Protein Calculator

Why the target uses goal weight

Protein requirements scale with lean tissue, not with total mass. Body fat does not need feeding. Using your goal weight gives a target close to what your lean mass actually requires, without inflating it for fat you are trying to lose.

If your goal weight is a long way off, use an intermediate target and recalculate as you get closer.

What the number protects

Weight on a scale is a mixture. Some is fat, some is lean tissue, and the ratio between them is largely determined by two things: how much protein you eat and whether you do any resistance training.

Two people can lose the same thirty pounds and end up with completely different bodies. One keeps their muscle and holds a higher maintenance requirement. The other loses lean mass along with fat and ends up needing fewer calories than when they started, which makes regain considerably easier.

That is what protein is buying you. Not muscle gain during a deficit, which is difficult, but the retention of what you already have.

The specific problem with a GLP-1

On a GLP-1 the difficulty is not knowing the number. It is eating that much when appetite has dropped sharply and food has stopped being interesting.

Eat protein first at every meal, before carbohydrates or vegetables, because you may not finish the plate. Use liquid protein on days when solid food is unappealing. Keep prepared options available for the days cooking feels like too much.

Members who fall to 800 or 900 calories a day without noticing are common, and the fatigue and hair shedding that follow are almost always an undereating problem rather than a medication side effect.

Spread it across the day

Muscle protein synthesis responds to a meaningful dose of protein rather than to a daily total, so three or four servings of 25 to 40 grams outperforms the same amount concentrated at dinner.

This matters more during a deficit than it does at maintenance, and more as you get older.