Should You Eat More Protein as You Age?

Eating more protein has become one of the most repeated pieces of aging advice. Humanic Blue is asking whether you should eat more protein as you age, and the answer is that age alone cannot settle it. Your current intake, activity, appetite, illness, food sources and kidney health all matter.

Low intake, appetite loss, training, illness and recovery are different reasons protein enters the discussion. The 2013 PROT-AGE geriatric expert group recommends 1.0–1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight per day after 65 and more during many illnesses, while the 2025–2030 US Dietary Guidelines use a general target of 1.2–1.6 g/kg/day. A 2025 overview of earlier research reviews found no clear overall supplement benefit in healthy older groups, but did not analyze their usual diets; healthy cannot be assumed to mean well-nourished. Observational evidence generally favors plant sources, but it cannot prove that changing protein source extends life. Current kidney guidance recommends about 0.8 g/kg/day for many adults with moderate-to-advanced chronic kidney disease and cautions against high intake. For living longer and better, the useful question is not whether everyone should eat more with each birthday, but whether your present intake fits your health and goals.

What do the official protein numbers say?

• National Academies Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA), healthy adults: 0.8 g/kg/day, intended to meet the needs of nearly all healthy adults. It was derived largely from studies of nitrogen balance, a way to estimate protein needs from nitrogen entering and leaving the body.
• 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans: 1.2–1.6 g/kg/day as a general federal policy target.
• PROT-AGE expert consensus, over 65: 1.0–1.2 g/kg/day when generally healthy and 1.2–1.5 g/kg/day during many acute or chronic illnesses.

These numbers come from different authorities and methods; none is an individualized prescription. What they mean in grams is covered in Protein Needs After 40.

In midlife: muscle and mortality ask different questions

This is where the evidence is least settled. A 2014 University of Southern California study of US adults aged 50 and older found that people aged 50 to 65 who got 20% or more of their calories from protein had higher mortality, but the association weakened or disappeared for plant protein. The study relied on a single day’s diet record and couldn’t show cause and effect. Its details and limits are in Protein Needs After 40.

Protein supplements can add a small benefit during resistance training, but the often-cited 1.6 g/kg/day breakpoint is a statistical estimate across trials with a wide range of uncertainty, not a hard ceiling. Short-term single-meal studies compared men averaging 22 and 71; they do not establish that needs begin rising at 50. Those limits are covered in Protein Needs After 50.

Does the case for more get stronger after 65?

The same USC analysis reported the opposite association after 65, but that subgroup finding came from the same single-day dietary recall and observational design. It does not prove that high protein protects older adults or that the true relationship changes direction at 65. The PROT-AGE group separately recommended higher intake to support function and recovery; that is expert consensus, not a mortality trial.

A 2025 overview of 33 meta-analyses found no overall muscle, strength or performance benefit from protein supplements in healthy older groups, while reporting small benefits in groups with long-term conditions. Most of the included reviews were rated critically low quality, so even that distinction remains less secure than a slogan suggests. The overview did not analyze habitual diet and cannot identify an adequate-intake subgroup. How it plays out by situation is covered in Protein Needs After 60.

What would establish whether an age-related difference in protein associations reflects a treatment benefit?

After 70: making sure it’s enough

During illness and hospitalization, eating too little can become the urgent problem. A 2026 Cochrane analysis found low-certainty evidence that oral nutrition formulas may reduce 30-day mortality in hospitalized adults aged 65 or older at nutritional risk; evidence for added protein alone was very uncertain. The EFFORT trial also reduced short-term adverse outcomes with individualized calorie, protein and micronutrient care. These are nutrition-support findings, not evidence that all adults over 70 should add protein. Details are covered in Protein Needs After 70.

At every age: where the protein comes from

A 2020 BMJ analysis combined results from studies following people’s diets over time. Higher total protein was associated with a small reduction in all-cause mortality. Higher plant protein was associated with lower all-cause and cardiovascular mortality; each additional three percentage points of the daily calorie share from plant protein was associated with about 5% lower all-cause mortality. This means a change in the share of all daily calories, not 3% more than someone’s existing protein intake. Animal protein was not clearly associated with cardiovascular or cancer mortality.

A 2026 meta-analysis of nine cohorts with more than a million participants estimated 9% lower mortality when plant protein statistically replaced animal protein representing 3% to 5% of all daily calories. This was a modeled substitution, not an observed effect of a food swap. Both analyses are observational. Specific food sources are compared in Best Protein Sources for Healthy Aging.

How does considering protein sources change a discussion focused only on grams?

What changes if you have kidney disease?

The 2024 Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) guideline suggests 0.8 g/kg/day for adults with CKD G3–G5 and advises those at risk of progression to avoid more than 1.3 g/kg/day. It also guards against low-protein diets in people whose metabolism is unstable during illness and weighs the risks of malnutrition and age-related muscle loss. Dialysis can raise protein needs. Anyone with known kidney disease should get an individualized target.