Do older adults need more protein than younger people?
Older adults likely need more protein than the standard guideline of 0.8 grams per kilogram suggests. As a healthy older adult, aim for 1.0 to 1.2 grams per kilogram per day, spread well across meals, and combine this with resistance training where possible.
Yes, older adults need more protein than the standard recommendation for adults suggests. The official guideline of 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day is based on nitrogen balance studies, but those studies produce conflicting results for older adults. Some older adults do not achieve a positive nitrogen balance at that amount, especially when they are also not eating enough calories.
The reason lies in how the body processes protein. Older adults respond less strongly to small amounts of protein after a meal. Young men reach their maximum muscle protein synthesis at around 0.24 grams per kilogram per meal. Older men need approximately 0.40 grams per kilogram to achieve the same effect. That is substantially more. For a healthy older adult weighing 70 kg, this already amounts to around 25-28 grams of protein per meal.
For healthy older adults, multiple studies recommend a daily intake of at least 1.0 to 1.2 grams per kilogram. Those who also do resistance training, twice a week, benefit the most: that combination demonstrably reduces age-related muscle loss in multiple controlled studies. If you are older and have a chronic condition, the recommendation rises to 1.2 to 1.5 grams per kilogram per day. In cases of serious illness or malnutrition, as much as 2.0 grams may be recommended.
How you distribute your protein intake also matters. Spreading 25 to 30 grams of protein evenly across breakfast, lunch and dinner works better than consuming it all at one moment. Whether a protein-rich snack of 40 grams before bedtime genuinely helps has not yet been studied well enough to make firm statements about.
In practice, a large proportion of the older population does not meet the increased requirement. Around 30% of men and 50% of women over the age of 71 structurally eat too little protein, due to reduced appetite, dental problems or social circumstances. If you recognise yourself in that group, it is worth consciously planning more protein-rich foods into your day, such as meat, fish, eggs, dairy or legumes, spread evenly throughout the day.
Claims are based on multiple reviews and RCTs (PMID 40806046, 26287239, 32928579, 25056502, 22139561, 16886097, 8641258). Strength of evidence ranges from moderate to limited; the evidence is strongest for the higher dose recommendations in healthy older adults. The recommendation for intake before bedtime rests on limited evidence.