Ask five people at an Indian gym how much protein they need and you will get five different answers — usually a round number like "150 grams" repeated from a supplement label, not a body-weight calculation. The real number is simpler than the internet makes it sound, and for most vegetarians it is easier to hit than the panic around "Indian diets lack protein" suggests.
The actual formula
The International Society of Sports Nutrition's position stand puts protein needs for people doing regular resistance training at roughly 1.6 to 2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. Below 1.6 g/kg, muscle repair is left short-changed after hard training; above 2.2 g/kg, the extra protein mostly gets used for energy rather than additional muscle repair — so more is not automatically better.
- 60 kg adult: 96–132 g protein per day.
- 70 kg adult: 112–154 g protein per day.
- 80 kg adult: 128–176 g protein per day.
- Sedentary adults with no strength training can stay near the lower general RDA of about 0.8 g/kg — the 1.6–2.2 g/kg range is specifically for people training regularly.
Hitting the target on a vegetarian Indian plate
A 70 kg vegetarian aiming for 130 g/day does not need imported protein powder to get there — though whey or a plant blend can help close a gap on busy days. Dal alone (roughly 8–9 g protein per cooked cup) will not get you close by itself; the target is hit by combining several dense sources through the day, not stacking one.
- Paneer: roughly 18 g protein per 100 g — one of the highest-density vegetarian sources available in every Indian kitchen.
- Moong dal, chana, and rajma: 7–9 g per cooked cup, plus fibre that most macro trackers ignore.
- Curd and milk: 3.5–4 g per 100 ml — easy to add across the day without extra cooking.
- Soya chunks: around 52 g protein per 100 g dry weight — the single densest common vegetarian source, worth building a lunch or dinner around at least twice a week.
- Roasted chana and peanuts: convenient snack-level protein between meals, though calorie-dense in larger portions.
Non-vegetarian sources, for comparison
- Chicken breast: about 31 g per 100 g cooked.
- Eggs: about 6 g per whole egg, mostly in the white.
- Fish (rohu, pomfret, or similar): 20–25 g per 100 g depending on the cut.
The gap between vegetarian and non-vegetarian eaters hitting their target is almost always a planning gap, not a food-availability one — Indian vegetarian staples can cover the range with intention.
The number matters less than whether you actually know it — most people training hard are simply guessing.
score.fit Coaching
Manually adding up grams across a full day is where most people give up. score.fit's AI food scan removes that step: photograph a plate of dal, rice, and sabzi and it logs calories and a protein/carb/fat breakdown automatically, so you can see by evening whether today closed the gap to your target — without keeping a running spreadsheet in your head.
