How much protein should I eat?

For endurance sports, you should consume 1.2-1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. So if you weigh 80 kg, that's 96-128 grams of protein per day. Where you should be in this range depends on how much you train, whether you are overweight or not and personal preferences.

How much protein do I need to eat to cover my protein needs?

Want some simple rules of thumb to make sure you're getting enough protein?

  1. Have one source of protein in every meal

  2. Choose a "pure" source of protein as possible, e.g. salmon fillets instead of breaded fish, sausages with high meat content instead of low, homemade meatballs instead of ready-made meatballs, etc. Dairy products are also good sources of protein, for example at breakfast, and eggs are also good. It is also possible to eat vegetarian protein sources such as beans and lentils, etc.

  3. Eat protein 4 times a day, for example at breakfast, lunch, dinner and at a snack in the afternoon or evening.

  4. The protein portion should be about 1/3 of the plate at lunch and dinner.

grilled chicken, quinoa, salad

It is not difficult to reach the right amount of protein and eating more than that is not better.

For those who want to calculate. If you're interested in how much protein you're getting or want to make a plan to meet your protein needs, you need to keep track of these amounts:

Here is the amount of protein per 100 grams of the food:

Beef and chicken 23-24 grams of protein

Pork 20 grams of protein

Fish 18 grams of protein

Eggs 12 grams of protein, 1 egg contains about 6 grams of protein

Dairy products 3-4 grams of protein

Quorn 14 grams of protein

Beans, e.g. kidney beans 9 grams of protein

If you choose to eat sausages with a lower meat content or ready-made meatballs, the protein content will be lower. Many sausages contain about 13 grams of protein/100 grams. Fish fingers contain about 12 grams of protein/100 grams.

Want help figuring out what this means for you, and translating it into food?