Protein & Nutrition
Eight guides with one job: get enough protein every day from food you will actually eat. Start with your number, see what it looks like on a plate, then build it into meals. Every portion is in grams and every total is added up for you.
Food is half of what makes lifting work. The other half is the training: if you have not started yet, begin with the Start Lifting section and come back here once you are in the gym two or three times a week. If you are already training, find the row that sounds like you.
| If you are… | Read first | Then |
|---|---|---|
| Not sure how much protein you need | Your daily protein target by bodyweight | What that amount looks like as food |
| Clear on your number but unable to picture it | What 100 g of protein looks like | The meal plan, to turn it into days |
| Wanting someone to just write the menu | Three days of meals at 100 g protein | The breakfast and snack lists for swaps |
| Eating cereal or coffee for breakfast, 10 to 15 g | Twelve breakfasts at 30 to 44 g | The snacks page, if the afternoon is short too |
| Eating good meals but ending the day 15 to 40 g short | Snacks ranked by protein per calorie | The low-calorie list, if calories are tight |
| Cutting, and your protein foods are eating your calories | Lean protein foods ranked per 100 calories | The cutting section of the protein target page |
| Bored of chicken and plain yogurt | Ten cottage cheese recipes at 25 to 45 g | The breakfast list for more variety |
| Feeling sick or flat in sessions, or training at 6 am | What to eat before and after the gym | The snacks page, for the meal before training |
If no row fits, read the guides in the order below; each builds on the one before.
The guides, in reading order
- 01How Much Protein You Need a Day, by BodyweightLifting? Aim for 1.6 g of protein per kg a day (0.7 g/lb). Chart by bodyweight in lb and kg, grams per meal, and the numbers for cutting and over 50.Beginner
- 02What 100g of Protein Actually Looks LikeWhat 100 g of protein a day looks like: 16 foods at the portion that gets you there, the calories each costs, and the 25-gram blocks that make it easy.Beginner
- 03100g Protein Meal Plan: Three Days, Normal FoodThree days of meals at just over 100 g of protein each, with grams and calories per item, a shopping list, a 60-minute prep plan and vegetarian swaps.Beginner
- 04High Protein Breakfast Ideas: 12 That Hit 30–44 gTwelve high protein breakfasts at 30 to 44 g each, with exact gram portions, calories and prep time. Quick or prep-ahead, sweet or savory, plus a sample week.Beginner
- 05High Protein Snacks, Ranked by Protein per Calorie17 high protein snacks ranked by protein per calorie, with exact portions, grab-and-go picks for a desk or gym bag, and a label test for bars that are candy.Beginner
- 06High-Protein, Low-Calorie Foods, RankedLean protein foods ranked by grams of protein per 100 calories: meat, fish, dairy and plant, with real portions, a label test and how to use it on a cut.Beginner
- 0710 High-Protein Cottage Cheese Recipes, 25–45 g EachTen easy cottage cheese recipes, sweet and savory, with 25 to 45 g of protein per serving: exact quantities, calories, method and a fix if the texture fails.Beginner
- 08What to Eat Before and After the GymWhat to eat before the gym at 3 hours, 1 hour and 30 minutes out, with portions in grams, whether training fasted is fine, and what to eat after a workout.Beginner
Five numbers every guide here uses
- 1.6 g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight a day, which is 0.7 g per pound. That is where extra protein stopped adding measurable muscle in a 2018 meta-analysis of 49 lifting studies by Morton and colleagues. Lifters in a calorie deficit go higher, to 1.8 to 2.2 g/kg.
- 25 to 40 g per meal, over three or four meals. About 0.4 g/kg each time. The daily total matters most; spreading it out is just the easiest way to reach it.
- 4 calories per gram of protein. So 100 g of protein is 400 calories at the very least, and pure protein tops out at 25 g per 100 calories. Every food is measured against that ceiling.
- The 25 g block. A can of tuna, a cup of Greek yogurt, 85 g (3 oz) of cooked chicken breast or four eggs. Four blocks is 100 g. Learn the blocks once and you rarely need a food log.
- Daily total first, timing a distant second. A protein meal within a few hours either side of training is enough. There is no 30-minute window to race.
What the targets look like at three common weights:
| Bodyweight | Daily target, 1.6 g/kg | Per meal, 4 meals | In 25 g blocks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60 kg (132 lb) | ~95 g | ~24 g | 4 |
| 75 kg (165 lb) | ~120 g | ~30 g | 5 |
| 90 kg (198 lb) | ~145 g | ~36 g | 6 |
The full chart, from 110 to 240 lb, and the numbers for cutting, for lifters over 50 and for plant-based eaters are on the protein target page.
How the guides connect
The order follows the questions people ask in the order they ask them. First the target: how many grams. Then the picture: what 100 g of protein looks like on a plate, food by food, and why 100 g (3½ oz) of chicken is only about 31 g of protein. Then the days: the meal plan writes out three of them with a shopping list and a one-hour Sunday prep.
The next four pages fix the meals that usually fall short. Breakfast is the most common gap, often 10 to 15 g when it should be 30. The afternoon is the second, which is what the snack ranking and its label test for candy-style protein bars are for. On a cut, the job changes to fitting the same protein into fewer calories, so the low-calorie list ranks foods by grams per 100 calories instead of grams per serving. And because eating the same four foods is how most people quit, the cottage cheese page turns one cheap tub into ten different meals.
The last guide, eating around training, comes last on purpose. Once the daily total is right, the meal before a session only needs to be the right size at the right time.
What this section does not cover
There are no calorie targets for weight loss here and no crash diets. Protein does not make you lose weight; total calories decide that, and the guides that touch cutting keep the deficit modest. Putting food and training together to build muscle lives in the Build Muscle section, which also has the creatine guide, the one supplement with strong evidence behind it. Protein powder appears on these pages as a convenience, never as a requirement: every plan and every table works with ordinary food.
If you have kidney disease, diabetes with kidney involvement, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or have been told to limit protein, set your numbers with your doctor rather than from a chart. Food values on every page are rounded from USDA FoodData Central and typical US labels, and how we make these guides explains how each one is checked.