How Much Protein Do You Actually Need? (Probably Less Than You Think)

There’s been a lot of noise lately around protein.

Scroll social media for five minutes and you’ll see it—people pushing 200g, 250g, even 300g a day like it’s the gold standard for results. Especially when cutting.

But what does the research actually say?

Let’s simplify it.

A large review looking at 74 studies and nearly 2,700 people found that once you’re eating around 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, more protein doesn’t lead to more muscle growth—assuming you’re resistance training.

For a 70 kg (154 lb) person, that’s about 115 grams per day.

Not 200. Not 300.

Just enough.

And when you look at different populations, it gets even more interesting.

Older adults? They saw improvements in muscle protein synthesis going from 0.8 g/kg to just 1.3 g/kg/day. A modest increase, but effective. Even more important—this research reinforced that protein quality matters. Not all protein sources are created equal.

Women? In a 16-week study, overweight and obese premenopausal women gained lean mass and lost more fat eating just 1.3 g/kg/day while training. Women also tend to use protein more efficiently—more goes toward repair, less gets burned as fuel.

Cutting calories? Even at 1.2 g/kg/day during a 40% calorie deficit, participants maintained muscle, got stronger, and improved performance. Higher protein (around 2.4 g/kg) did offer a small additional benefit—but the lower intake still did the job, and is far easier to stick to long-term.

So where does that leave us?

Protein matters. A lot.

But chasing extreme numbers every single day?

• It’s hard to sustain

• It often pushes out other important nutrients (yes, carbs matter)

• And it offers very little extra return

  
  

At a certain point, more isn’t better—it’s just more.

The bottom line:

Lifting is the main course. Protein is the seasoning.

No supplement replaces showing up and doing the work. Get your protein to a solid, realistic level, train with intent, and trust the process.

Consistency beats extremes. Every time.

If you’re not sure what “enough” looks like for you—your body, your goals, your lifestyle—we can help.

At Validus, we offer nutrition coaching and 1:1 support to help you dial things in without overcomplicating it.