Two numbers get quoted, they are both right, and they answer different questions. That is where most of the confusion comes from.
The minimum, and the working number
The reference intake set by European authorities is around 0.83 g of protein per kg of body weight per day — see the EFSA dietary reference values2. That is a floor for a healthy adult: the amount below which deficiency becomes likely. It was never meant as an optimum.
People eating in a deficit or training regularly usually work from something higher — commonly 1.2–2.0 g per kg. Harvard's Nutrition Source1 summarises why: protein is the most satiating of the three macronutrients, and eating enough of it while losing weight is what protects muscle rather than burning it alongside fat.
What that looks like on a plate
For a 70 kg person, 1.6 g/kg is about 112 g a day. Split across four eating occasions that is roughly 25–30 g each:
- a 150 g chicken breast — about 32 g
- a 200 g tub of Greek yoghurt — about 18 g
- three eggs — about 19 g
- a 150 g fillet of white fish — about 30 g
- a 200 g portion of cooked lentils — about 18 g
Nothing exotic, no powder. Two of those a day and you are most of the way there.
Spread it out, don't stack it
Most people eat almost nothing at breakfast and then a very large dinner. Moving protein earlier does two things: it flattens the hunger curve through the afternoon, and it removes the evening scramble where a plan usually dies.
Reading a label without doing arithmetic
Packaging in the UK and EU states protein per 100 g. The NHS guide to reading food labels4 is the short version. A rough rule that saves the calculation: 15 g or more per 100 g is a genuinely protein-dense food, under 5 g is a carrier for something else.
Can you overdo it?
For a healthy adult, an intake in that 1.2–2.0 range is well within what the evidence considers safe. Anyone with kidney disease is a different conversation, and it is one to have with a doctor rather than an article. The WHO healthy diet guidance3 is a reasonable frame for the rest of the plate — protein is one component of a diet, not the whole strategy.
The practical answer, then: take your weight in kilograms, multiply by 1.6, and split the result across the meals you already eat. That is the whole method.
