How Much Protein Do You Need Without Meat? Do the Math

Protein is the first question everyone hears when they cut back on meat, and it is almost never the actual problem. The question deserves a real answer anyway. Yours takes one multiplication, and the rest of this guide is spending that number on food.

Your number is a multiplication

For healthy adults, the recommended dietary allowance is 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. European guidance lands at essentially the same figure, 0.83 g/kg. So:

60 kg → about 48 g of protein a day
70 kg → about 56 g
85 kg → about 68 g

That’s the whole calculation. No meat appears anywhere in it — protein targets are about your body, not about any particular food. A few groups genuinely need more, and I’ll get to them at the end. For everyone else, the number above is the finish line, and it is closer than the protein aisle wants you to believe.

What replaces the meat

Per 100 g cooked, from the USDA’s food database, the plants that do the heavy lifting:

Lentils — about 9 g
Chickpeas — about 9 g
Black beans — about 9 g
Firm tofu — 13–17 g depending on how firm
Tempeh — about 19 g, the quiet champion

If your version of eating less meat keeps eggs and dairy on the plate — most flexitarians’ does — the ceiling rises fast:

One large egg — about 6 g
Greek yogurt — about 10 g per 100 g
A glass of milk, dairy or soy — about 8 g

And then there is the background protein nobody counts: oats, wholegrain bread, peanut butter, quinoa. A slice of good bread carries about 4 g; a generous spoonful of peanut butter, 7. On a normal eating day the background alone contributes 15–20 g before you plan anything.

A 70-kilo day, counted

Target: 56 g. Nothing on this menu is exotic.

Porridge from 50 g of oats (6 g) with 250 ml of milk or soy milk (8 g) and a spoonful of peanut butter (7 g) — 21 g
Lentil soup, one big ladle with about 200 g of cooked lentils (18 g), plus a slice of wholegrain bread (4 g) — 22 g
Greek yogurt, 150 g pot (15 g) — and you’ve now passed 56 g before dinner exists
Chili sin carne with 150 g of black beans (13 g) over rice (4 g) — 17 g

Day’s total: about 75 g. A meatless day overshot the target by a third, and nobody in that kitchen was trying. This is why the research is so calm about the question: the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ position is that appropriately planned vegetarian and even vegan diets are nutritionally adequate across all life stages.

The cases that deserve actual planning

You train hard. The International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends 1.4–2.0 g/kg for building and maintaining muscle. At 70 kg that’s 98–140 g — reachable without meat, but no longer by accident. Tempeh, tofu, and dairy stop being options and become staples.

You’re pregnant or breastfeeding. The same DRI report that sets the 0.8 baseline raises it to 1.1 g/kg during pregnancy and 1.3 g/kg while breastfeeding. At 70 kg that’s 77–91 g — the counted day above already brushes the low end, but it stops being automatic: the eggs-and-dairy tier and bigger pulse portions are what close the gap.

You’re over 65. The PROT-AGE expert group recommends 1.0–1.2 g/kg to protect muscle with age. Same foods, bigger portions, spread across the day.

And one honest note for the fully plant-based: protein still isn’t the nutrient to worry about — B12 is. It’s the one thing the Academy position paper flags as needing supplementation, so plan that, not the protein.

Swap the portion, not the plate

The practical question is rarely “how much protein” — it’s “what replaces the chicken in tonight’s recipe.” I built a free protein swap calculator for exactly that: type the chicken portion you’d normally cook and it shows how much lentils, tofu, chickpeas, tempeh, or eggs match its protein.

You’ll notice No Meat Today itself doesn’t count protein, or any macro. That’s deliberate. Once you’ve seen the math above, the daily question stops being nutritional and becomes behavioral — did today have meat in it, or not? — so the app only asks that. Naomi, your cow coach, poses it once a day; you punch the “Yes” or “No” planet; meatless days attract cows to the green one. Same logic as watching how much meat you keep per week: track the pattern, and the grams take care of themselves.