How Much Protein Do You Really Need & Is All Protein Created Equal? 

Nutrition trends are ever-changing, but at this point, there are some truths nearly everyone can agree upon: Veggies and fruits can and should be eaten liberally for their fiber and micronutrients, fats from quality sources definitely have a place in your diet, and protein is key for building muscle and supporting longevity.

But of all these truths, there's still a surprising amount of confusion about protein—especially how much you should be eating (spoiler: maybe a bit more than you think), the best food sources (steak is not a requirement), and what it can do for your health even if you're not a gym rat. Hint: a lot. 

"Most of us think of protein in the context of building muscle, but it also plays a key role in maintaining and repairing cells, the production of antibodies needed for immune function, and creating hormones and neurotransmitters," says registered dietitian Abby Cannon, R.D. It's also particularly important when you're trying to lose weight. 

Protein is one of three main types of macronutrients (the others being fats and carbohydrates) that provide energy for our bodies. When we consume protein-rich foods like seafood, eggs, and legumes, we break their protein down into its individual amino acids, which our bodies then utilize to perform countless functions, including building our own muscle (via muscle protein synthesis). Additionally, researchers are finding that prioritizing protein seems to be quite important for losing fat and keeping it off while preserving muscle, slowing the aging process1, reducing risk factors for Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and even offsetting some of the damage of a sedentary lifestyle. 

Whenever we eat something, our bodies expend a certain amount of energy (i.e., burn a certain amount of calories) just by digesting it. This is known as the thermic effect of food, or dietary-induced thermogenesis. Turns out, protein has the highest thermic effect of all the macronutrients because it takes more energy to break it down into its individual amino acids and then build those back up into amino acid chains in your body. 

"With fat and carbs, about 5% of their calories get burned through thermogenesis, while about 15% of protein gets burned through thermogenesis," says Donald Layman, Ph.D., a professor emeritus of nutrition at the University of Illinois (although some studies say it may be a bit higher2). "It means you can eat about 100 more calories a day if it's coming from protein than if it's coming from carbs, so it's not insignificant."

"There's pretty good agreement that protein has a higher satiety value, and nobody really knows why for sure," says Layman. Basically, this means protein has been found to4 keep you fuller and more satisfied than when you consume an equal amount of carbs or fat. 

This satiating effect is likely due to a combination of factors, including protein's thermic effect, mentioned above. According to a recent research review3 on protein and weight management, when you experience greater diet-induced thermogenesis, your body is expending more energy and increasing its oxygen consumption. And, oddly enough, researchers say this "oxygen deprivation" may translate into feelings of satiety. 

Additionally, "studies show5 that eating a higher-protein meal (compared to a higher-carbohydrate meal) stimulates the secretion of a number of satiety hormones like PYY and GLP-1," says Heather Leidy, Ph.D., an associate professor of nutrition at the University of Texas at Austin who studies protein's effects on weight and satiety. "These hormones are associated with increased feelings of fullness and satiety and have been shown to decrease subsequent food intake. Post-meal improvements in glycemic control [blood sugar control] have also been reported with higher vs. normal protein diets." 

As you know by now, increased protein consumption also stimulates protein synthesis, which helps build and preserve lean body mass. And the more lean mass you have, the more calories you naturally burn at rest.

"In opposition to stored body fat, which does not impact your metabolism in a positive way, the muscle in your body is very metabolically active," says Ali Miller, R.D., functional medicine dietitian.

While you may think it's important to focus on protein intake only if you're working out all the time, this couldn't be further from the truth. Even if you're a desk jockey, getting your fill of protein has big benefits. "During bed-rest studies, middle-aged people can lose up to two pounds of muscle just from their legs in seven days," says Douglas Paddon-Jones, Ph.D., professor of nutrition and metabolism at the University of Texas Medical Branch. "But some of the pretty new research coming out suggests that if we give additional protein, we can partially protect this muscle mass. This extends to people who live a sedentary lifestyle." 

