The Protein Target for Building Muscle After 60

Most people are eating about half the protein they actually need. Not because they don’t care, but because the advice they’ve been given is outdated.

The standard recommendation you’ll see on nutrition labels, the one still used as a baseline across most dietary guidelines, suggests 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. For a 150-pound person, that’s roughly 55 grams. Sounds reasonable. The problem is that number was designed to prevent deficiency, not to support muscle growth, and it was largely established in studies on younger adults. For someone over 60 who’s trying to actually build or preserve muscle, 55 grams is nowhere near enough.

Here’s what I tell people when they first come to me frustrated that they’ve been exercising consistently and still feel like they’re losing ground: the exercise is probably fine. The protein almost certainly isn’t.

Why Your Protein Needs Go Up As You Age (Not Down)

There’s a phenomenon researchers call “anabolic resistance.” It sounds complicated, but the concept is straightforward. As we get older, our muscles become less efficient at using the protein we eat to build and repair tissue. A 35-year-old and a 70-year-old can eat the same meal with the same amount of protein, and the older person’s muscles will simply do less with it. Not because something is broken, but because that’s how the physiology changes.

Dr. Stuart Phillips, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University who has spent over two decades studying protein metabolism and aging, explains it plainly: “Older adults need more dietary protein than younger people to stimulate the same muscle protein synthesis response. The threshold is higher, and ignoring that means leaving real muscle-building potential on the table.”

This is why the 0.8 grams per kilogram figure fails older adults so badly. You need more protein specifically because your body has become more selective about how it uses what you give it.

The research has been building on this for years. A position paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association by the PROT-AGE Study Group, a collaboration of researchers across Europe and North America, recommended that adults over 65 consume at least 1.0 to 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day just to maintain muscle mass. For those actively trying to build muscle or recovering from illness or injury, their recommendation pushed to 1.2 to 1.5 grams per kilogram, and in some cases higher.

To put that in real numbers: a 160-pound (73 kg) person aiming to build muscle would be looking at roughly 88 to 110 grams of protein per day at the conservative end, potentially up to 110 grams at the higher recommendation. That’s a significant jump from the 55-gram baseline many people are still working from.

You might be wondering whether eating that much protein is safe for your kidneys. It’s a fair concern, and I’ll get to it. But first, let’s talk about where that protein actually has to come from.

Check out our Senior Nutrition Tracker tool to see how your current intake stacks up against these targets.

How to Actually Hit Your Protein Target Without Forcing Food

This is where most guides leave you stranded. They tell you the number you need, then wave vaguely at chicken breasts and protein shakes. What actually works requires a bit more structure.

The single most useful shift I’ve seen in my clients is distributing protein across meals instead of backloading it at dinner. Most people eat a small breakfast, a light lunch, and then a large dinner with most of their protein. That’s almost exactly backwards for muscle protein synthesis. Research from Dr. Douglas Paddon-Jones at the University of Texas Medical Branch, who studies muscle metabolism in older adults, has consistently shown that spreading protein intake across three or four meals, with at least 25 to 40 grams at each sitting, produces meaningfully better muscle-building outcomes than eating the same total amount concentrated in one or two meals.

So what does 30 to 40 grams of protein actually look like at breakfast? Here are a few realistic options:

• Two eggs plus a cup of Greek yogurt (around 30 grams)
• A protein smoothie with one scoop of whey protein, a cup of milk, and half a cup of cottage cheese (around 40 to 45 grams)
• Three eggs scrambled with two ounces of smoked salmon (around 35 grams)

Lunch and dinner can carry similar loads without much difficulty if you’re anchoring the meal around a meaningful protein source. A six-ounce chicken breast has roughly 50 grams. A can of tuna packs about 25. A cup of cooked lentils gets you 18, though plant proteins come with additional considerations (more on that in a moment).

One thing I’ve noticed working with clients in their 60s and 70s is that appetite often decreases with age, which makes hitting higher protein targets genuinely harder. If you’re finding it difficult to eat enough food, protein supplements aren’t cheating. They’re practical. A good whey protein powder, something like Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard or Thorne Whey, runs about $35 to $55 for a month’s supply and adds 20 to 25 grams per serving with minimal volume. For smaller appetites, that can be the difference between hitting your target and falling short by 40 grams every day.

Build a realistic weekly meal plan around your protein goals with our Senior Meal Planning Guide.

The Plant Protein Question

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You might be wondering whether you can hit these targets eating mostly or entirely plant-based foods. The honest answer is yes, but it takes more intentionality than most plant-based guides admit.

