Here is the number most people are missing: the famous 0.8 g/kg RDA is a floor, not a target. It is the amount that prevents a deficiency in the average sedentary adult, and the government sources say so plainly. If you train, want to build or hold muscle, or are just trying to age well, the evidence-based range is roughly 1.4 to 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, and it climbs to 2.3 to 3.1 g/kg when you are in a calorie deficit and trying to protect muscle while you lose fat. Spread it across the day at about 0.25 g/kg, or 20 to 40 g, per meal, and make sure each of those meals carries enough leucine - roughly 700 to 3000 mg - to actually switch muscle-building on. Below we turn every one of those numbers into grams for your body weight, explain where each range comes from, and flag the one adjustment plant eaters need to make.
Active range (build or maintain muscle): 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg/day (ISSN position).
Cutting / calorie deficit (preserve muscle): 2.3 to 3.1 g/kg/day.
Per meal: about 0.25 g/kg, or 20 to 40 g, every 3 to 4 hours.
Leucine per dose: 700 to 3000 mg to maximally trigger muscle-protein synthesis.
Plant adjustment: plant sources are lower in leucine, so sit at the higher end of the per-meal dose or choose soy or a blend.
How we sourced this · not medical advice. Every figure here traces to a named authority - the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements for the RDA, the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) position stand for the active and cutting ranges and the per-meal and leucine numbers, and peer-reviewed trials for the plant-versus-whey evidence. These are population ranges for healthy adults. If you have kidney disease, are pregnant, or manage a chronic condition, ask your doctor before raising your protein intake sharply. Some links on this site are affiliate links that support our work at no cost to you; they never change our conclusions.
The RDA of 0.8 g/kg is a floor, not a goal
The single most misused number in nutrition is the Recommended Dietary Allowance for protein: 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. The NIH is explicit about what that figure is - it is the amount estimated to meet the needs of nearly all healthy, sedentary adults, in other words the level that prevents a deficiency. It was never designed to describe the intake that optimizes muscle, strength, satiety, or healthy aging. Reading the RDA as your target is like reading the minimum wage as a salary goal. For a 75 kg adult it works out to about 60 g of protein a day, which will keep you from becoming deficient and will not do much else if you train or are trying to change your body composition. That is why the sports-nutrition literature works from a different, higher range entirely.
The active range: 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg to build or maintain muscle
Once the goal is building or maintaining muscle rather than merely avoiding deficiency, the evidence points much higher. The ISSN position stand on protein and exercise (Jäger et al., 2017) places the range for building and maintaining muscle mass at 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg/day for most exercising people. For a 75 kg person that is roughly 105 to 150 g a day - close to double the RDA. This is not a fringe recommendation; it is the consensus of a large body of resistance-training research synthesized into a formal position stand. The higher you train and the leaner you already are, the closer to the top of that range you want to sit. Note the exact figures, because they are often misquoted: the ISSN range is 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg, and that is the number of record throughout this guide.
The RDA keeps you from going deficient. The ISSN range of 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg is what actually builds and holds muscle - close to double the floor for most people.ISSN Position Stand, Jäger et al., 2017
Cutting: 2.3 to 3.1 g/kg to preserve muscle in a deficit
Dieting is where protein needs peak, and the reason is intuitive once you see it. In a calorie deficit your body is short on energy, so it becomes more willing to break down muscle for fuel. Eating more protein is the strongest dietary lever against that. The ISSN notes that leaner individuals in a pronounced calorie deficit benefit from intakes as high as 2.3 to 3.1 g/kg of fat-free mass per day to spare muscle. For a 75 kg person that is roughly 173 to 233 g a day. That sounds enormous, and it is - which is exactly why this is a cutting-phase, muscle-protection target rather than an everyday one. If you are lean and dieting hard, err toward the top of the range; if you have more fat to lose, the lower end does the job.
Your target in grams: a worked table by body weight
Ranges are easy to nod along to and hard to act on, so here is every tier converted into grams per day for three common body weights. Find the row nearest your weight and read across to your goal.
| Body weight | RDA floor (0.8 g/kg) | Active low (1.4 g/kg) | Active high (2.0 g/kg) | Cutting low (2.3 g/kg) | Cutting high (3.1 g/kg) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 kg (132 lb) | 48 g | 84 g | 120 g | 138 g | 186 g |
| 75 kg (165 lb) | 60 g | 105 g | 150 g | 173 g | 233 g |
| 90 kg (198 lb) | 72 g | 126 g | 180 g | 207 g | 279 g |
How to read it: the RDA column is the deficiency floor, not your goal. For general training, live in the two "active" columns; for a hard fat-loss phase where you want to keep muscle, aim at the "cutting" columns. Most people who are not deliberately dieting are best served landing somewhere in the 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg band - the middle of this table - every single day.
