How Much Protein Do You Really Need?

Protein is having its moment. We are currently living in an era of protein worship, where it's being touted as the golden child of nutrition. Protein can do no wrong these days, and “more is better” seems to be the general perspective that people are gravitating towards.

For people living with diabetes, protein is also framed as being an important part of the solution to your problems. According to common diabetes advice, protein helps to stabilize blood sugar. Whereas you can find nutrition experts casting carbohydrates or fat as the culprit for your symptoms and struggles, protein is an innocent bystander at worst and a metabolic savior at best.

But is all of this really true? Is protein the answer for weight loss, blood sugar management, and long-term health? Is more always better?

In this article, we’ll answer these questions and more, to help you understand what protein is (and is not) doing for you, and how to get what you need for long-term diabetes and overall health.

How Much Protein Do You Need?

The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for protein is set by the U.S. Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), now part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The RDA for protein was created based on information from nitrogen-balance studies, which show what level of protein intake creates a maintenance of lean muscle mass. The RDA is set at 0.8g of protein per kilogram of body weight, which is defined as the average daily intake level sufficient to meet the nutrient requirements of 97–98% of healthy individuals, with a safety buffer in place.

However, this number is widely misinterpreted. For instance, it does not mean that this amount of protein is optimal for health, but rather that it has a strong buffer toward the goal of preventing deficiency. To the same end, consuming less than 0.8g protein per kg body weight does not necessarily lead to a loss of lean muscle mass. In fact, research shows that if someone is consuming enough calories from whole foods—even if it is a plant-based diet—they will meet their protein needs.

Despite protein being a common concern, there is no evidence-based reason or backing for the concern. Across all age groups and genders, on average Americans exceed the RDA for protein – and not just by a little bit. The average adult man gets almost double the protein he needs based on the RDA (for a 150lb man, the RDA would be 54g protein, and the average is around 100g/day).

Even researchers make this mistake sometimes. For instance, a recent study on protein intake in vegans created a lot of media concern when the study reported that only 50% of participants met the RDA for amino acids leucine and lysine. However, this was a classic case of RDA being confused with actual protein needs. Just because some participants didn’t meet the RDA for lysine or leucine on paper—particularly after adjusting for digestibility—does not mean they experienced protein deficiency or had any observable health issues. In fact, the study confirms that most of these participants had adequate overall protein intake, showed no clinical signs of protein deficiency, and were functionally healthy. In other words, a statistical shortfall did not equal a clinical problem.

RDAs don’t account for adaptive physiological efficiency or real-world dietary patterns over time. Human bodies are not passive calculators of protein input; they adapt, recycle, and balance needs across days and meals. As was stated earlier, consuming adequate energy intake from diverse whole foods is typically enough to meet your general protein and specific amino acid needs in practice.

So the short answer is, you can relax! Eat enough calories from whole foods, and you should naturally meet your protein needs.

Protein: The More, the Better?

But even if you can meet your protein needs with ease, should you try to eat a higher protein diet? Does eating more protein lead to better health outcomes?

Research actually shows the opposite is true. 

In 2014, researchers at the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California conducted an epidemiological study by looking at data from the NHANES III study, which included over 6,000 participants aged 50 and older whose health was tracked over 18 years. The researchers investigated how low (less than 10% of daily calories as protein), medium (10-19% of daily calories as protein), and high (20% or more of daily calories as protein) protein intake affected diabetes mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and cancer risk. 

For people below age 65, low protein intake was associated with the best health outcomes. In fact, “subjects in the high protein group had a 74% increase in their relative risk of all-cause mortality and were more than four times as likely to die of cancer when compared to those in the low protein group.”

In regards to diabetes specifically, "Among subjects with no diabetes at baseline, those in the high protein group had a 73-fold increase in risk, while those in the moderate protein category had an almost 23-fold increase in the risk of diabetes mortality." To put that in perspective, 73-fold means a 7300% increase, whereas high blood pressure is associated with a 58% increased risk of developing diabetes.

After age 65, preventing muscle loss becomes very important for overall health. Some experts use that as a reason to suggest consuming higher amounts of protein in your elder years. However, while a high-protein diet is one way to address this, it is not the only nor the best way. 

Resistance training and strength training are well-documented as being a reliable way to maintain or increase strength as you age. In addition, some studies indicate that increasing vegetable consumption can prevent loss of muscle mass. One study in particular found that eating the recommended 5 daily servings of vegetables cuts your risk of losing muscle essentially in half (by 48%). 

Additionally, the negative effects of a high protein diet don’t go away as you age. In the 2014 study outlined above, the effect of protein intake on diabetes mortality was still present in participants age 65 and older. Regardless of age, the more protein study participants ate, the more their risk of dying from diabetes increased.

On the other hand, a new longitudinal study published in April 2025 showed that the more people ate a diet focused on whole plant-based foods, the more likely they were to age healthfully (defined as reaching 70 years without any major chronic diseases and with cognitive, physical, and mental health intact).

How Does Protein Affect Blood Sugar Management and Diabetes Health?

Protein is often seen as beneficial for people with diabetes because it can slow down how quickly your blood sugar rises after a meal. That’s true to an extent — protein helps reduce blood sugar spikes by slowing digestion and balancing the effects of carbohydrates. But that’s only part of the story.

What really matters is where your protein is coming from, and what else comes with it. For example, if you are consuming protein in the form of beef, cheese, or bacon — that protein comes with a lot of fat. The fat can build up in your cells over time and make it harder for insulin to do its job (AKA insulin resistance). Even if your blood sugar numbers look great after a meal, it will hurt you in the long run.

That’s why low-fat plant-based protein sources like beans, lentils, tofu, or quinoa are a better option. They offer the same stabilizing effect on blood sugar without the fat that damages insulin sensitivity. And when you’re eating a low-fat, whole-food, plant-based diet, your body becomes naturally more insulin sensitive — so your meals cause gentler rises in blood sugar anyway, even without needing extra protein to “anchor” them.

One final point to make: Many people eat a high protein diet as a means of weight loss – and it can be a successful method if that is the goal. Unfortunately, though, a high protein diet can actually negate the typical benefits of the weight loss that you might achieve through it. For instance, when you lose weight, your insulin sensitivity usually improves (meaning that your cells respond better to insulin and can take in glucose more efficiently). However, a 2016 study found that when weight loss was achieved through a high protein diet, participants did not experience this typical improvement in insulin sensitivity. They also did not experience the beneficial changes of reducing oxidative stress that typically come with weight loss. *Of note, the “high protein diet” in this study was 1.2g protein per kg of body weight per day, which is what the average American man is currently consuming!