How much protein to lose weight?
For someone who weighs 170 lbs, in a fat-loss phase
- Daily protein target
- 128 g
- Per pound of body weight
- 0.75 g
- Per meal across 4 meals
- about 32 g
- Why it stays high while cutting
- it protects muscle
Opens the Protein Intake. Free, no account needed.
When you are losing weight, protein does not drop with your calories. It is the single most important thing to get right during a cut.
For fat loss the calculator uses three quarters of a gram per pound of body weight. For a 170 pound person that is 128 grams a day. Spread across four meals it is about 32 grams each, which is a normal chicken-breast-sized serving, not a heroic amount. If you are also training for strength it moves you to a full gram per pound.
Two reasons it matters so much in a deficit. First, when you eat under maintenance your body will take some weight from muscle unless you give it a reason not to, and high protein plus lifting is that reason. You want the scale going down because fat left, not because muscle did. Second, protein is the most filling of the three macros, so a high-protein plate keeps you fuller on fewer calories, which makes the whole cut easier to hold.
If you are undershooting, the easy fixes are a protein source in every meal and a shake to close a 25 to 30 gram gap in about a minute. Timing barely matters at this stage. Hit the daily total and let the clock go.
The target scales with your weight, so put yours into the calculator for your own range.
Not sure where to start?
The home page calculator gives you your real numbers in one place: the calories to aim at, a macro split, and a few things to do this week. Free, no account needed to see it.
Find where to startIf you would rather someone build this around your life instead of guessing, my 1:1 coaching is there. The free tools get you most of the way.