Per-meal dosing: about 0.25 g/kg, every 3 to 4 hours
Total daily protein matters most, but how you spread it is the second lever. The ISSN recommends dosing protein across the day at roughly 0.25 g/kg per meal, or an absolute 20 to 40 g per serving, ideally every 3 to 4 hours. Each of those feedings gives muscle-protein synthesis a fresh stimulus, and spacing them out keeps that stimulus coming through the day rather than in one large, partly wasted bolus. For a 75 kg person, 0.25 g/kg is about 19 g per meal at the low end, and most people benefit from rounding up toward the 30 to 40 g figure, especially at breakfast and post-workout when intake is often lowest. Four meals in that range is a simple way for almost anyone to clear a 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg daily total without thinking hard about it.
Per-meal protein
Or about 0.25 g/kg per sitting - enough to maximally stimulate muscle-protein synthesis at each feeding (ISSN).
Leucine per dose
700 to 3000 mg of leucine per dose is the trigger for muscle-protein synthesis - the "on switch" (ISSN).
Feeding interval
Spacing doses every three to four hours keeps the muscle-building signal coming through the day.
The leucine trigger: why a "big enough" dose matters
Protein is not just grams; it is amino acids, and one of them - leucine - acts as the ignition for muscle-protein synthesis. The ISSN identifies a per-dose leucine threshold of roughly 700 to 3000 mg to maximally switch that process on. This is the real reason a per-meal protein target exists at all: a dose too small to clear the leucine threshold does not fully stimulate the muscle-building response, no matter how good your daily total looks. In practice, a 20 to 40 g serving of a leucine-rich protein clears the threshold comfortably. It is when the protein source is lower in leucine - which is exactly the case for many plant proteins - that the size of the dose starts to matter a great deal.
The plant adjustment: go higher-end, or blend
Plant proteins are not inferior for building muscle - head-to-head trials of rice and pea protein against whey found no significant difference in muscle or strength gains once total protein was matched (Joy et al., Nutrition Journal 2013; Babault et al., JISSN 2015; Banaszek et al., Sports 2019). The single catch is leucine. Plant sources generally carry less leucine per gram than whey, so a plant dose sized like a whey dose can fall short of the 700 to 3000 mg threshold. Amino-composition data confirm soy is the highest-leucine plant option, while single-source pea and rice run lower (Herreman et al., Food Science & Nutrition 2020). The fix is simple: if you eat plant-based, sit at the higher end of the per-meal range (nearer 30 to 40 g), or choose a soy or a pea-plus-rice blend, which carry more leucine than pea or rice alone. Do that and your plant intake hits the same targets as anyone else's. Our roundup of the best vegan protein for muscle gain ranks the highest-dose, highest-leucine picks.
Frequently asked questions
Is 0.8 g/kg enough protein? It is enough to prevent a deficiency in a sedentary adult, which is exactly what the RDA is for - and no more than that. If you train or want to build or hold muscle, the NIH RDA is a floor; the ISSN range of 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg is the working target.
How much protein do I need to build muscle? For most exercising people, 1.4 to 2.0 g of protein per kg of body weight per day, spread across meals of 20 to 40 g each. That is the ISSN position for building and maintaining muscle mass.
How much protein when cutting or dieting? Higher - roughly 2.3 to 3.1 g/kg of fat-free mass per day for lean individuals in a pronounced calorie deficit, because a deficit makes your body more likely to break down muscle. Lean and dieting hard means the top of that range.
Can I eat all my protein in one meal? You can, but you will not get the most out of it. The ISSN recommends spreading protein across meals of about 0.25 g/kg (20 to 40 g) every 3 to 4 hours, so each feeding re-triggers muscle-protein synthesis rather than relying on a single large dose.
Do plant eaters need more protein? Not more total protein necessarily, but you should size each dose toward the higher end or use soy or a blend, because plant sources are lower in leucine and it is leucine - 700 to 3000 mg per dose - that switches muscle-building on. See is plant protein as good as whey? for the full comparison.
Bottom line
Forget the RDA as a goal. The 0.8 g/kg figure only guarantees you will not become deficient. If you train, want to build or keep muscle, or simply want to eat the way the evidence supports, aim for 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg of body weight per day, split into meals of 20 to 40 g every three to four hours, each one carrying enough leucine to matter. When you are dieting and want to protect muscle, push toward 2.3 to 3.1 g/kg. And if you eat plant-based, size your doses to the higher end or reach for soy or a blend to clear the leucine threshold - do that and your protein works exactly as well as anyone else's. Use the table above to turn the range into a real number for your body, then build your meals to hit it. If you want a tested, high-quality plant source to hit those targets, start with our ranked plant-protein roundup.
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