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Protein Range Planner

Estimate a practical daily protein range and see how it can be distributed across meals based on your activity and preferences.

Plan My Protein

Free · No account needed · A range, not a prescription

Show your working

How this tool reaches its answer.

A tool that returns a number owes you three things: what it looked at, what it took for granted about you, and where its answer stops being reliable. All three are below.

What it measures

The inputs

  • Your body weight, which sets the scale of the range.
  • Your training pattern, since resistance training raises the useful intake.
  • The number of meals you realistically eat, which decides the per-meal target.

What it assumes

Taken for granted

  • General ranges for healthy, active adults are an appropriate starting point.
  • Spreading intake across meals is easier to sustain than concentrating it in the evening.
  • Total intake across the day matters more than the precise timing of any single meal.

Where it stops

Known limits

  • It returns a range, not a personal requirement. Individual needs vary and the range is deliberately wide.
  • It is not appropriate if you have kidney disease or another condition that restricts protein. Ask your clinician first.
  • It does not assess the rest of your diet, total energy intake, or micronutrients.
  • It carries no food-composition data. It names foods and sends you to USDA FoodData Central for the grams in them.
Calculator

A protein range, and where it came from

Seven questions. The answer is a range in grams per day and a per-meal split, with every endpoint labelled with the document it was read off. There is no single number in the result, because the evidence does not contain one.

Your answers stay in this browser tab. Nothing is saved, nothing is sent to us, and closing the page clears them.

Before you start: this planner has no range for you if you have kidney disease or liver disease, or if a clinician has set a protein or fluid restriction. Say so in the last question and it will stop rather than give you a figure. Every number it works from was written for healthy adults, and for severe kidney disease the published advice runs the other way.

The two figures the range is built on

Everything below scales from body weight, and two of the sources split at 65.

Which age band are you in?

The recommendations for older adults come from a different expert group and a different range.

Used only to multiply out the range. An approximate figure is fine, because the range is wide enough that a kilogram either way changes nothing.

In kilograms or pounds?
How you train

The published ranges differ more by training than by anything else.

What does your training look like?

Resistance training means weights, bands, or hard bodyweight work, on a regular basis.

What are you trying to do?
How you eat

These change where in the range to sit, and how it divides up.

Which describes your diet?
How many meals do you realistically eat in a day?

Count what you actually eat, including a substantial snack. The per-meal figure is the daily range divided by this.

The question that stops this tool

Answer yes and the planner will not produce a range. That is the correct behaviour, not a limitation.

Do you have kidney disease or liver disease, or has a clinician set a protein or fluid restriction for you?

Every figure this tool uses is written for healthy adults. For severe kidney disease the published advice runs in the opposite direction.

Why a range instead of a number

A single figure implies a precision that the underlying evidence does not support. Requirements vary with training, age, total energy intake, and what else is in the diet, and the useful band is wide enough that hitting it approximately is enough.

Aim to land inside the range on most days. Chasing an exact gram total is a good way to make eating tedious without improving the outcome.

Using the per-meal target

The per-meal figure is usually the more actionable half of the result. Most people are close to their target at dinner and well short at breakfast, so the easiest change is normally the first meal of the day rather than the last.

Eggs, dairy, fish, meat, tofu, tempeh, legumes and protein powder all count towards the same total. One caveat travels with that: Rogerson advises people eating plant-based to sit towards the top of the range rather than the bottom, because plant sources are less well digested. The planner says so when you tell it how you eat.

When to ignore the output

If a clinician has given you a protein target, use theirs. If you have kidney disease, are pregnant, or are managing a condition where intake is being monitored, this planner is not the right tool and its assumptions do not apply to you.

Sources

What this page draws on

  1. Dietary Reference Intakes: the RDA for protein
  2. ISSN Position Stand: protein and exercise (Jäger et al., 2017)
  3. Schoenfeld and Aragon, how much protein can the body use in a single meal (2018)
  4. Morton et al., protein supplementation and resistance training (2018)
  5. ESPEN expert group recommendations on protein intake for older people (Deutz et al., 2014)
  6. Rogerson, vegan diets: practical advice for athletes and exercisers (2017)
  7. Eating right for chronic kidney disease (NIDDK)
  8. USDA FoodData Central

Endurvity provides educational information, not medical advice. Always consult a qualified professional before changing your training, nutrition, or medical care.

Know the method before you trust the number.

Every Endurvity tool publishes its assumptions. If a health tool will not show you its working, that is the answer.