{"id":395662,"date":"2026-01-08T18:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T18:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/395662\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T18:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T18:22:09","slug":"how-much-protein-do-you-need-heres-the-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/395662\/","title":{"rendered":"How Much Protein Do You Need? Here’s The Answer"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

America\u2019s obsession with consuming \u201cenough\u201d protein<\/a> has officially reached fever pitch. While some folks have been feeding their muscles with baked chicken and fat-free yogurt for decades<\/a>, we\u2019ve recently seen a ginormous uptick in the number of processed foods enhanced with protein.<\/p>\n

Now it seems like you can\u2019t go anywhere without being confronted by protein-infused cookies, cereal, popcorn, and it can even be in the cold foam on your iced coffee. <\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t tried any of these products, we don\u2019t think you\u2019re missing anything but an upcharge since most of us are already getting the protein we need from our regular, cold-foamless diets.<\/p>\n

Still, the excitement around protein is perfectly understandable. Protein-rich foods play a key role in everything from building and repairing muscles to supporting immunity, but because most of us are not trying to be The Rock<\/a>, we only need about 0.8 grams per kilogram of bodyweight<\/a> (that\u2019s about 54 grams of protein per day for a person who weighs around 150 pounds, for example). <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is how much the average adult, who is moderately active, needs to just maintain their health,\u201d Elizabeth Dunn<\/a>, a food journalist who\u2019s written widely about nutrition, told us \u2014 the hosts of HuffPost\u2019s \u201cAm I Doing It Wrong?\u201d podcast<\/a> \u2014 when she recently dropped by our studio.<\/p>\n

Press play to hear the full episode:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are certain groups who definitely do benefit from more than that daily allowance: Kids \u2026 young adults who are rapidly growing, building muscle and are more active \u2026 and also older people, 65-plus,\u201d she noted. These groups, as well as very active adults or endurance athletes, Dunn said, might benefit from one to one-and-a-half grams of protein per kilogram.<\/p>\n

And, contrary to what we\u2019ve been made to believe by Big Protein Bar, there isn\u2019t really an epidemic of protein deficiency in the United States. Many of us are getting enough from our daily, hopefully balanced, meals and snacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s actually protein in almost everything you eat. If you\u2019re only thinking about the things you eat that are really dense sources of protein, then you\u2019re maybe going to feel like \u2018well I don\u2019t eat that much meat or eggs,\u2019\u201d Dunn said. \u201cBut there\u2019s protein in strawberries. Whole grains are a sleeper source of protein \u2014 and I\u2019m not just talking about quinoa. Oats have a lot of protein in them. As do seeds, hemp and chia. All those have protein in them, so it adds up a lot faster than you think.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, most of us can safely ignore all those TikToks telling us we need 300 grams of protein a day or we\u2019re going to wither away. However, Dunn mentioned there is something admittedly less sexy that we all probably could use more of in our diets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that fiber is actually a more legit thing to be obsessed with than protein,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I speak to my nutritionist pals, fiber is the thing they believe we\u2019re not getting enough of. So something like 95% [of people] are supposedly deficient in fiber.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, don\u2019t expect Starbucks to roll out fiber cold foam anytime soon, as the first thing that the nutrient brings to most of our minds is poop. Despite this, it\u2019s clear that not getting enough fiber can have consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs nutrition scientists and doctors study the microbiome, they\u2019re realizing that fiber is super important to the health of the microbiome, which then contributes to the health of the whole rest of the body, including mental health,\u201d Dunn said. \u201cThis is a huge driver of health that we\u2019re just beginning to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

So if you have to pick a nutrient to cozy up to in 2026, we\u2019re going to lovingly suggest you choose fiber. However, there\u2019s lots more to learn about protein, and on this episode, we also discussed the best times to eat protein, the protein-filled snack food Dunn said we should definitely skip and lots more.<\/p>\n

Listen to the full episode above or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can also watch the full episode on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n

For more from Elizabeth Dunn, visit her website<\/a> and subscribe to her Substack.<\/a><\/p>\n

Have a question or need some help with something you\u2019ve been doing wrong? Email us at AmIDoingItWrong@HuffPost.com, and we might investigate the topic in an upcoming episode.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"America\u2019s obsession with consuming \u201cenough\u201d protein has officially reached fever pitch. While some folks have been feeding their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[280,97,269,5119],"class_list":{"0":"post-395662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-fiber","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-nutrition","11":"tag-protein"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}