How much protein do I actually need?
For an athlete in training, roughly 1.8 to 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day, and toward the higher end of that range while eating in a calorie deficit. For an 80 kg athlete that is about 145 to 175 grams a day.
Spreading it across the day in several servings rather than taking most of it in one meal is the part most people miss.
Why
Those numbers come from the ACSM joint position statement on nutrition and athletic performance, which is the source Train Smart uses for its protein targets — they are not a bodybuilding rule of thumb.
Why the higher end in a deficit. Eating less makes losing muscle alongside fat more likely. Higher protein intake is the main dietary lever against that.
Distribution matters. Several servings across the day does more than the same total taken in one sitting.
Above the range does little. There is no meaningful additional benefit to going far beyond it, and the food it displaces — particularly carbohydrate around training — usually costs more than the extra protein gains.
Train Smart calculates a daily target from your own bodyweight and goal rather than quoting a range, and every nutrition figure it gives is sourced on the sources page against the specific claim it supports.
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