What 100g of Protein Actually Looks Like
Everyone tells you to eat more protein. Nobody shows you the plate. Here is the portion of each food that gets you to 100 grams — and what it costs you in calories.
| Food | For 100g protein | Calories |
|---|---|---|
| Whey protein powder | ~4 scoops | ~500 |
| Canned tuna, in water | ~400 g | ~460 |
| Chicken breast, cooked | ~325 g | ~535 |
| Greek yoghurt, 0% | ~1 kg | ~590 |
| Beef mince, 5% fat | ~475 g | ~650 |
| Cottage cheese | ~900 g | ~765 |
| Firm tofu | ~590 g | ~850 |
| Salmon | ~455 g | ~945 |
| Eggs | ~16 eggs | ~1150 |
| Lentils, cooked | ~1.1 kg | ~1290 |
| Semi-skimmed milk | ~2.9 L | ~1430 |
| Protein bars | ~5 bars | ~1000 |
Figures are rounded and vary by brand and cut. Close enough to plan a day around, not close enough to argue over.
How much you actually need
For someone training to build muscle, the range that keeps coming out of the research is roughly 1.6 to 2.2 grams per kilogram of bodyweight per day. For an 80 kg person that is about 130 to 175 grams.
Above that range the extra protein is not harmful, it just stops doing anything useful and starts displacing food you might have wanted for energy. Below about 1.2 g/kg you are leaving progress on the table.
If you are overweight, the usual advice is to run the number off your target bodyweight rather than your current one, which keeps the target sane.
Spreading it across the day
Total daily intake is the thing that matters most, by a wide margin. Timing is a second-order detail that people spend first-order energy on.
That said, the practical version: three or four feedings of 30 to 40 grams is much easier to hit than one enormous dinner, and it means you are never relying on a single meal to carry the day. If you miss breakfast, 100 grams between lunch and dinner is a lot of chewing.
What this does not tell you
This is a protein table, not a nutrition plan. Lentils look expensive here in calories, but they bring fibre and carbohydrate that chicken does not. Salmon costs more calories because it brings fats you want. Eggs are the most expensive animal source on the list by calories and remain one of the most useful foods there is.
Read the column as a cost, not a verdict. A food being calorie-expensive per gram of protein is only a problem if calories are the thing you are short of.