How much protein do you actually need?

Ask ten people at the gym and you'll get ten different answers. "1 gram per pound of bodyweight." "You need 200g minimum." "Just eat more chicken." The noise is real, and most of it is unhelpful.

So let's cut through it.

What the research actually says

The most consistent finding across protein intake research is that 1.6g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight is the point at which most people maximise muscle protein synthesis — meaning more protein beyond this threshold provides diminishing returns for muscle building.

Some studies suggest going up to 2.2g/kg for people in a calorie deficit or doing very high volumes of training, but 1.6g/kg is the well-supported baseline.

To put that in real numbers:

• 70kg person → aim for ~112g protein/day
• 80kg person → aim for ~128g protein/day
• 90kg person → aim for ~144g protein/day
• 100kg person → aim for ~160g protein/day

Why most people fall short

The average person eating a typical Western diet gets somewhere around 70-90g of protein per day. That's not catastrophic, but it's meaningfully below what's needed to support muscle maintenance — let alone growth.

The problem isn't knowledge. Most people roughly understand that protein is important. The problem is awareness in the moment. It's 7pm and you've had two meetings, a sandwich, and a coffee. Do you know where you're at? Almost certainly not.

That's the gap Protn is designed to close — not with a full macro tracking system, but with a single number updated in real time.

Timing: does it matter?

The old "anabolic window" idea — that you had to eat protein within 30 minutes post-workout — has largely been debunked. Total daily protein is far more important than timing.

That said, spreading protein across 3-4 meals does seem to be slightly better than eating it all at once. Each meal triggers a muscle protein synthesis response, and that response has a ceiling per meal of roughly 40-50g for most people.

The simplest approach

Don't overthink it. Pick a daily target using the 1.6g/kg formula, track it for a few weeks, and see how your body responds. Most people are surprised by how far under they were before they started paying attention.

A good day of protein eating looks something like: eggs at breakfast, some kind of meat or fish at lunch, a Greek yogurt snack, and a protein-forward dinner. That gets most 80kg people to their target without any extremes.