Most healthy adults need somewhere between 0.8 and 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. The low end, 0.8 g/kg, is enough to avoid deficiency. The high end, about 1.6 g/kg, is where muscle gains stop improving in people who strength train. For someone weighing 70 kg, that is a range of 56 to 112 grams.
Where you sit in that range depends on one question: are you trying to stay out of trouble, or trying to hold on to muscle? We chose the top of the range for OffRamp, and below we show the research behind that choice.
Most adults need 0.8 to 1.6 g/kg of protein a day
Three numbers do most of the work, and each one answers a different question.
- 0.8 g/kg: the Recommended Dietary Allowance for a healthy adult with minimal physical activity.
- 1.0 to 1.2 g/kg: the minimum range advised for adults over 65 by the PROT-AGE study group.
- About 1.6 g/kg: the point where extra protein stopped adding muscle in a large analysis of strength training trials.
A 2016 review in Food and Function lands in the same place from another direction. It suggests 1.0, 1.3 and 1.6 g/kg for people with minimal, moderate and intense physical activity.
The 0.8 g/kg RDA is a minimum, not a target
The RDA comes from nitrogen balance studies, which measure whether the body is taking in about as much protein as it is breaking down. A meta-analysis of 19 of those studies covered 235 people. It put the median requirement at about 0.65 g/kg and set the level that covers nearly everyone at about 0.83 g/kg.
That is a real and useful number. It tells you how much a healthy adult needs to avoid falling behind. It was not built to answer how much protein best supports muscle, recovery or fullness, and it was not designed around someone who has just lost a lot of weight. The word "recommended" leads a lot of people to treat it as the ideal amount. It is closer to the minimum wage.
Muscle gains level off around 1.6 g/kg
A 2018 meta-analysis in the British Journal of Sports Medicine pooled 49 trials and 1,863 people doing resistance training for at least six weeks. Added protein increased strength and fat-free mass. Beyond a total intake of 1.62 g/kg a day, though, there were no further gains in fat-free mass.
Keep two things in mind. The fat-free mass benefit of the extra protein was modest, about 0.3 kg on average, so training does the heavy lifting and protein supports it. The effect also shrank with age. A breakpoint from pooled data is an average too, so some people will sit a bit above it, which is why it works better as a planning number than a hard ceiling.
Adults over 65 are advised 1.0 to 1.2 g/kg or more
Older muscle responds less to the same amount of protein, so the minimum moves up. The PROT-AGE position paper recommends at least 1.0 to 1.2 g/kg a day for people over 65, at least 1.2 g/kg for those who exercise or are otherwise active, and 1.2 to 1.5 g/kg for most older adults with acute or chronic illness. The same paper carves out an exception for severe kidney disease in people not on dialysis.
After weight loss, the higher end makes more sense
When you eat less, your body has more reason to break muscle down. In a randomized trial in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 40 young men ate about 40 percent below their energy needs for four weeks while training six days a week. Those on 2.4 g/kg gained 1.2 kg of lean mass. Those on 1.2 g/kg gained 0.1 kg. The higher group lost more fat too.
That was an extreme setup in young men, so do not copy it. The direction is what carries over. A review of protein in weight loss and maintenance found similar results in short, tightly controlled feeding studies, while noting that longer studies were less consistent.
OffRamp uses 1.6 g/kg of goal weight, which sits right at that 1.62 g/kg breakpoint and gives someone keeping weight off one number to aim for. If you came off a GLP-1 medication, how much protein you need after a GLP-1 goes through that specific situation.
How much protein per day by body weight
To get your number, multiply your weight in kilograms by the rate you picked. If you think in pounds, 1.6 g/kg is about 0.73 grams per pound. These are the numbers at 0.8 and 1.6 g/kg:
- 60 kg (132 lb): 48 g to 96 g
- 70 kg (154 lb): 56 g to 112 g
- 80 kg (176 lb): 64 g to 128 g
- 90 kg (198 lb): 72 g to 144 g
OffRamp rounds to the nearest 5 grams, because nobody needs to chase 112 when 110 is what they will remember. A goal weight of 70 kg gets a floor of 110 g. It then shows one ring and what is left for the day. There is no calorie target anywhere in the app, so this is the only food number you have to think about. For where those grams come from, try the high-protein grocery list.
Who should not simply eat more protein
If you have chronic kidney disease, higher protein is not a simple upgrade, and the target should come from your care team. The same goes for pregnancy, liver disease, and any condition where a clinician has already given you a number. Healthy adults have less to worry about, as we cover in is too much protein bad for your kidneys. Even so, the 2016 review above advises against staying above 2 g/kg for long periods. This article is general education written by a founder, not a clinician.
