetarian meal that feels protein-heavy is often 15 g. Weighing it once is unpleasant and permanently useful.

Where people go wrong

• Counting the whole dish as protein. A paneer curry is mostly gravy. The paneer is the protein; the rest is fat and carbohydrate.
• Loading it all into dinner. Spreading protein across three or four meals is easier to digest and easier to hit.
• Treating supplements as the plan. Whey is convenient, not magic. Food first, powder to fill the last 20–30 g.
• Ignoring everything else. Hitting protein while sleeping five hours and eating 1,200 calories will still not work.

A caveat worth reading

This is general guidance for healthy adults who train. If you have kidney disease, are pregnant, are managing diabetes, or are on medication that interacts with diet, the range above is not for you — talk to a doctor or a registered dietitian who can see your bloodwork.

If you want the arithmetic done for you, the estimator on our meal plans page will run it from your weight, height, age and training week. And if you would rather stop doing arithmetic altogether, that is what the monthly plans are for.