High-Protein Diet: Targets, Foods and How to Track It

The idea is simple: protein is the first thing planned at each meal instead of the last thing added. Eggs or yoghurt at breakfast, fish or poultry or beans at lunch and dinner, and a protein snack between them. Unlike keto or paleo, nothing is forbidden, so the pattern combines easily with other ways of eating.

People choose it for different reasons, including keeping a feeling of fullness, supporting training, or simply making a calorie budget easier to live with. A page like this cannot promise any of those outcomes, but it can show how to hit a number.

Protein targets are usually expressed per kilogram of body weight, and research reviews on resistance training report ranges that sit above the standard minimum for adults. Our protein calculator applies those published ranges to your weight and goal, and the glossary entry on protein intake explains where the ranges come from.

Protein carries four calories a gram, the same as carbohydrate, so raising it means lowering something else or raising the total. When weight loss is the goal, the usual approach is to keep calories at the planned level and let protein take a larger share of them.

Protein per calorie varies enormously between foods. Lean poultry, white fish and egg whites deliver a lot for few calories; a handful of nuts delivers a little for many. The table below shows both ends, and the protein density of your usual breakfast is worth checking before you add anything to it.

Spreading protein across the day is easier to log than saving it for dinner. A repeatable breakfast and a repeatable snack cover much of the target before the day gets complicated, which our posts on high-protein breakfasts and snacks illustrate.