How much protein should my shake have?
Your meal line is about 0.4 g of protein per kg of your weight. Drag your weight and the recipe resizes so the glass reaches it.
Your meal line
30 gof protein in the glass
0.4 g per kg of your weight, rounded to 5. The Gyroscope app personalizes yours.
Chocolate peanut butter, sized to you
The rest of the glass carries 16.4 g of protein, so it takes ¾ scoop of whey to reach 35 g.
1 cup milk244 g
½ banana59 g
1 tbsp peanut butter16 g
1 tbsp cocoa5 g
1 tbsp flax7 g
2 cups spinach60 g
½ cup water and ice120 g
¾ scoop whey24 g
The Real Meal
420 calories, 35 g protein, 8.3 g fiber, 0 g added sugar
- Calories
- 420
- Protein
- 35 gline 30 g
- Carbs
- 38 g
- Fat
- 18 g
- Fiber
- 8.3 gline 5.9 g
- Sugar
- 22 g22 from fruit and milk, 0 added
- Potassium24%
- Calcium39%
- Vit. C25%
- Magnesium40%
- Iron18%
- Folate40%
- Vit. A46%
- Vit. K242%
- Vit. B1254%
- Vit. D14%
good source, 10 to 19% of the Daily Valuehigh, 20% or moreThe FDA's label words. Calcium, potassium, iron and vitamins A and C feed the Nutrients meter.
- Energy92420 calof 330 to 830
- Processing8080% whole food70% or more
- Muscle9035 g proteinof 30 to 40 g
- Hunger918.3 g fiber, 2.4 cal a gramof 5.9 g fiber, 1.5 cal a gram
- Nutrients961.5 cups of fruit and greensof 1.7 cups
- Glucose1000 g fast carbsabout 15 g or less
Nothing to change. This glass clears all six meters, so keep it.
Open it in the builder to change anything.
Your line is a floor, not a ceiling. Bigger shakes aren't wasted: in a 2023 study, 100 g of protein after a workout kept muscle building going for over 12 hours (Trommelen 2023).
What your number means
Your meal line is the protein one glass needs to count as a meal: about 30 g at 165 lb. Reach it and the glass holds you until lunch and does its share for your muscles. Land under it and the glass works more like a snack, which is why most fruit smoothies are gone by ten. Going over is fine. The line is a floor, and the high end of the typical range (1.6 g per kg a day) is a third more. If you make this shake every morning, set the scoop once from the table below and stop measuring.
The meal line
Line = your weight in kg × 0.4, rounded to the nearest 5 g. If you have more than a fifth of your weight to lose, it's counted from your goal plus a fifth of today's weight, the same rule protein.guide, meals.guide and bodyfat.guide use. 0.4 g per kg is the low end of the 2025 to 2030 US guidelines (1.2 g per kg a day) split over three meals, and the amount a 2018 review put at each meal.
| Weight | Meal line | Scoop in the Ultimate | Protein in the glass |
|---|---|---|---|
| 140 lb | 25 g | Half | 29 g |
| 165 lb | 30 g | Three quarters | 35 g |
| 180 lb | 35 g | Three quarters | 35 g |
| 220 lb | 40 g | One | 41 g |
| 240 lb | 45 g | One and a quarter | 48 g |
These are typical numbers, to see if you're low. The Gyroscope app personalizes yours.
The Ultimate, as printed
1 cup 2% milk, 1 scoop of whey (32 g), half a frozen banana, 1 tbsp peanut butter, 1 tbsp cocoa, 1 tbsp ground flax, 2 cups of spinach and ice. About 448 calories, 41 g of protein, 9 g of fiber and 22 g of sugar, none of it added. The milk, peanut butter, flax, cocoa, banana and spinach already carry about 16 g, so one full scoop covers the line up to about 230 lb, and the calculator trims the powder for anyone lighter. The spinach is there for the Nutrients and Hunger meters: without it the shake grades a B, with it an A.
Protein to add is your line minus what the rest of the glass carries, in the smallest step that gets within 1 g of the line: a quarter scoop, an ounce of Greek yogurt, or a quarter cup of cottage cheese or tofu. Scoops differ by brand, so go by the grams on your label.
4 sources
- US Department of Agriculture and US Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025 to 2030. January 2026cdn.realfood.gov
- Schoenfeld BJ, Aragon AA. How much protein can the body use in a single meal for muscle-building? Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2018pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Trommelen J, et al. The anabolic response to protein ingestion during recovery from exercise has no upper limit in magnitude and duration in vivo in humans. Cell Reports Medicine, 2023pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy: milk 2% (171267), whey protein powder (173180), banana (173944), peanut butter (172470), cocoa (169593), flaxseed (169414), spinach (168462), read on nutritionvalue.orgnutritionvalue.org
