How This Protein Calculator Works
Protein recommendations should consider three related questions:
- How much protein do you need over the entire day?
- How much high-quality protein and leucine should a meal provide?
- How should protein be distributed around resistance training and recovery?
The TLC Precision Dosage Calculator combines these factors to estimate a practical daily protein range, a per-meal target and an appropriate serving of the selected TLC protein.
The Leucine Threshold
Leucine is an essential amino acid that helps initiate the cellular signalling involved in muscle protein synthesis. A meal therefore needs sufficient high-quality protein and leucine to produce a meaningful muscle-building response.
The “leucine threshold” is best understood as a practical target—not a perfect biological on/off switch or a strict ceiling. The response depends on age, activity, recent resistance training, protein quality, meal size and individual physiology.
Reaching the estimated target provides a strong signal for muscle protein synthesis. Protein consumed beyond that amount is not automatically wasted. Additional amino acids can remain available for longer, contribute to whole-body protein turnover and support tissues beyond skeletal muscle.
One controlled study found that 100 g of protein after resistance exercise produced a larger and more prolonged anabolic response than 25 g. However, this short-term study involved young, healthy men and does not establish that eating 100 g in one meal is the best long-term strategy. For most people, distributing protein across several practical meals remains a reasonable approach.
How We Personalize Your Results
- Product Selection
The calculator includes all six TLC protein products:
TLC PureProtein 80 Whey
- Double Cocoa
- Heritage Vanilla Bean Spice
- Unflavoured
TLC PurePlant Protein
- Double Cocoa
- Heritage Vanilla Bean Spice
- Unflavoured
Each product provides a different amount of protein and leucine per serving. The calculator uses the selected product’s actual composition when estimating the serving required.
2. Current Weight and Reference Dosing Weight
You enter your height and current weight. You do not need to know your BMI—the calculator determines it automatically.
Your current weight is used when your calculated BMI is 30 or below. Above BMI 30, the calculator uses the weight corresponding to BMI 30 for your height as a conservative reference dosing weight.
This adjustment is intended to reduce the possibility of substantially overstating protein requirements when total body weight includes a larger proportion of body fat. It is not an “ideal weight,” a diagnosis or a weight-loss target.
BMI cannot distinguish muscle from body fat. For that reason, the calculator provides a muscularity override:
“My BMI is elevated primarily because of muscularity—use my current weight.”
When a reference dosing weight is applied, the result clearly displays both the reference weight and the reason it was used. This BMI-30 approach is a practical dosing safeguard rather than a universally established clinical formula.
3. Daily Protein Target
Daily protein needs vary with age, activity, resistance training, health status and the presence of frailty, illness or rehabilitation.
The calculator distinguishes among:
- General health
- Resistance training and muscle gain
- Midlife
- Active older adults
- Sedentary or minimally active older adults
- Frailty or sarcopenia without acute catabolic illness
- Rehabilitation, illness or other catabolic conditions
For healthy adults performing resistance training, approximately 1.6 g/kg/day represents the best-estimate point at which additional protein produces little further improvement in training-related fat-free-mass gain. The upper value of approximately 2.2 g/kg/day reflects the upper confidence boundary and may provide a practical margin for some hard-training athletes or people dieting for fat loss. It should not be presented as a universal requirement.
Protein needs may be higher during aging, frailty, illness and rehabilitation because these conditions can increase anabolic resistance, muscle loss or catabolic stress. The calculator therefore separates frailty from rehabilitation or illness instead of placing everyone in one category.
4. Per-Meal Protein and Leucine Target
Muscle protein synthesis responds to protein meal by meal. The calculator uses the following practical leucine ranges:
- Age 39 and under: approximately 2.0 g per meal
- Age 40–59: approximately 2.2–2.5 g per meal
- Age 60 and over, active: approximately 2.5–2.8 g per meal
- Age 60 and over, sedentary or frail: approximately 2.8–3.0 g per meal
- Illness, rehabilitation or another catabolic state: approximately 3.0 g per meal
These are practical ranges rather than exact biological boundaries. The midlife range is an interpolation between evidence from younger and older adults; it should not be interpreted as a separately proven universal threshold for every person aged 40–59.
