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How much protein do you actually need?

 

How much protein do you actually need?

Peanuts in a bowl on a kitchen scale

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This is the question that should have been posed to the supercomputer in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Instead, we’re left scrabbling together macronutrient advice with the panic of a high school student who forgot about today’s calculus exam.

For years, it was straightforward enough. US dietary guidelines long advised that adults eat 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight (0.36 grams/pound) every day, which is in line with the World Health Organization’s recommendations.

But this year, the US updated its protein guidance to 1.2–1.6 grams per kilogram (0.55–0.73 grams/pound), which many nutritionists considered to be too much for the average person. Some caveats:

  • This amount of protein can be appropriate if you’re strength training or are over 65, when muscle loss tends to accelerate.
  • One dietitian told Stanford Medicine that she also recommends the higher end of this range for patients who are losing body mass on GLP-1s.

Busted: You may hear that you should be eating 1 gram of protein per pound that you weigh, but a dietitian writing for the Mayo Clinic says that anything above 0.9 grams per pound (2 grams/kilogram) is excessive. Another myth, according to Stanford’s director of nutrition studies, is that plant-based protein is “incomplete” compared to animal protein. If anything, carnivorous diets may lack sufficient fiber, which is found aplenty in plant-heavy diets.—ML

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The products you didn’t know have protein

Much like Ryan Gosling when he was promoting Project Hail Mary, protein is showing up everywhere you look. Here are some of the more unexpected—and downright confusing—foods that now boast about having protein, and how many grams each has per serving:

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