Protein is the nutrient people are most confident and least accurate about. Two opposite errors are common, and they belong to different groups of people.
The floor is not the target
The commonly cited figure of 0.8 g per kg of body weight is a minimum to prevent deficiency in an average sedentary adult. It was never intended as an optimal intake, and treating it as a goal is the first source of confusion. For most adults who are active, ageing, or trying to preserve muscle while losing fat, the useful range sits meaningfully higher — broadly 1.2 to 1.6 g per kg, and toward the upper end of that during weight loss or with regular resistance training.
Why older adults need more, not less
This is the group that most often under-eats protein, and the consequences are the most serious. Muscle becomes less responsive to protein with age — a phenomenon called anabolic resistance — meaning an older adult needs a larger dose per meal to trigger the same muscle-building signal. Meanwhile appetite tends to fall and meals get smaller. The result is gradual muscle loss, which shows up years later as reduced strength, poorer balance, and a much higher consequence from a fall. This is not a cosmetic issue.
Distribution matters more than the daily total
Most people eat almost no protein at breakfast, a modest amount at lunch, and a large amount at dinner. Muscle protein synthesis responds to each meal, and a threshold dose is needed to trigger it — very roughly 25 to 30 g in a meal for most adults. A day totalling 100 g spread as 10 / 25 / 65 delivers fewer effective stimuli than the same 100 g spread as 30 / 35 / 35. Moving protein toward breakfast is usually the single highest-yield change.
What the amounts look like in real food
Roughly 25 to 30 g of protein comes from a palm-sized portion of chicken or fish, four eggs, a cup of cooked lentils plus a serving of yoghurt, 150 g of paneer, or a cup of Greek yoghurt with some nuts. Vegetarians can absolutely meet these targets, but it requires deliberate combining rather than assuming dal alone is covering it — plant sources are generally less protein-dense per serving and need larger portions.
Where the over-consumption error lives
Younger men training regularly often go the other way, buying multiple shakes daily on the belief that more protein means more muscle. Beyond roughly 1.6 to 2.0 g per kg, additional protein does not produce additional muscle — the limiting factor becomes the training stimulus, not the substrate. In healthy kidneys, high protein intake is not harmful, but it is expensive and it frequently crowds out other things worth eating.
The one caution that genuinely matters
If you have existing kidney disease, protein intake needs to be individualised with your doctor. General population advice does not apply, and this is not something to self-manage from an article.
This article is general education, not a personalised nutrition plan. If you have kidney disease, diabetes, or are pregnant, protein targets should be set with your doctor or a dietitian.