Protein
How much protein do you need a day?
The grams-per-kilo rule is simple until you ask which weight it applies to. That one detail is the difference between a workable target and an absurd one.
Protein is the one part of a weight-loss diet that most people underdo and almost nobody overdoes. It is also where a simple rule — so many grams per kilo of body weight — produces obviously silly answers if you apply it without thinking. So it is worth doing properly.
The short answer
While losing weight, aim for roughly 1.6–2.2 g of protein per kilo of body weight per day. Our calculator uses 2.0 g per kilo for a loss goal, 1.6 for maintenance and 1.8 when the goal is to add muscle.
Higher while losing, which surprises people. The reason is that a calorie deficit puts lean tissue at risk: your body will take some of the energy it is short of from muscle unless you give it a reason not to. Protein and resistance training are the two reasons.
Per kilo of which weight?
Here is where the simple rule breaks. Take someone 175 cm tall who weighs 110 kg. Two grams per kilo gives 220 g of protein a day.
That is not a sensible target. It is about six chicken breasts. It would also crowd out most of the rest of their food at any realistic calorie level, and the arithmetic has gone wrong for a specific reason: fat tissue does not need feeding with protein. The multiplier is there to protect lean mass, and lean mass does not scale up indefinitely with body weight.
So the figure should be applied to a reference weight rather than to the number on the scale. Our calculator uses the weight that would put you at the top of the healthy BMI range:
The adjustment
Reference weight = whichever is lower of your actual weight, or 25 × your height in metres squared.
Then: protein = reference weight × the multiplier for your goal.
For that 175 cm person: 25 × 1.75 × 1.75 = 76.6 kg. Their reference weight is 76.6 kg rather than 110, so their target is 76.6 × 2.0 = about 155 g a day. Demanding, reachable, and it leaves room on the plate for vegetables and rice.
If you are already inside the healthy range, your actual weight is the lower of the two and nothing changes — the adjustment only ever brings a very high figure down, never pushes a normal one up.
Two worked examples
| Woman, 168 cm, 82 kg | Man, 175 cm, 95 kg | |
|---|---|---|
| Weight at BMI 25 | 70.6 kg | 76.6 kg |
| Reference weight used | 70.6 kg | 76.6 kg |
| Multiplier, losing | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Daily protein | 140 g | 155 g |
| As a share of calories | about 33% of 1,700 kcal | about 30% of 2,040 kcal |
Those percentages are worth a look. A third of the day's calories from protein is a lot by the standards of how most people eat, and it is the single biggest structural change in most decent weight-loss plans. It is also why people on them report being less hungry: protein is the most filling of the three macronutrients, calorie for calorie.
Where the grams actually are
Approximate figures for what you would put on a plate, using what is on the shelves here:
| Food | Portion | Protein |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken breast, cooked | 150 g | about 46 g |
| White fish — hamour, safi, sherry | 150 g | about 32 g |
| Canned tuna in water | 1 tin, drained | about 30 g |
| Cottage cheese | 200 g | about 23 g |
| Greek yoghurt or labneh | 200 g | about 19 g |
| Cooked lentils (adas) | 1 cup | about 18 g |
| Chickpeas | 1 cup | about 15 g |
| Halloumi | 60 g | about 14 g |
| Foul medames | 1 cup | about 13 g |
| Eggs | 2 large | about 13 g |
| Laban or milk | 250 ml | about 8 g |
Read down that column and the shape of a high-protein day becomes obvious. Two substantial animal-protein portions get you to roughly 80 g. Dairy at breakfast and a tin of tuna get you most of the rest. Pulses fill gaps and cost very little.
What will not get you there: bread, rice, fruit and vegetables. They are worth eating for other reasons, but they contribute almost nothing to this particular total — which is why "I eat healthily" and "I eat enough protein" are unrelated statements.
Spreading it out
140 g in one sitting is unpleasant. Broken up it is straightforward:
- Breakfast, 25–30 g. Labneh or Greek yoghurt with two eggs. Or foul with an egg on top.
- Lunch, 40–45 g. A chicken or fish portion with whatever else you are having.
- Dinner, 40–45 g. The same again, different protein.
- One snack, 20–25 g. A tin of tuna, cottage cheese, or laban.
That is about 140 g without anything unusual, without powder, and without a single meal being built around a supplement.
Do you need a shake?
No. We do not sell one and we do not recommend one by default.
Protein powder is milk or soya with the water taken out. It is not harmful, it is not magic, and it is considerably more expensive per gram than a tin of tuna. It is genuinely useful in one situation: when your schedule makes food impractical at the moment you need the protein — a long shift, an early flight, training at 6 am. That is a convenience argument and it is a fine one. It is not a nutritional requirement, and any plan that treats it as one is selling something.
Fitting it into the rest of the diet
Protein is one of two numbers that matter for losing weight; the other is the calorie total it sits inside. How many calories to eat a day covers that one, including why our target is a fifth below maintenance rather than a flat 500 off.
And for the practical side — what to actually put in the trolley to make these numbers happen every week without spending a fortune — the high-protein shopping list for UAE supermarkets is organised by store.
Questions people ask
Is too much protein bad for your kidneys?
In people with healthy kidneys, intakes in the range discussed here have not been shown to cause kidney damage. If you have existing kidney disease that is a different situation entirely and protein intake is set by your doctor, not by a calculator.
Do I need a protein shake?
No. Powder is convenient, not necessary — it is food with the water removed and a price attached. If you are hitting your figure from chicken, eggs, dairy, fish and pulses, a shake adds nothing. It earns its place only when the target is genuinely hard to reach with food, which is usually a question of an odd schedule rather than of biology.
Can I get enough protein as a vegetarian?
Yes, though it takes more planning because plant sources carry more carbohydrate alongside the protein. Lentils, chickpeas, foul, dairy, eggs if you eat them, paneer and soya all do the work. You may need five or six sources across the day rather than three.
Does protein have to be spread evenly across the day?
It helps, but the daily total matters more. Aiming for 25–40 g at each main meal is a practical way to reach a high figure without a heroic dinner — which is more about appetite and convenience than about any strict biological window.
Should I eat protein before or after training?
Within a few hours either side is fine for almost everyone. The "anabolic window" was oversold; total daily intake and consistent training do the work.