Plateknow Enter your weight and what you want protein to do, and you get the range the published guidance states rather than one rounded figure.
That is the target. The hard part is the other half — knowing what you actually ate.
Download freeHow much protein per day: the three bands
| Band | Per kg of body weight | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Baseline requirement | 0.8 g | The RDA in the Dietary Reference Intakes (Institute of Medicine, 2005) — enough for nearly all healthy adults. A floor, not a recommendation to sit at. |
| Active, or over 65 | 1.2–1.6 g | The lower half of the 1.2–2.0 g/kg range in the 2016 joint position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Dietitians of Canada and the American College of Sports Medicine. |
| Training for strength | 1.6–2.0 g | The upper half of that range. The citation stops at 2.0, so the calculator does too. |
The FDA Daily Value for protein, 50 g, is a labelling reference on a 2,000-calorie diet, not a personal target — above roughly 62 kg it is below even the baseline band. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025–2030 lead on high-quality protein alongside fibre-rich whole grains.
Protein calculator for food: how much is on your plate
The answer above is grams of protein, not grams of chicken. About 100 g of cooked chicken breast has roughly 30 g of protein; 100 g of cooked lentils has about 9 g. Plateknow reads protein, calories, fat and carbs from a photo of the plate.
What the range does not tell you
- Whether you are getting it. A calculator cannot close that gap.
- Whether spreading it across the day matters. Still contested.
- Anything a clinician has told you. Kidney disease, pregnancy and several other conditions change the number.
How much protein per day to build muscle?
The upper band, 1.6–2.0 g per kg of body weight — the top half of the range in the 2016 joint position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Dietitians of Canada and the American College of Sports Medicine.
How much protein per day for women and men?
The published ranges are set per kilogram of body weight, and the same per-kilogram figures apply to women and men, so enter your own weight. Pregnancy changes the number; ask a clinician.
How much protein per day on a GLP-1?
None of the sources cited here sets a separate band for GLP-1 medication. Eating much less makes protein easier to fall short on, so raise it with the prescribing clinician.
Is there a calorie counter app that tracks protein from a photo?
Plateknow — the result card shows protein beside calories, fat and carbohydrate, with a one-tap correction, and shows how it read the plate so you can see which portion to fix.
Institute of Medicine, Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids (2005) — protein RDA 0.8 g/kg. Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Dietitians of Canada and the American College of Sports Medicine, joint position on nutrition and athletic performance (2016) — 1.2 to 2.0 g/kg. FDA, Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts labels — protein 50 g on a 2,000-calorie reference. Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025–2030, released 7 January 2026. USDA FoodData Central — cooked roasted chicken breast about 31 g, and boiled lentils about 9 g, of protein per 100 g.