If you’re getting in to the whole fitness-thing you’re going to hear that the most important part of getting into shape is not the workouts, but your nutrition and to build muscles you need to eat protein. And lots of it. But how much protein do you actually need and how much can the body process?

From time to time I’ve had a goal to eat more protein just because I’ve been told that you need it when building muscle. But just knowing that I need more made it feel so fluffy and hard to follow-through on. So I tried to do some research and here’s what I found out.

tl;dr 0,8-2,0 grams per kilo body weight

Why do you need protein?

Protein is called the building blocks of the body and is part of all of the bodies tissue cells. It’s used to build up cells and to form enzymes and hormones. Protein is made form about 20 amino acids, nine of which we can only get through our food since they can’t be produced in the body.

How to calculate protein intake

Protein intake requirement is calculated per kilo body weight and the amount should be calculated as part of your daily caloric requirement.

How much do you need?

According to the Nordic nutrition recommendations, 10-20 percent of your caloric intake should be protein. That’s 50-60 grams of protein daily. But for physically active people you can need 65-160 grams per day.¹²

The World Health Organization recommends 0,8 grams per kilo for adult and 0,9 grams per kilo for children 2-17 years old.

For very physically active people the protein requirement is larger.  Some studies show that elite athletes needs as much as 1,4-1,8 grams per kilo.

The Swedish Olympic committee recommend 1,6-1,7 grams per kilo³ and  Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition recommend 1,4-2,0 grams per kilo.⁴

So, what does this mean? Well, you should stay above 0,8 grams of protein per kilo, but elite athletes can consume up to 2,0 grams per kilo. So where do you fall? Well, it’s up to you really, but if you are working hard on building those muscles, perhaps get you protein intake up, but don’t kid yourself, you’re not a professional athlete, so no need to go overboard.
So make it 1,2 gram per kilo, just so we actually have an answer to this question. Start there and see what works for you.

Why more protein

Protein is one of the macro nutritions we need and it’s an important part of your diet. A protein containing high protein can help you keep full for longer and help you keep to your diet.

Sources for protein

You find protein in meat, like red meat, chicken and fish and these are sources with high protein content. There’s also protein in dairy product, like milk and yoghurt as well as whey, and also in eggs.

There is vegan sources for protein which include nuts, peas, quinoa, beans and tofu, as well as leafy greens, seeds and hemp.

Too much protein

A diet with too much protein can affect your kidneys and cause stress for the heart.

1. https://www.livsmedelsverket.se/livsmedel-och-innehall/naringsamne/protein [↩]
2. https://www.livsmedelsverket.se/globalassets/livsmedel-innehall/naringsamnen/protein/protein—hur-mycket-ar-lagom.pdf [↩]
3. http://www.styrkelabbet.se/protein-per-dag/ [↩]
4. http://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1550-2783-4-8 [↩]