Research6 indicates that adequate intake of high-quality protein also helps you recover from periods of inactivity (say you're bedridden due to an injury) faster. In one study7, participants who normally got around 8,000 steps per day drastically reduced their activity to 750 steps per day. Those who received a high-quality, complete protein source still experienced a decrease in muscle protein synthesis; however, when they resumed their normal activity levels, people receiving the high-quality protein supplement (as opposed to an incomplete protein source) recovered faster. 

Getting enough protein can also help prevent sarcopenia, the loss of muscle mass and function that's increasingly common as you age. As obesity medicine physician Ali Novitsky, M.D., previously told mindbodygreen, "By the age of 60, I would say on average, it affects 20% of people. By the time we hit 80, it's about 50%."

The condition can drastically reduce quality of life, increase the risk of falls8, and even lead to premature death9. "Sarcopenia is sort of like osteoporosis but for muscles," explains Paddon-Jones. "It starts to appear in your 40s, but it's a subtle, insidious loss of muscle, less than 1% per year. So if you're not quite getting your protein requirements, you're not going to notice this slow, gradual reduction; it sneaks up on you."

A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis found that adults with sarcopenia ate less protein10 than their healthier peers. Researchers noted that those who ate more plant protein had lower incidences of sarcopenia. They also found that participants who ate a traditional British diet high in fat and total energy intake were more likely to get sarcopenia, even if the individuals were consuming adequate amounts of protein. This just goes to show that overall diet quality matters too.

Amino acids act as a major building block for almost every biological process in the body. For instance, "amino acids are the building blocks of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin," says Miller. "For this reason, those deficient in protein are also deficient in neurotransmitters that can drive hunger and cravings leading to weight gain and can even impact mood, anxiety, and sleep."

Recent articles also illustrate improvements in Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease risk factors with the daily consumption of increased dietary protein. A new study13 found that by making a moderate macronutrient shift by substituting carbohydrates with protein and fat for six weeks, patients with Type 2 diabetes experienced a reduction in HbA1c levels (higher levels are associated with diabetes) and liver fat content. Another review14 found that high-protein, low-carb diets were more effective for losing weight and keeping it off than low-calorie diets among individuals with obesity, suggesting that they're a sustainable dietary strategy for supporting cardiometabolic health.

So, how much protein should you eat to reap the benefits mentioned above?

You've undoubtedly read articles stating that most Americans meet the RDA and therefore get "more than enough" protein. But, researchers say, these claims are at least somewhat flawed in that they misconstrue what RDA actually means.

This, of course, raises the question: If you're aiming for optimal health and not just covering your bases, what's a good protein range to strive for? "Most of the data says you want to be consuming 1½ to 2 times the RDA," says Layman. "The RDA is 0.8 g/kg, so we think the ideal range is between 1.2 and 1.6 g/kg." 

Layman isn't alone in this thinking: "From a weight management perspective, eating nearly twice the RDA has been shown to be beneficial," says Leidy, who coauthored a 2016 paper15 stating that protein intake in the 1.2- to 1.6-g/kg range is a more ideal target for adults, helping promote healthy aging, appetite regulation, weight management, and athletic performance goals.

This range holds true even if you're not very active, as recent research6 (mentioned above) has shown adequate protein intake helps stave off muscle loss even in sedentary individuals.  

But what do nutrition experts outside of the protein field think? According to Miller, "The RDA is likely ample to support biological and structural need for weight maintenance. However, when looking for weight loss goals, it would be important to consider an increase of 1 to 1.4 g/kg to ensure muscle sparing and maintain an active metabolic rate." Cannon somewhat agrees but adds that even though the RDA doesn't necessarily represent how much we should eat every day, it's still a good baseline number.

Turns out, it's not exactly optimal to simply figure out your protein needs and then cram it in whenever. To reap the most benefit in terms of satiety, blood sugar balance, and muscle protein synthesis, you want to spread out your protein over the course of the day. 

