How Much Protein to Build Muscle? (Simple Answer)

The simple number

The honest, well-studied answer is **1.6 to 2.2 g of protein per kg of bodyweight per day** when you are trying to add muscle. That range covers almost every published meta-analysis of the last decade.

Translated:

- **70 kg (155 lb):** 112–154 g protein per day - **80 kg (175 lb):** 128–175 g protein per day - **90 kg (200 lb):** 145–200 g protein per day - **100 kg (220 lb):** 160–220 g protein per day

If you are very lean, lean towards the higher end. If you carry significant body fat, use your lean body mass (bodyweight minus body fat) for the calculation — otherwise you end up eating chicken breasts you do not need.

Why more is not better

Protein synthesis maxes out somewhere around 0.4 g per kg per meal in most studies, with diminishing returns above that. Eating 80 g of protein in one shake is not double the muscle-building signal of 40 g — it is closer to 1.1×.

That is why the **per-meal** target matters as much as the daily total:

- **3 to 5 meals per day**, each with 25–45 g protein, depending on your size - A meal counts as anything with at least ~20 g of protein - Spreading it out gives you more "anabolic pulses" than two big meals

The men and women I coach who struggle with protein are almost always front-loading or back-loading — three eggs at breakfast, nothing at lunch, then trying to make it up with two chicken thighs at dinner. Spread it.

Does protein timing actually matter?

Less than the supplement industry wants you to think.

The classic "you must eat protein within 30 minutes of training" rule has been largely walked back. The window is closer to 4–6 hours either side of training. If you trained at 18:00 and your dinner at 19:30 has 40 g of protein, you are fine.

What *does* matter more than people realise: **the meal you eat in the four hours before sleep**. Studies on pre-sleep casein (30–40 g) consistently show better overnight muscle protein synthesis. If you can land a slow-digesting protein source — Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, casein shake — before bed, it is a small but real win.

Best protein sources

The pragmatic ranked list for muscle building:

1. **Eggs** — cheap, complete amino profile, hard to overeat, easy to cook in bulk 2. **Lean beef** — high in creatine, B12, zinc and iron; expensive but excellent 3. **Chicken breast / thigh** — workhorse. Thigh is often more enjoyable and only slightly higher in fat 4. **Greek yogurt and cottage cheese** — convenient slow-digesting protein, good before bed 5. **Fish (salmon, white fish)** — adds omega-3s if you eat fatty fish 2–3× per week 6. **Whey protein** — for the meal between two meals when you cannot cook. Not magic, just convenient 7. **Tofu, tempeh, seitan, legumes** — solid options for plant-based athletes; combine sources to get full amino profile, and you may need a bit more total grams to compensate

Plant-only is workable but it requires more planning. If you are vegan and serious about muscle, you may benefit from a leucine-fortified plant protein supplement.

How this changes when cutting vs bulking

Cutting (losing fat while preserving muscle): - **Push protein higher, towards 2.0–2.4 g/kg.** Higher protein protects muscle when calories are below maintenance. - Carbs and fats come down; protein holds steady or goes up.

Bulking (gaining muscle in a slight calorie surplus): - **1.6–1.8 g/kg is plenty.** Extra protein does not build extra muscle if you are already in surplus; the carbs and the training do the work.

Maintenance: - Anywhere in 1.6–2.0 g/kg is fine.

The mistake 90% of new clients make

The classic mistake when I review a new client's food log: protein gets *added on top* of an otherwise normal day rather than being *designed into* the day. The result is somebody eating their usual breakfast, snack, lunch and dinner, then bolting on a protein shake at the end, and ending up around 80 g of protein per day for a 90 kg man. Half what they need.

The fix is structural, not effort-based:

- Build each meal around the protein source first - Then add carbs, then fats, then vegetables - A 30 g protein anchor at every main meal gets you to target on autopilot

If you have been training for a year and your gains have plateaued, the first thing I would have you do is log your actual protein for a week. Nine times out of ten it is the problem.

Is too much protein bad for you?

For a healthy adult with normal kidney function, no — there is no good evidence that high-protein diets (up to 3 g/kg) cause harm. If you have pre-existing kidney disease, you need a doctor's input regardless of training goals.

The "high protein causes kidney damage" claim is one of those 1980s ideas that keeps circulating despite the evidence not supporting it for healthy populations.

Sources

The numbers above come from the standing body of resistance-training nutrition research:

- Morton et al. (2018) — systematic review and meta-analysis in *British Journal of Sports Medicine*. Establishes the 1.6 g/kg upper-benefit ceiling above which extra protein does not produce extra hypertrophy. - International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand on Protein and Exercise (Jäger et al., 2017) — the canonical reference for 1.4–2.0 g/kg as the working range for resistance-trained athletes. - Schoenfeld and Aragon (2018) — the per-meal study. Where the ~0.4 g/kg per meal ceiling comes from. - Snijders et al. (2019) — review of pre-sleep protein on overnight muscle protein synthesis. The casein-before-bed evidence. - Antonio et al. (2016) — one-year high-protein crossover study showing no harm at 3+ g/kg in healthy trained adults.

If you want this done properly

The protein target is the easy part. The hard part is building a sustainable nutrition plan around it — calories matched to your goal, food you actually enjoy, flexibility for real life. That is what the Diet & Supplement Coaching package is designed to do.