Older adults generally require a larger relative protein dose to maximize the muscle protein synthetic response. Resistance training improves the muscle’s responsiveness to amino acids, but it does not eliminate the importance of adequate daily protein and high-quality protein at meals.
Understanding Your Results
Daily Protein Target
This is your estimated daily range in grams per day. It is calculated by multiplying your dosing weight by the protein range associated with your selected age, activity and physiological category.
TLC Precision Dose
This is the amount of your selected TLC protein needed to help reach the estimated leucine and per-meal protein target.
Complete Your Meal With Food
Protein powder is intended to supplement a meal, not automatically replace it.
The calculator shows how many additional grams of protein from food may be needed after the TLC serving is counted toward your personalized meal target.
For example, if your meal target is 20–25 g and the calculated TLC serving provides approximately 21 g, the result may show that an additional 0–4 g of protein from food completes the target. Protein already present in the meal counts toward this amount.
Why Product and Flavour Matter
The six TLC products do not all contain identical amounts of protein and leucine per gram. Their serving sizes also differ.
Because leucine content is related to the quantity and quality of protein supplied, one product may require a slightly different serving than another to reach the same estimated target. The calculator makes this adjustment automatically.
Training and Rest Days
Resistance-training days:
Distribute your daily protein target across approximately three or four protein-containing meals. Aim to reach your personalized meal target at the main meals, including a protein-containing meal within a few hours before or after training.
Resistance exercise sensitizes muscle to amino acids and supports a greater muscle protein synthetic response. Protein distribution creates repeated opportunities to support recovery during this responsive period.
Rest days:
Keep approximately the same daily protein target because muscle repair and adaptation continue after the workout. Timing can be more flexible, and fewer meals can still work if the daily total is reached.
Meal-level protein and leucine ranges are practical targets—not rigid on/off switches or maximum amounts. Protein consumed above them is not automatically wasted.
How Protein Powder Fits In
Whole foods should remain the foundation of the diet whenever practical. Useful protein sources include meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, legumes, nuts and other protein-rich foods.
Protein powder is a convenient supplement when appetite, meal size, scheduling, travel, training or age-related eating difficulties make it hard to reach a suitable protein target using food alone.
This can be particularly useful for older adults, people with reduced appetite and individuals recovering from illness or injury who may struggle to consume a large volume of food.
The Big Picture
The calculator brings together four components:
- Daily sufficiency—meeting an appropriate daily protein range
- Meal quality—providing sufficient high-quality protein and leucine
- Practical completion—showing how the supplement and food can work together
- Training stimulus—using resistance exercise to support muscle maintenance and adaptation
No single number guarantees muscle gain. Protein intake works together with resistance training, adequate energy, recovery, sleep and overall health.
Medical Considerations
Higher targets shown for frailty, illness and rehabilitation are intentional because these conditions can increase muscle loss and protein needs.
The calculator does not assume that higher protein intake causes kidney disease in an otherwise healthy person with normal kidney function. Diagnosed kidney disease can change the recommendation, particularly severe kidney disease with an estimated glomerular filtration rate below 30 mL/min/1.73 m² in someone not receiving dialysis.
Anyone with kidney disease, a medically prescribed protein restriction or another significant medical condition should have their target individualized by a physician or registered dietitian.
This calculator is an educational tool. It does not diagnose disease or replace individualized medical or dietary advice.
Supporting Research
The scientific rationale, age-specific recommendations, methodological limitations and complete reference lists are provided in the research PDFs immediately below this section:
- Anabolic Resistance of Muscle Protein Turnover Comes in Various Shapes and Sizes
- Supplementary Table S1: Expanded Evidence Summary
Key supporting publications include:
- Morton RW et al. A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of protein supplementation and resistance-training-induced gains. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2018.
- Moore DR et al. Protein ingestion to stimulate myofibrillar protein synthesis requires greater relative protein intakes in healthy older versus younger men. Journals of Gerontology Series A. 2015.
- Bauer J et al. Evidence-based recommendations for optimal dietary protein intake in older people: a position paper from the PROT-AGE Study Group. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. 2013.
- 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. 2023.
