Protein is both a vital nutrient you consume and an essential component of your body's structure and function that acts as the crucial building blocks found in every cell, tissue, and organ in your body.

When we talk about protein in our diet, we're referring to the macronutrient found in foods like meat, eggs, dairy, legumes, and certain plants. These dietary proteins are broken down during digestion into amino acids, which your body then reassembles into thousands of different proteins that serve crucial roles throughout your body.

One way to look at it is that the protein you eat provides the raw materials your body needs to create its own proteins that handle everything from building and repairing tissues to supporting immune function, regulating hormones, and much more. 

After water, protein is the most abundant substance in your body! Your body is made up almost entirely of protein. That is exactly why adequate protein intake is so essential for overall health and well-being.

Different Types of Protein in Your Body

When most people think of types of protein, their mind goes to things like lean meats or protein powders like whey, isolate, and casein. 

Those are the types of protein you eat, and they each have slightly different structures and benefits. We'll talk more about that further down when we provide you with a list of the best protein-rich foods to include in your diet.

But for the purpose of this blog, we're also talking about the different types of protein in your body—which rely on the protein you eat to function properly and maintain your health.

Proteins in your body are classified based on their function and structure, and they play a wide range of roles, from building and repairing tissues to supporting your immune system and regulating hormones.

Here's a quick look at the primary types of proteins your body uses to keep you strong and healthy. It's important to note that these classifications aren't always exclusive—some proteins may perform multiple functions. 

1. Structural Proteins

Structural proteins form the framework of your body's tissues and organs. Collagen is the most abundant structural protein, making up about 30% of all protein in your body. It provides strength and elasticity to your skin, bones, tendons, and ligaments.

Elastin, another structural protein, allows tissues to stretch and return to their original shape, which is crucial for skin elasticity and blood vessel function. Keratin, found in hair, skin, and nails, is another structural protein that provides strength and protection.

2. Enzymes

Enzymes are specialized proteins that act as biological catalysts, speeding up chemical reactions in your body without being consumed in the process.

From digestive enzymes breaking down food to enzymes involved in DNA replication, these proteins are essential for nearly all cellular processes. Without enzymes, basic bodily functions would occur too slowly to sustain life.

3. Hormones

Not all hormones are protein-based—some, like estrogen and testosterone, are derived from lipids. However, many essential hormones are made of protein, including insulin, which regulates blood sugar, and growth hormone, which supports growth and cell reproduction.

These protein-based hormones play a critical role in maintaining balance and coordinating processes throughout your body.

4. Transport Proteins

Transport proteins carry essential substances throughout your body.

Hemoglobin, found in red blood cells, transports oxygen from your lungs to tissues. Albumin carries fatty acids and hormones through the bloodstream, while transferrin transports iron. 

Without these proteins, vital nutrients and compounds couldn't reach their destinations.

Lipoproteins (like HDL and LDL) also fall under transport proteins, carrying lipids through the bloodstream.

5. Antibodies (Immunoglobulins)

Antibodies are defensive proteins produced by your immune system. These Y-shaped proteins recognize and bind to specific foreign substances like bacteria and viruses, marking them for destruction.

Each antibody is designed to target a specific threat, creating a sophisticated defense system protecting you from illness.

6. Contractile Proteins

Contractile proteins enable movement in your body. They convert chemical energy into mechanical work, making all physical activity possible.

For example, actin and myosin work together in muscle cells to create contraction, allowing for everything from blinking your eyes to running a marathon.

7. Storage Proteins

Storage proteins serve as reservoirs for essential amino acids and other nutrients and help maintain consistent nutrient levels between meals.

One example is ferritin, which stores iron safely in your cells. Another is casein, which is a slow-release source of amino acids.

8. Receptor Proteins

Receptor proteins sit on cell membranes, detecting and responding to external signals. They act like cellular antennas, allowing cells to communicate with their environment and with each other. 

When specific molecules bind to these receptors, they trigger cellular responses essential for maintaining homeostasis.

Benefits of Getting Enough Protein in Your Diet

Protein is an essential macronutrient that impacts virtually every system in your body. While many people associate protein primarily with bodybuilders and athletes, adequate protein intake is necessary for everyone, regardless of age, gender, or fitness level.

Here's why ensuring you get enough protein daily matters for your overall health and well-being.

