How much food to hit your protein goal

Enter your daily protein goal, pick one food, and pick how many meals you eat. You get the raw amount to buy and weigh — for the whole day and for each meal.

Daily protein goal

grams of protein per day

Food (protein per 100g, raw)

Ground beef 73/27 14.4g protein per 100g raw Ground beef 80/20 17.2g protein per 100g raw Ground beef 90/10 20.0g protein per 100g raw Chicken breast, boneless skinless 22.5g protein per 100g raw Eggs, large 6.3g protein per egg (50g without shell)

Meals per day

Weigh it raw, not cooked

Weigh your food before you cook it. The protein numbers above are for raw food, so the scale has to see the same raw food to give you the right amount.

Cooking does not remove protein. When meat cooks, the protein stays put — what leaves is water. That is why cooked meat weighs about 25% less than it did raw, even though it holds the same protein.

So do not weigh it cooked and use the raw numbers. A cooked portion is lighter, so if you measure out the raw weight after cooking, you end up eating more food than planned and overcounting your protein by about a third.

Note: this is general information, not medical advice. These values are planning figures from USDA FoodData Central — check the label on your food, because labels vary.

Protein values: USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy — fdc.nal.usda.gov