Protein for team-sport athletes
Team sport — soccer, hockey, basketball, rugby
Across athletes the published range is 1.2 to 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. This page uses 1.6 g/kg for intermittent, high-intensity sports — soccer, hockey, basketball, rugby — which sits in the middle of that range and reflects the repeated-sprint and contact load those sports carry.
Your number
About 112 g of protein a day.
1.6 g per kg of body weight. A starting point for a typical training week, not a prescription — a hard week runs higher and a rest day runs lower.
Why this differs from the ordinary recommendation
Team sports are not steady-state work. Repeated accelerations, decelerations and collisions do more mechanical damage to muscle than continuous running at the same average intensity.
The requirement is about repair and adaptation between sessions, which is why it is a daily target rather than something to think about only after a match.
Spreading intake across the day is more useful than hitting the number in one sitting — the target is a daily total, but the body rebuilds continuously.
Figures from the American College of Sports Medicine, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and Dietitians of Canada — joint position stand, Nutrition and Athletic Performance (2016). Ranges are given at the conservative end — see the note on each number above.
Where this stops being useful
More protein is not indefinitely better, and going far above this range mostly displaces the carbohydrate that fuels the next session. Anyone with kidney disease should take protein targets from their doctor rather than from a general guideline.
Healthy Squirrel gives nutrition estimates, not medical advice.
Foods highest in protein (per 100 g)
| Food | per 100 g | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|
| Mollusks, whelk, unspecified, cooked, moist heat | 48 g | 95% |
| Cheese, parmesan, low sodium | 42 g | 83% |
| Pork, cured, bacon, cooked, microwaved | 39 g | 78% |
| Soybeans, mature seeds, roasted, salted | 39 g | 77% |
| Veal, leg (top round), separable lean only, cooked, braised | 37 g | 73% |
| Lupins, mature seeds, raw | 36 g | 72% |
| Beef, round, top round, separable lean only, trimmed to 0" fat, choice, cooked, braised | 36 g | 72% |
| Veal, shoulder, arm, separable lean only, cooked, braised | 36 g | 71% |
| Lamb, shoulder, arm, separable lean only, trimmed to 1/4" fat, choice, cooked, braised | 36 g | 71% |
| Veal, cubed for stew (leg and shoulder), separable lean only, cooked, braised | 35 g | 70% |
| Beef, chuck, arm pot roast, separable lean only, trimmed to 1/8" fat, choice, cooked, braised | 35 g | 69% |
| Veal, rib, separable lean only, cooked, braised | 34 g | 69% |
Per 100 g from USDA FoodData Central, whole foods, highest first. In the app every amount scales to the serving you actually log.
More detail on this nutrient: foods highest in protein.
Track it without doing the arithmetic
Healthy Squirrel has a team sport training mode that sets these targets from your body weight, then fills them in as you log food — alongside every other vitamin and mineral. It's free, there's no account needed to start, and nothing is sold.
Open Healthy Squirrel, then choose Team sport under Training in Settings.
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