Your best bet: Aim to get around 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal to maximize the benefits. "Thirty grams of protein at a meal is what we think it takes to trigger maximum muscle protein synthesis and maximum thermogenic effect for the least amount of calories," says Layman. 

Consuming more than that amount in one sitting may be counterproductive. A groundbreaking 2009 study18 found that people consuming 90 grams of protein at one meal experienced the same benefit as eating 30 grams. "Both turned on muscle protein synthesis the same," says Paddon-Jones, who was the study author. "Your ability to consume, digest, and then use the amino acids in the protein is really limited to three to four hours surrounding the meal. So even if you eat an entire chicken at breakfast, those amino acids aren't available at dinner," he says. 

In the nutritional science world, researchers tend to describe protein as "high quality" or "low quality." A high-quality protein would be a food that contains a high proportion of all the essential amino acids. There are 20 total amino acids used by the body, nine of which are essential, meaning we need to obtain them from food—and all nine have to be present in a food or a meal to trigger muscle protein synthesis. 

Nearly all animal-based protein sources, such as yogurt, cheese, meats, fish, and eggs contain all nine essential amino acids and thus are considered high quality. Animal proteins are also better sources of leucine, an amino acid that's essential for muscle synthesis.

Most plant-based sources of protein, on the other hand, don't contain a high proportion of all essential amino acids, which makes them incomplete, and, at least in this particular sense, "low quality." If you limit yourself to plant proteins, you'll have to be much more intentional about combining the right ones to hit the expert-recommended leucine threshold. Layman recommends 2.5–3 grams per meal, which looks like 100 grams of pumpkin seeds20, 2 cups of cooked black beans21, or 4–5 ounces of chicken22.

"The highest quality non-animal protein is still soy," says Rodriguez. "It has all of the essentials and an amino acid profile that's more similar to what you'd see in dairy, eggs, or meat." Still, Layman previously pointed out that you'd need to eat 33–34 grams of soy protein to get the same leucine as just 23 grams of whey protein.

Even though animal-based protein is considered "high quality" in the nutritional science world, loading up on grilled chicken breast isn't necessarily your best bet—there's a different type of "quality" you should also consider, particularly when it comes to meat. 

"Proteins in their whole-food form with the fewest parts removed are going to be the most balancing for the body. For instance, consuming a bone-in, skin-on, pasture-raised chicken thigh will provide more of the amino acids glycine and proline, found in an animal's connective tissue, than just eating the muscle meat," says Miller. "The whole-food delivery aids in balancing out amino acids in the body and preventing dominance of the amino acid methionine, which is prevalent in muscle tissue and can drive more inflammatory processes in the body. So overall, taking a snout-to-tail approach to animal consumption provides the most nutrient density and supports a more sustainable model of meat consumption." 

Nutritional researcher and wellness entrepreneur Chris Masterjohn, Ph.D., expresses a similar sentiment on his website, stating that excessive methionine actually depletes glycine, and another good approach to balance these amino acids is to add a serving of collagen powder or bone broth to your daily diet. "Collagen, found abundantly in the skin, bones, and other connective tissue of animals, provides 25 times as much glycine as methionine," he says.

Though plant protein can be referred to as "low-quality," plants come with a slew of other benefits, so including them is essential no matter what eating pattern you follow. "There are so many good reasons to adopt a more plant-based diet, but if you exclude all animal-based proteins and you're not smart about how you plan your plant-based diet, you can run into problems really quickly," says Paddon-Jones. 

So on a vegan diet, combining a variety of protein-rich, plant-based foods is key, as they "complement" one another to give you the full spectrum of essential amino acids your body needs. Paddon-Jones recommends including a variety of proteins at every meal, "not just for protein but for diversifying overall nutrient intake."  

Also important to note is that the protein in plant foods is a bit less bioavailable than protein from animal foods due to the structure of the plant itself, such as the presence of phytates in legumes, which interfere with protein absorption, says Miller. "If you're choosing to stay vegan, some of the best proteins are soaked and sprouted legumes and lentils; and you should consider a plant protein powder blend including pea protein and hemp seed."