It's the most important macronutrient, but should your protein intake increase as you age?
Read time: 6 minutes
How are those resolutions going so far?
I was having a chat with someone on LinkedIn today, and they told me that they've already thrown the towel in on theirs.
If you're reading this, and I know you are, get your sh*t together 👊🏻😂
Talking of resolutions, if there's one resolution I would like everyone to set this year, it's the following:
Eat enough protein.
Honestly, if you're going to do one or two things for your health this year, make this one of them!
Talking of protein, I got asked a question just before the Christmas break.
Q: Do your requirements change as you get older?
Well, let's find out...
First of all, what does protein actually do for your body?
It's all well and good for me to tell you how important it is, but it's kinda hard to buy into something when you're not clued up on it.
Protein's primary role is building and repairing muscle tissue, especially after training or daily wear and tear. That alone makes it non-negotiable.
But it also plays a major role in:
• Preserving lean mass as you age
• Supporting immune function
• Maintaining bone health
• Increasing satiety and appetite control
Protein is the macronutrient that keeps your body structurally sound.
And unlike carbs or fats, your body doesn't have a long-term protein storage tank.
If your intake is low, it pulls it from your muscles. This is what I would refer to as up sh*ts creek without a paddle... this is not something you want any part of!
What is the recommended daily intake for the average adult?
Depending on where you look, you'll see different recommendations online, but generally speaking, the daily recommended intake for an adult sits at 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight.
But I want to make this next point VERY clear....
That number exists to prevent deficiency, not to optimise health, strength, or ageing outcomes.
Multiple studies have highlighted that this intake is likely insufficient for maintaining muscle mass and function, particularly as people get older (1).
In practice, most active adults feel and perform better closer to 1.0 to 1.5 g per kg per day, even before age-related decline enters the picture (3).
Love them or hate them, but the US government recently took a major step forward with their nutrition guidelines and started promoting a diet with more protein.
I'm going to do an email on it soon, probably in the next week or two, but it has protein right at the top of the priority list. A big change from the historically low position it found itself in for too long.
The UK government are still stuck in the stone age, and even I was shocked to see what their official guidelines state for adults 19-64.
Are you ready? Because it's utter BS 🫠
No need to readjust your eyes, you're reading it right.
A pathetic 55g grams for a man and 45 grams for a woman! What's even scarier is that those recommendations go down for the higher age brackets, and as you're about to read, this is a disaster waiting to happen.
Which brings us to the real issue.
The age-related problem most people never hear about.
Ageing doesn’t just mean “less muscle"; you don't just wake up one day like a bag of old bones. As you get older, your body becomes worse at maintaining muscle and at utilising protein.
Three key things happen:
- Sarcopenia: This is the age-related loss of muscle mass and strength. It begins earlier than most people think and accelerates with low protein intake and inactivity (2).
- Anabolic resistance: Ageing muscle has a blunted response to protein. You need a stronger signal to stimulate muscle protein synthesis compared to when you were younger.
- Slower protein turnover and hormonal shifts: Protein breakdown increases, synthesis decreases, and growth-related hormones decline. This shifts the balance toward loss unless intake and resistance training increase to compensate. Researchers found muscle protein turnover was around 30% lower in older adults, meaning muscle becomes less responsive and less adaptable with age (4).
Long story short, as well as fat loss being trickier the older you get, you also need more protein to get the same result you used to get from less.
Stupid ba*tard Father Time! 😂
So, now that we understand just how vital our protein intake is as we age, what should you be aiming for daily?
For "older adults", studies consistently show benefits at higher protein intakes than the standard recommended daily allowance (RDA), both for preserving lean muscle mass and overall functional ability (1).
• 1 to 1.2 g per kg of bodyweight per day for healthy older adults
• 1.2 to 1.5 g per kg of bodyweight per day for those aiming to preserve muscle, strength, or recovering from illness or injury.
If you're very consistent with your strength training and you want to maximise its benefits, then I would strongly consider aiming for a range between 1.4 to 2 g per kg.
So, for a 65 kg female, that would work out at:
65 x 1.4 to 2 = 91 - 130 g per day, which averages out at 110.5 g.
Yes, this is going to seem like a lot, and I'll be honest with you, at the start it is, but the pros far outweigh the cons. On top of the muscle-building/repairing benefits, the impact on fat loss and appetite control is another great reason to persevere.
Personally, I've been smashing back 2 to 2.5 g per kg of bodyweight per day for the last decade or so, if not more. So I'm routinely consuming over 200 grams daily.
My chicken and steak bill is not for the faint of heart 😂
Bopp et al investigated the association between protein intake and loss of lean muscle mass (LM) during a 20-week weight loss intervention in postmenopausal women. Protein intake averaged 0.62 g/kg/day (0.47 - 0.8 g/kg/day) (5).
Participants who consumed higher amounts of protein lost less LM; however, these participants (0.8 g/kg/day) also lost LM. These results suggested that an inadequate protein intake may be associated with LM loss, and daily protein intake ≤ 0.8 g/kg was not sufficient to prevent LM loss in postmenopausal women.
Another study by Houston et al studied to determine the association between protein and changes in total LM in elderly, community-dwelling men and women (6).
Over 3 years, participants consuming the highest protein intake (1.2 g/kg/day) lost approximately 40% less LM than did those with the lowest protein intake (0.8 g/kg/day).
This is clear evidence that a higher protein intake is significantly more beneficial for your health and overall function.
Now that you're totally clued in, how can you improve your protein intake?
Well, don't panic, I'm not going to tell you to shovel down dry chicken breast out of a plastic tub for eternity...
You can leave that to me 😂
Instead, here's a few things that work wonders:
- Plan protein first: Build meals around the protein source, not the carb. Decide what the protein is, then fill the rest in.
- Adopt the “every meal counts” mindset: Aim for protein at breakfast, lunch, & dinner. Skipping it early in the day makes hitting targets unnecessarily hard later.
- Use protein shakes (if needed): Shakes are not a failure. They're a tool. They work particularly well at breakfast or post-gym when your appetite is low.
- Increase protein density, not volume: Greek yoghurt, eggs, lean meats, fish, whey, skyr, cottage cheese. More protein per bite means less effort.
- Bulk cook: I've literally just had a break from writing to eat my dinner, and to take out the four extra chicken breasts I cooked in the air fryer. This makes your life so much easier!
My biggest takeaway for you is this.
Ageing well is not about doing extreme things.
Eat enough protein. Do enough resistance training. Do enough consistently.
Most people do not fall apart because they stop caring.
They fall apart because they keep eating and training like their body hasn’t changed.
Fuel it accordingly. Move it enough. Rest it well.
And your future self will thank you for it.
