Are you getting enough protein in your diet? Part 1: the essentials

Protein is having a moment. Scroll through any wellness feed and you'll see protein-fortified everything: yoghurt, cereal, pasta, even water. But underneath the marketing noise is an important question, and one I get asked in the clinic almost every week: am I actually getting enough?

The real answer is more complex than a single number on a supplement label. So let's take a look at what the current research actually says, including some recent (and frankly overdue!) updates to how scientists think about protein requirements.

The number everyone quotes (and why it's not the target)

New Zealand's protein guidelines, like most Western countries', are built on the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of around 0.8g per kilogram of body weight per day. For a 65kg adult, that's roughly 52g a day.

However, the RDA was never designed to represent an optimal intake. It's a minimum, calculated using nitrogen balance studies from the 1980s, and it's set to cover the needs of 97.5% of the population, with essentially no buffer for muscle maintenance, immune resilience, or healthy aging beyond simply avoiding deficiency.

A 2026 paper in The Journal of Nutrition has outlined a new factorial model of protein and amino acid demand and found that current recommendations likely underestimate what the body actually needs at a metabolic level, particularly for specific indispensable amino acids. It's part of a growing body of work arguing that the RDA is a starting point for the conversation, not the finish line.

So how much protein do you actually need?

For most healthy, moderately active adults, the research increasingly points to somewhere in the range of 1.2–1.6g per kilogram of body weight per day (noticeably above the RDA), with higher intakes relevant for:

• Anyone doing regular resistance or endurance training

• Adults over 65, whose muscles become less responsive to protein (more on this in Part 5)

• People actively losing weight, where higher protein helps preserve lean mass

• Anyone recovering from illness, injury, or surgery

For our 65kg adult, that shifts the target from ~52g up to 78–104g a day — a meaningful difference, and one that explains why so many people who feel like they're "eating plenty of protein" are still coming up short.

Quality matters as much as quantity

Not all protein is created equal, and this is where things get more interesting than a simple gram count. Digestibility, amino acid completeness, and bioavailability all affect how much of the protein you eat is actually usable by your body.

In summary

If you're only checking whether you've hit 0.8g/kg, you're likely aiming too low. The current evidence base supports a higher, more individualised target for most adults, built around your activity level, age, and health goals.

Over the next few posts in this series, I’ll look further into:

• Protein and muscle health: how much, how often, and does timing matter?

• Digestibility, absorbability, and bioavailability: what the science says about animal vs. plant protein

• Protein and immune function

• Protein needs in the ageing population

• Protein and weight loss

As always, individual protein needs vary — if you'd like a personalised plan based on your goals, health history, and lifestyle, book a consultation.