Tracked as a goal
Protein tracking
- Unit
- g
- Default goal
- 140 g
- Direction
- Reach
What it is, and why people track it
Protein supplies the amino acids used to build and repair tissue, and it is the macronutrient most associated with satiety at a given calorie count, which is why it is the number most people are actually chasing when they start tracking.
Requirements rise with training volume, with age, and during recovery. They are also the easiest macro to miss on a plant-based diet without noticing, because the shortfall is spread thinly across the day rather than concentrated in one obvious meal.
Setting your number
AIM starts at 140 g a day. The 2025–2030 US guidelines raised the recommendation to 0.54–0.73 g per pound of body weight, roughly 1.2–1.6 g per kg, up from the old 0.36 g per pound RDA. People training for strength or protecting muscle in a deficit go higher still, to about 2.2 g per kg. Set your own from your weight rather than taking the default.
How good is the estimate?
Good. Protein tracks closely with the identity and portion of the main item, both of which an image shows well. The common error is a sauce or marinade adding calories without protein, worth a correction if it matters to you.
Questions
- How much protein do I need a day?
- The 2025–2030 US guidelines give 0.54–0.73 g per pound of body weight, about 1.2–1.6 g per kg, roughly double the old RDA. Add more, up to about 2.2 g per kg, if you are training for strength, eating in a deficit, over 60, or on a GLP-1 medication. AIM's 140 g default is a placeholder; set yours from your own weight.
- Can I ask how much protein I have left today?
- Yes. Ask in the chat and AIM answers from today's log without writing anything to it.
Also in this group
Carbs
Carbohydrate, broken out per ingredient, with fiber and sugar tracked separately so “carbs” does not have to mean three different things at once.
Fat
Total fat per meal, with saturated fat tracked separately as a cap, because they are two different questions and one number cannot answer both.
Fiber
Fiber is the nutrient most people are short on and least likely to have a field for. In AIM it is a standard metric with its own goal and its own color on every chart.
Sugar
Sugar is a cap in AIM, not a goal, a number to stay under, with a warning at the meal that takes you past it rather than a bar that keeps cheerfully filling.
Track protein without a database search
AIM estimates it on every meal from a photo or a sentence, and lets you correct anything it got wrong just by saying so.