How much protein per day for a 70kg person?
Roughly 84g at minimum, 112g if active, and 140–154g when building muscle or dieting.
How Much Protein Per Day Do You Need?
For most adults the useful range is 1.2–2.2g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day. Where you land inside that range depends on training, age and whether you are losing weight.
The official minimum (0.8g per kilogram) is a floor designed to prevent deficiency, not a target for someone who trains. Almost every practical recommendation sits above it.
A 70kg adult: 84g at the minimum, 112g for general health and activity, 140g when building muscle, up to 154g while dieting to protect muscle.
Foods that make the target easy
Protein and calories per 100g, from the Protein Hunter database.
| Food | Protein | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| 🥤 Whey protein isolate | 90g | 400 |
| 🐔 Chicken breast (cooked) | 31g | 179 |
| 🐟 Tuna (canned in water) | 29g | 131 |
| 🐟 Salmon (cooked) | 25g | 250 |
| 🥚 Whole egg | 13g | 155 |
| 🧀 Cottage cheese (low-fat) | 12g | 72 |
| 🍢 Firm tofu | 12g | 76 |
| 🥣 Quark | 12g | 77 |
| 🥣 Greek yogurt (plain, 0%) | 10g | 59 |
| 🫘 Lentils (cooked) | 9g | 116 |
Per 100g.
Rules of thumb
- Sedentary adult: 1.2g per kilogram.
- Regular training: 1.6g per kilogram.
- Building muscle: 1.6–2.2g per kilogram.
- Losing weight: 1.6–2.2g per kilogram, because protein needs rise as calories fall.
- Over 60: at least 1.2g per kilogram, split evenly, to counter age-related muscle loss.
- Divide the daily number by 4 to get your per-meal target.
Add up your whole meal
Type what you ate in plain words and Protein Hunter returns protein and calories for the full plate.
Try the Protein CalculatorCommon questions
Is too much protein bad for you?
For people with healthy kidneys, intakes up to about 2.2g per kilogram have not been shown to cause harm in the research. People with existing kidney disease should follow medical advice.
How do I split protein across the day?
Four meals of roughly equal size is the most practical structure — for a 140g target, that is 35g per meal.
Keep reading
Protein CalculatorAdd up any meal in plain words.Protein database230+ foods with protein and calories.How much protein per daySet the target these foods feed into.What is Protein Hunter?
Protein Hunter is a protein and nutrition app with a database of 232 foods — from a leaf of kale to a wagyu steak — plus AI tools that answer protein questions, count a whole meal, build recipes to a macro target, and track what you actually eat.
- Search any food
- Count a full meal
- Recipes to your macros
- Scan a plate or label
Why it's different: the numbers are calculated from a fixed ingredient database rather than guessed, and when a target is not physically achievable the app says so instead of inventing a figure.
Start Hunting