Muscle Growth and Maintenance

Protein provides the building blocks essential for muscle development, repair, and preservation. When you consume protein, your body breaks it down into amino acids that are then used to rebuild and strengthen muscle tissue.

This process is especially important after exercise when your muscles experience microscopic damage and need protein to recover and grow stronger.

But even if you rarely step foot in a gym, getting enough protein is still essential to prevent muscle loss and maintain overall strength, especially with age.

As we age, maintaining muscle mass becomes even more critical. After 30, the body naturally begins to lose muscle through a process called sarcopenia. Adequate protein intake, particularly when combined with resistance training, can significantly slow this age-related decline, helping preserve functional strength, mobility, and overall quality of life.

Enhanced Immune Function

There are a lot of excellent immune defense supplements with well-known immune boosters like vitamin C and zinc, but adequate protein intake is also needed for optimal immune support.

Your immune system relies heavily on protein to defend your body against pathogens. Studies show that inadequate protein intake can impair immune function, making you more susceptible to infections.

Antibodies—specialized proteins that identify and neutralize foreign invaders like bacteria and viruses—are essential for a strong immune response. Without enough dietary protein, your body may struggle to produce sufficient antibodies and other immune cells needed to maintain a robust defense.

By ensuring adequate protein intake, you help support your body's first line of defense and promote faster recovery when illness strikes.

Weight Management and Satiety

Protein plays a key role in weight management because it increases feelings of fullness and satisfaction after meals. Among all macronutrients, protein has the highest satiety value, helping you feel fuller for longer and potentially reducing overall calorie intake.

Additionally, protein has a higher thermic effect than carbohydrates and fats, meaning your body burns more calories digesting and metabolizing protein than it does with other nutrients. This might only be a slight metabolic advantage, but combined with protein's satiety effects, it shows how protein is a powerful tool for maintaining a healthy weight.

Research also indicates that higher-protein diets can help preserve lean muscle mass during weight loss, promoting more fat loss and less muscle loss compared to lower-protein diets.

Tissue Repair, Wound Healing, and Skin, Hair, and Nail Health

The visible parts of your body—skin, hair, and nails—depend heavily on specific proteins for their structure and appearance.

Keratin, a fibrous protein, forms the foundation of your hair and nails, while collagen and elastin provide strength, structure, and elasticity to your skin.

Without enough of these specific proteins, you may notice slower hair and nail growth, brittle nails, hair loss, or dull, slow-healing skin. Ensuring adequate protein intake supports these tissues' continual renewal and repair, helping maintain a healthier, more youthful appearance.

Protein also plays a key role in tissue repair and wound healing, providing the necessary amino acids to rebuild damaged skin and support recovery after injury or surgery.

Hormonal Balance, Blood Sugar Control, and Metabolic Health

Many hormones that regulate metabolism, growth, and mood are either proteins themselves or rely on proteins for their production and regulation. Insulin, growth hormone, and various neurotransmitters depend on amino acids derived from dietary protein.

Consistent protein intake supports hormonal balance, influencing everything from energy levels and sleep quality to stress response and reproductive health.

In addition, protein helps stabilize blood sugar by slowing glucose absorption, preventing energy crashes, and supporting consistent hormone function throughout the day. This steady blood sugar control not only boosts daily energy but also reduces the risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, contributing to long-term metabolic health.

If you are looking to improve hormone balance, eating enough protein is a great start. However, your body might need additional support. Many natural supplements can help you achieve optimal hormonal balance. This article is a great read if you want to learn more about the best supplements to balance hormones. 

Bone Health

While calcium and vitamin D often steal the spotlight for bone health, current research shows that adequate protein intake supports bone density and strength, playing an equally vital role in maintaining strong, healthy bones.

Protein provides the structural framework for bones, and getting enough may help reduce age-related bone loss and fracture risk—especially when paired with calcium, vitamin D, and regular weight-bearing exercise.

Cardiovascular Health

Higher-protein diets, particularly those emphasizing lean sources, can potentially support heart health in multiple ways.

Protein helps maintain healthy blood pressure by promoting better vascular function and supporting the balance of fluids and electrolytes. It may also reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol and improve overall lipid profiles, lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Adequate protein intake is also associated with better weight management and reduced inflammation—two key factors that contribute to long-term cardiovascular wellness.

