The Protein Number You Were Given Was Never a Target

August 10, 2026 · Last reviewed August 8, 2026

Written and reviewed by Rev. Dr. LaVeena B. Archers, PhD
Doctor of Natural Medicine · Board-certified in Holistic Functional Medicine and Functional Nutrition
Educational content only. Not medical advice, and never a substitute for your own care. Scope of practice.

The 0.8 g/kg protein RDA is a public health floor, set as the smallest amount that prevents deficiency in nearly everyone, not an amount built to support muscle in a woman past forty ^[1]. Researchers in exercise metabolism propose that older adults consume at least 1.2 g per kilogram per day ^[1], and the International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand on the female athlete recommends the mid to upper part of 1.4 to 2.2 g per kilogram per day for women at all stages of menstrual function, with peri- and post-menopausal women advised to aim at the upper end ^[2]. For a woman of seventy kilos, that is a move from fifty-six grams a day to eighty-four or more.

Somewhere along the way you were told the first of those numbers. It sounds reassuringly achievable, and almost nobody is told where it came from. Once you know, the whole conversation changes.

Why 0.8 g/kg is a floor, not a target

The Dietary Reference Intakes set the protein RDA at 0.8 g per kilogram per day for everyone over nineteen ^[1].

An RDA answers a specific and narrow question: what is the smallest amount that will prevent deficiency in nearly everyone in a population. It is a public health floor. It was never built to answer how much protein supports a fifty year old woman in keeping her muscle, and it has been applied to that question anyway for decades.

This is the same error that runs through lab reference ranges. A number built to describe the minimum acceptable gets mistaken for a description of the desirable.

What do the researchers actually recommend?

The higher figure is not my extrapolation. A review in Advances in Nutrition by researchers in exercise metabolism states that the protein RDA may be inadequate for older individuals, and proposes that older adults consume at least 1.2 g per kilogram per day ^[1].

For our seventy kilo woman, that moves the figure from fifty-six grams to eighty-four. It is a meaningfully different day of eating.

The same review highlights the amino acid leucine, which plays a central role in signaling muscle to build ^[1]. That is why protein quality and distribution matter, not only the daily total.

The reasoning behind the higher figure is age-related loss of muscle mass and function, and how much of that decline adequate protein might offset ^[1]. The authors are careful, and note honestly that longer-term intervention trials are still needed ^[1], which is exactly the kind of caveat I keep rather than trim. But the direction of the evidence is not seriously in dispute.

How much protein do women in midlife need?

The International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand on the female athlete recommends daily protein in the mid to upper range of 1.4 to 2.2 g per kilogram per day for women at all stages of menstrual function, whether pre-, peri- or post-menopausal, or using contraceptives ^[2].

And it makes a distinction that matters for the women reading this. Peri- and post-menopausal women are advised to aim for the upper end of that range, and to take in a bolus of roughly 10 grams of essential amino acids from intact protein close to exercise, specifically to overcome anabolic resistance ^[2].

Anabolic resistance is the phrase worth carrying away. As we age, muscle becomes less responsive to the same amount of protein. The signal that comfortably triggered muscle building at twenty-five does not reliably do it at fifty-five. The requirement rises not because you are doing less, but because the same input produces less response.

That is also why "I eat the same as I always did" is not the reassurance it sounds like. Your intake stayed constant. The threshold moved.

Does it matter when in the day you eat protein?

The position stand advises distributing protein evenly across the day, every three to four hours, rather than backloading it ^[2].

Most women I have known eat almost nothing at breakfast, something small at lunch, and then the bulk of their protein at dinner. That pattern can hit a respectable daily total while missing the repeated signal muscle actually responds to.

Is high protein bad for your kidneys?

The kidney objection comes up every time, so let me deal with it directly.

The review states that the often-cited negative effects of higher protein intakes on renal and bone health are without a scientific foundation in humans ^[1].

That is unusually blunt language for a scientific paper, and it is worth taking seriously. The kidney concern originates largely in people who already have kidney disease, where protein restriction genuinely is part of management, and was then generalized to everyone. If you have kidney disease or reduced kidney function, that is a real conversation to have with your doctor and I am not waving it away. If you do not, the fear has been doing more harm than the protein.

Does protein alone build muscle?

Protein is the raw material. Resistance training is the signal that tells your body to use it. Supervised resistance programs running longer than ten weeks have produced increases of roughly three kilograms in lean mass and about twenty-five percent in strength, in men and women ^[3].

Protein without training gives your body materials it has no particular reason to use. Training without adequate protein asks for a build and supplies no bricks. They are not alternatives, and the research consistently treats them as a pair.

What this looks like in a normal day

Not a special diet. Just deliberate.

Protein at breakfast rather than at dinner alone. A source at every meal instead of two out of three. Attention to whether you are actually reaching the number rather than assuming, because most people are surprised by the gap once they actually track their intake for a few days.

And if your appetite is suppressed for any reason, whether by medication, illness or age, the case for making every meal count gets stronger.

Where the evidence thins

The higher figures come substantially from research in older adults and in athletes ^{[1, 2]}. A woman in her late forties who does not train sits at neither pole, and the precise number for her has not been established with the same rigor. The authors of the review say plainly that longer-term trials are still needed ^[1].

But the central claim holds, and the people who study this state it openly: 0.8 g/kg was set as a minimum to prevent deficiency, and it is not an optimum for maintaining muscle in midlife ^[1].

None of this is medical advice, and if you have kidney disease or any condition affecting how you handle protein, the right amount for you belongs with a professional who knows your history.

The Muscle You Keep is my book on protein, muscle and the medications that complicate both, written for women over 40.

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