Plant proteins tend to be “incomplete,” meaning they’re low in one or more of the amino acids your muscles need, particularly leucine, which appears to be the most important amino acid for triggering muscle protein synthesis. Dr. Nicolaas Deutz, director of the Center for Translational Research in Aging and Longevity at Texas A&M, has noted that leucine acts almost like an “on switch” for muscle building, and plant sources generally deliver less of it per gram of protein than animal sources do.

This doesn’t mean plant-based seniors can’t build muscle. It means you likely need to eat more total protein to get equivalent amounts of the right amino acids, and you need to be thoughtful about combining sources. Soy protein is the exception: it’s a complete protein and has leucine levels closer to animal sources. Pea protein is another solid option. If you’re plant-based and serious about muscle, a pea or soy-based protein supplement becomes even more useful than it would be for someone eating animal protein regularly.

The research here is genuinely mixed on exactly how much more plant-based older adults need, but a working assumption of adding another 10 to 20 percent to your target seems reasonable and conservative.

Learn more about building muscle on a plant-based diet in our Vegan & Vegetarian Senior Fitness guide.

What About Kidney Health?

Let me address this directly because it’s the question I get every single time I discuss higher protein intakes with older clients.

The concern comes from the fact that the kidneys process protein byproducts, and there is genuine research showing that very high protein intakes can accelerate kidney decline in people who already have chronic kidney disease (CKD). That’s real, and it matters.

But here’s the distinction that often gets lost: the concern about protein and kidney damage applies primarily to people with pre-existing, diagnosed kidney disease. For adults with healthy or even mildly reduced kidney function, the current evidence does not support the idea that eating 1.2 to 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram per day causes kidney damage.

Dr. Bettina Mittendorfer, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Medicine who studies protein metabolism and aging, has been direct on this point in her published work: “The fear of protein-induced kidney damage in healthy older adults is not well-supported by current evidence and may actually lead people to undereat protein, which has its own serious health consequences.”

That said, if you have diagnosed kidney disease, diabetes with kidney involvement, or any condition affecting kidney function, please talk to your doctor or a registered dietitian before significantly increasing your protein intake. This is one of those situations where individual medical history genuinely changes the recommendation, and I’d be doing you a disservice to suggest otherwise.

Get personalized guidance by connecting with a registered dietitian through our Find a Senior Nutrition Professional directory.

Timing Your Protein Around Exercise

One more thing worth knowing: when you eat protein relative to your workouts matters more than most people realize.

The post-exercise window, the period right after resistance training when your muscles are most receptive to protein for repair and growth, appears to be especially important for older adults. A 2023 review in Nutrients found that consuming 20 to 40 grams of high-quality protein within two hours after resistance exercise produced significantly better muscle protein synthesis outcomes in adults over 60 compared to waiting several hours.

If you’re working out in the morning, that means breakfast isn’t just breakfast. It’s a recovery meal, and it should be treated accordingly. If you exercise later in the day, make sure you’re not finishing a workout and then waiting four hours to eat dinner.

Eating more protein at 65 or 70 isn’t about following some aggressive bodybuilder protocol. It’s about compensating for real, measurable changes in how your body uses what you give it. The goal is to stay strong, stay independent, and keep doing the things that matter to you. The protein target is just one part of that, but it’s a part a lot of people are unknowingly getting wrong. Fixing it is usually one of the most impactful single changes I see people make.

Photo: Yan Krukau via Pexels

This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or fitness advice. Consult your physician or a licensed physical therapist before starting a new exercise program, especially if you have existing health conditions.

Sources

• Yan Krukau
• Nutramax Cosequin Senior Dog Soft Chews (60ct)
• Nutramax Cosequin DS Joint Supplement for Dogs (132ct)
• Older adults need more dietary protein than younger people to stimulate the same muscle protein synthesis response. The threshold is higher, and ignoring that means leaving real muscle-building potential on the table. This
• The fear of protein-induced kidney damage in healthy older adults is not well-supported by current evidence and may actually lead people to undereat protein, which has its own serious health consequences. That

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• Nutramax Cosequin Senior Dog Soft Chews (60ct) (~$32), Senior-specific Cosequin formula with added Omega-3s, designed for aging dogs with joint and immune health needs.
• Nutramax Cosequin DS Joint Supplement for Dogs (132ct) (~$36), The #1 veterinarian-recommended joint supplement brand, clinically studied for reducing joint pain in dogs.