Cognitive Function and Brain Health

Amino acids from dietary protein serve as precursors for neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, which influence mood, focus, and mental clarity. These neurotransmitters play critical roles in regulating emotions, motivation, and cognitive processes like memory and attention.

Consistent protein intake supports the production of these brain chemicals, which may enhance cognitive performance, improve stress resilience, and promote better emotional balance. 

Adequate protein also helps maintain brain structure and function as you age, potentially reducing the risk of neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer's and age-related cognitive decline.

If brain health is a top concern for you, you might also want to consider supplementing with a product that contains clinically studied ingredients designed to support mental energy, focus, and cognitive resilience. Here is a breakdown of Brain+, our top-pick cognitive support supplement.

How Much Protein Do You Really Need?

Ensuring adequate, high-quality protein intake through diet (and supplements when necessary) provides your body with the resources it needs to function optimally.

Which brings us to a frequently asked question: What is adequate? Is there really a magic number of grams of protein I need to hit every day to maintain health, build muscle, and support all those vital functions we've discussed?

Honestly, it depends on who you ask. It also depends on your sex, age, health, weight and height, activity level, fitness goals, and even your body composition.

How much protein you need is individual. Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bases its recommendations on individual needs, saying you should aim to get 10 to 25 percent of your daily calorie needs from proteins. 

Everybody is different, but here are some general guidelines to help you determine how much protein your body needs:

The Baseline Protein Recommendation

The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for protein is extremely low, sitting at 0.36 grams per pound of body weight per day for healthy adults.

To give you an idea of how little protein that is, it translates to about 56 grams daily for the average sedentary man and 46 grams daily for the average sedentary woman.

Two things to note here…

First, 0.36 grams of protein per pound of body weight would be the absolute bare minimum needed to prevent deficiency rather than the optimal amount for health. 

Second is the word sedentary. This modest suggested protein intake number only applies to those who spend the majority of the day sitting or lying down, don't exercise, or have much of any other significant physical movement in their daily life. While this is an easy trap to fall into, most people live at least a slightly above-sedentary lifestyle. 

A Better Daily Protein Recommendation

So, should you follow the above RDA guidelines? In our opinion, and the opinion of most nutritionists and health experts—no. Your body most likely needs much more protein than 0.36 grams per pound of body weight to survive, let alone thrive. 

Why? Again, that modest number is how much protein you need to simply not become deficient in protein. The RDA isn't designed to reflect the ideal amount of protein for optimal health. Instead, it represents the minimum intake required to prevent malnutrition.

A better general recommendation would be a minimum of 0.7 to 1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight. This is the range that the best research recommends for an average person.

As an example, for a 150-pound person, that would translate to 105–180 grams of protein per day. For someone who weighs 200 pounds, that's about 140–240 grams daily.

Scenarios Where More Protein is Recommended

There are groups of people and life phases where you might need even more protein to support specific physiological demands and maintain optimal health.

Active Individuals

If you are active, your protein needs will likely increase beyond baseline requirements to support muscle recovery and growth.

Recommendations from numerous leading professional organizations, like the American College of Sports Medicine and the International Society of Sports Nutrition, suggest that active individuals consume 1.4–2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day.

Emerging research indicates that athletes may benefit from aiming for the higher end of these ranges. In some cases, exceeding these recommendations might be even more beneficial, depending on individual goals and training demands.

If you are active, you likely need more protein than the average person. Additionally, there are other supplements you might want to consider for optimal performance. To learn more, read “Enhancing Athletic Performance with Supplements.”

Older Adults

Studies suggest that older adults (over 65) may benefit from higher protein intake as well. That's because, as we age, our bodies become less efficient at processing protein, a condition known as "anabolic resistance."

Essentially, eating 20 grams of protein when you're younger creates a stronger muscle protein synthesis (MPS) response (the process by which your body repairs and builds muscle tissue after consuming protein). Whereas, when you're older, that same 20 grams of protein produces a weaker MPS response, meaning that older adults require more protein to achieve the same muscle-building effect.

As you age, it is suggested that you increase protein intake to between a minimum of 1.2 and 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day to maintain and increase muscle mass in most older adults. Protein intake should be combined with resistance training to maximize muscle retention and strength.

Other Life Stages and Situations

There are also certain life stages and health conditions that could affect your protein requirements. One of the biggest is if you are trying to build muscle.

