Protein intake is the amount of dietary protein consumed over a day, usually considered alongside total diet, training, and individual context. This page provides a definition and practical context; it is not an individualized medical or nutrition prescription. Use the related tools and guides for calculations or programming decisions rather than treating a glossary definition as a result.
Once you have a daily protein target from the protein intake calculator, the meal calorie distribution tool splits it across meals and flags any meal that falls under a practical per-meal protein floor.
Distributing protein across the day
Total daily protein is the primary driver of the outcomes people care about (muscle retention, muscle growth, satiety in a deficit), but distribution still matters at the margins. Spreading intake across 3 to 5 meals, each clearing the roughly 25 to 40g threshold needed to meaningfully stimulate muscle protein synthesis, captures more of the day’s MPS-stimulating opportunities than concentrating the same total into one or two large meals. Protein needs also rise, not fall, during a caloric deficit, since higher intake helps offset the elevated muscle protein breakdown that comes with reduced calories.