How much protein do you need in a day?

The guideline figure for a healthy adult in India is 0.83 g of protein per kilogram of body weight a day: the Recommended Dietary Allowance in ICMR-NIN's 2020 report, and the same figure the WHO calls the safe level. For a 65 kg adult that is about 54 g a day; for 55 kg, about 46 g. It is a floor, set high enough to cover nearly everyone who is not training, pregnant or unwell, not a target for someone lifting weights three evenings a week. The rest of this post is what the figure means on a plate, how it changes with training and age, and what one of our meals covers.

The figure, in grams

Two numbers sit behind the one. The Estimated Average Requirement, 0.66 g per kilogram, is what half of healthy adults need; the Recommended Dietary Allowance, 0.83 g, is set above it so that nearly everyone is covered. If you weigh 65 kg and eat 54 g of good-quality protein a day, you are almost certainly meeting your need; at 43 g you have an even chance of falling short. Both figures assume good-quality protein, the kind in dal, dairy, eggs and meat. A day that gets most of its protein from roti and rice needs more of it to deliver the same amino acids, because cereal protein is short of lysine and less fully digested, which is why the pulse on the plate matters as much as the cereal under it.

Spread over three meals, 54 g is about 18 g a meal. Most Indian plates manage that only when something other than the cereal is doing the work.

If you train

For people who lift or run with intent, the International Society of Sports Nutrition's position stand puts the range at 1.4 to 2.0 g per kilogram a day, in doses of roughly 20 to 40 g a meal, spread through the day rather than loaded into one sitting. At 70 kg that is 98 to 140 g a day; the middle of the range, 1.6 g per kilogram, is 112 g, or about 37 g at each of three meals. In a pooled analysis of 49 training studies, the gains from eating more protein levelled off at about 1.6 g per kilogram; past that, the extra is mostly burned for energy.

If you are over 65

Older muscle responds less to a small portion of protein than younger muscle does, so the PROT-AGE study group's recommendation for healthy adults over 65 is higher than the general figure: 1.0 to 1.2 g per kilogram a day, with 25 to 30 g at each main meal rather than a little at each. For a 60 kg parent that is 60 to 72 g a day. Dal at every meal, dahi, eggs if they eat them, and paneer or chicken at one meal is how most households get there.

Where an Indian plate gets its protein

Rounded from the Indian Food Composition Tables: a roti made from 30 g of atta carries about 3 g; a katori of rice about 4 g; a katori of dal, from about 30 g of raw lentils, about 7 g; an egg about 6 g; 100 g of paneer about 18 g; 100 g of cooked chicken about 25 to 30 g. A roti, dal, sabzi and rice plate therefore lands near 15 to 20 g, which is why the guideline is easy to miss on an ordinary day and easy to meet on a day with eggs at breakfast and paneer or chicken at dinner.

What one of our meals covers

Our Everyday plan is the home plate done properly: 8 to 44 g a meal, about 28 g on average, because the dal, the paneer and the chicken are weighed into it rather than scattered over it. The High Protein plan runs 31 to 49 g and averages about 38 g, in Veg, Veg + Egg, Veg + Non-Veg, Non-Veg only.

Put the two numbers together. For a 65 kg adult at the guideline figure, one High Protein meal is about two-thirds of the day's 54 g; lunch and dinner from the plan cover it with room to spare, and breakfast is yours. For a 70 kg adult training at 1.6 g per kilogram, 112 g, the same two meals carry about two-thirds of it and leave the last third to breakfast and whatever follows training: two eggs and a bowl of dahi, or a glass of milk and a handful of roasted chana, get there without a scoop of anything.

The figure on every dish is calculated from the recipe and the weighed portions of each component, so it describes the dish as it is meant to be served, and a plate as served can vary a little. On Set up my plan you see the week's protein before you give us anything; if you have a target in grams from a coach or a doctor, ask for a personalised plan and tell us the number, and the kitchen builds the week to it.

What we don't claim

We are a kitchen, and these are population guidelines. They do not apply as written in pregnancy, to anyone with a kidney condition, or to anyone whose doctor has given them a number, and a doctor's number overrides any table on this page. We do not sell protein powders, and nothing here is a case for one: past the guideline, the evidence for more protein is about training, not about health in general. What we can say is what each dish carries, and that is printed on it.