Free muscle gain protein calculator
Protein Calculator for Muscle Gain
Enter your details to get a daily protein target for building muscle. The numbers come from the resistance-training literature rather than the deficiency-prevention minimum, and the page explains where the ceiling actually sits.
Your details
Your daily protein target
150g
A sensible range is 135–165 g per day, based on 2 g per kg of body weight.
- Across 4 meals
- 38 g
- Calories from protein
- 600
at each meal
at 4 kcal per gram
What 150 g looks like
- Chicken breast (100 g cooked)× 4.8
- Canned tuna (100 g drained)× 5.8
- Lean beef (100 g cooked)× 5.8
- Salmon (100 g cooked)× 6
- Cottage cheese (1 cup)× 6
Servings of each food needed to reach your target on its own.
Now track it
Knowing the number is the easy part. Protein Tracker keeps a running total against 150 g so you know where you stand before dinner.
Where 1.6 g/kg Comes From
The most cited answer to this question comes from a 2018 meta-analysis by Morton and colleagues, which pooled 49 studies of resistance training and protein supplementation. Gains in lean mass continued to improve as protein intake rose, and then flattened at roughly 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day.
That flattening point is the useful part. Below it, adding protein reliably helps. Above it, the returns get small enough that the studies struggle to detect them. The authors noted the confidence interval extended to about 2.2 g/kg, which is where the common advice to eat up to 2.2 g/kg originates — it is the cautious upper bound of the same analysis, not a separate finding.
For most people training seriously, anywhere between 1.6 and 2.2 g/kg is defensible. Eating 3 g/kg is not harmful if your kidneys are healthy, but there is no evidence it builds more muscle, and it displaces the carbohydrate that fuels hard training.
Protein Is Necessary but Not Sufficient
Protein supplies the raw material for muscle. Resistance training supplies the signal to use it, and a calorie surplus supplies the energy. Miss any one of the three and the other two cannot compensate.
This is worth stating plainly because protein gets more attention than the other two combined. Someone eating 200 grams a day without progressive overload in the gym will not build meaningful muscle. Someone eating at a large deficit will struggle to build muscle regardless of protein intake, with the partial exception of untrained beginners and people returning after a layoff.
If you are trying to gain, a modest surplus of roughly 10–20% above maintenance is enough. Larger surpluses add fat faster than they add muscle, because the rate at which you can build muscle tissue has a ceiling that extra calories do not raise.
Spread It Across the Day
Muscle protein synthesis responds to a meal, peaks after one to two hours, and returns to baseline. The response saturates at roughly 0.4 grams per kilogram of body weight in a single sitting, which for a 75 kg person is around 30 grams.
This makes distribution worth attention. Three or four meals of 30 to 40 grams stimulates synthesis more often than the same daily total eaten as toast for breakfast, a sandwich at lunch, and an enormous dinner — which is how most people actually eat, and where the easiest improvement usually hides.
Do not overstate this. Your daily total matters more than its distribution, and the old idea of a narrow anabolic window immediately after training has not held up well. Getting a solid dose of protein within a few hours either side of a session is plenty.
These targets are general fitness guidance, not medical or dietary advice. If you have kidney disease, liver disease, or another condition affecting protein metabolism, get your target from your doctor or a registered dietitian instead of a calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much protein do I need to build muscle?
- Around 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day, and up to about 2.2 g/kg if you train hard. A 2018 meta-analysis by Morton and colleagues found gains in lean mass improved as intake rose to roughly 1.6 g/kg, with little detectable benefit beyond it. For a 75 kg person that is about 120 grams a day, rising to 165 grams at the upper bound.
- Is 200 grams of protein a day too much?
- It is more than most people need, but not dangerous if your kidneys are healthy. At 1.6 to 2.2 g/kg, 200 grams suits someone weighing roughly 90 to 125 kg. Below that weight you are eating protein your body will use for energy rather than tissue, which is not harmful but does displace carbohydrate that would fuel your training better.
- Do I need a calorie surplus to build muscle?
- For most people, yes. Building tissue requires energy, and a modest surplus of about 10 to 20 percent above maintenance supports it without adding excess fat. Beginners, people returning after a layoff, and those with higher body fat can gain some muscle while losing fat, but that window narrows considerably with training experience.
- How much protein can my body absorb at once?
- You absorb essentially all of it — absorption is not the limit. What saturates is the muscle-building response, at roughly 0.4 grams per kilogram of body weight in a single meal. Protein beyond that is still digested and used for other purposes, it just does not add further to muscle protein synthesis from that meal.
- Does protein timing around workouts matter?
- Much less than was once believed. The narrow anabolic window immediately after training has not held up in controlled research. Total daily intake matters most, followed by spreading it across three or four meals. Eating protein within a few hours either side of training is more than sufficient.
- Do I need protein powder to hit these numbers?
- No. Protein powder is a convenience, not a requirement, and whole foods do the same job. It becomes genuinely useful at higher body weights where targets of 150 grams or more get hard to reach through meals alone, or when you need something fast between a workout and your next proper meal.
Hitting the Number Is the Hard Part
Most people land further from their target than they expect. Protein Tracker keeps a running total against your goal so you can correct course before the day is over.
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