150g cooked chicken breast
31g per 100g
How To Calculate The Protein In Your Meal
Calculating protein is simple arithmetic once you know two things: the weight of each ingredient and its protein per 100g. The mistakes almost always come from weight, not from maths.
The formula
Protein in an ingredient = (weight in grams ÷ 100) × protein per 100g.
Example: 150g of cooked chicken breast at 31g per 100g → (150 ÷ 100) × 31 = 46.5g of protein. Repeat for every ingredient and add them together.
A worked example
Chicken rice bowl, calculated ingredient by ingredient.
46.5g
150g cooked rice
2.7g per 100g
100g edamame
11g per 100g
Total
One bowl
The four mistakes that ruin the number
- Mixing raw and cooked weights — cooked meat is roughly 30% higher in protein per 100g because water has gone.
- Using package weight instead of drained weight for canned foods.
- Assuming a 'portion' is 100g. Most restaurant portions are 150–250g.
- Counting a sauce or dressing as protein-free when it contains yogurt, cheese or tahini.
Doing it without arithmetic
The Protein Hunter calculator takes a plain description — 'two eggs, 200g Greek yogurt and a slice of rye bread' — identifies each item, applies realistic weights, and returns protein and calories for the whole meal. Meal Scan does the same from a photo of a plate or a nutrition label.
Add up your whole meal
Type what you ate in plain words and Protein Hunter returns the protein and calories for the full plate.
Try the Protein CalculatorCommon questions
How do I calculate protein from a nutrition label?
Labels give protein per 100g and per serving. Multiply the per-100g figure by the actual grams you ate, divided by 100 — the on-pack serving size is often smaller than what people really eat.
Should I weigh food raw or cooked?
Either, as long as you use the matching protein value. Raw chicken is about 23g per 100g, cooked is about 31g.
How accurate does this need to be?
Within about 10% is fine. Consistency over a week matters far more than precision at a single meal.
Keep reading
Protein CalculatorType a meal, get the numbers.Meal ScanPhotograph a plate or a label.Daily protein needsWhat to compare the total against.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.
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