When building muscle, your body requires a consistent supply of amino acids to repair and grow muscle tissue, which makes a higher protein intake essential for maximizing gains and preventing muscle breakdown.

Some other examples include pregnancy and breastfeeding, where increased protein supports fetal development and milk production; recovering from an injury or surgery, as protein plays a critical role in tissue repair and immune function; and even during a weight loss phase, where adequate protein intake helps preserve lean muscle mass while promoting fat loss.

Remember: Protein Recommendations Are Not Hard Rules

These are guidelines, not set rules. The "right" amount of protein is the amount that helps you feel your best while supporting your health goals.

There are protein intake calculators and tracking macro guides you can find online that might give you a better idea of your protein needs, but the key is to pay attention to how your body responds to different levels of protein intake and adjust accordingly.

Also, be on the lookout for signs that you might need more protein. Consider increasing your protein intake if you experience:

• Unusual fatigue or weakness

• Slow recovery from workouts

• Frequent hunger between meals

• Brittle nails or hair loss

• Slow wound healing

Consulting with a registered dietitian or other nutrition expert is the best way to determine the optimal protein intake for your specific needs, especially if you have health concerns or specific fitness goals.

The Best Protein-Rich Foods to Include in Your Diet 

Hitting your daily protein goals is important, but to get the most out of your protein-rich foods, you need to consider the type and source — not just the amount.

Remember how we talked about how your body is made up of numerous types of proteins? This diversity is why it's important to include a variety of protein types and sources in your diet to ensure that each type of protein in your body gets what it needs to support its specific roles.

For example, structural proteins like collagen rely on amino acids such as glycine and proline to maintain skin elasticity and joint health, while enzymes and antibodies require a different set of amino acids to support digestion and immune function.

To meet these diverse needs, you should primarily focus on complete proteins. However, incomplete proteins still play a role in your diet, especially when combined to create a full amino acid profile.

Here's a closer look at both types and how to make sure you're getting the right balance:

Complete Proteins 

Protein consists of 20 amino acids, with 11 of them naturally produced by the human body. You don't need to worry about getting them from diet or supplements.

However, to maintain good health, we must obtain the remaining nine amino acids, known as essential amino acids, from our diet and supplements. A food or supplement is only considered a complete protein if it has all nine essential amino acids that the body can't produce on its own.

Complete protein sources include animal products like:

• Beef

• Poultry

• Fish

• Eggs

• Dairy

• Whole sources of soy (tofu, edamame, tempeh, and miso)

• Protein powder (whey, whey isolate, casein, and soy) 

 One quick note on protein powders. Whey and whey isolate protein are particularly unique because it is highly bioavailable, quickly digested, and rich in essential amino acids, especially leucine, which is known to trigger or "turn on" muscle protein synthesis. That is why you see so many gym-goers and athletes swear by protein powder. 

Speaking of digestion, there are times when your body might require easy-to-digest foods. Complete proteins like lean meat are generally extremely easy on the stomach.  If you want to learn more about other easy-to-digest foods (and foods that aren't so easy to digest)--check out this article, 

Incomplete Proteins

Incomplete proteins lack one or more of the nine essential amino acids. This doesn't make them bad; they still bring nutritional value. It simply means that, individually, these foods don't contain all nine essential amino acids. 

Incomplete proteins include things like:

• Legumes (beans, peas, lentils)

• Nuts

• Seeds

• Whole grains

• Vegetables

• Most single-source plant-based protein powders  

A quick note about plant-based protein powder. If you are relying on this type of supplement to help meet your protein intake needs, choose products that are fortified with essential amino acids or combine different plant-based protein sources to ensure you are getting a complete protein intake. 

Collagen: An Incomplete Protein With Standout Benefits

Collagen protein is also considered an incomplete protein, but only because it lacks the essential amino acid tryptophan, which is one of the nine essential amino acids the body needs but cannot produce on its own.

This type of protein deserves special recognition because it stands out from other incomplete proteins due to its unique benefits. It even has advantages that go beyond traditional complete protein sources, making it a valuable addition to your list of protein sources.

Collagen is rich in glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline—amino acids that are vital for supporting skin elasticity, joint health, and connective tissue repair. Unlike other proteins that primarily focus on muscle growth and maintenance, collagen provides targeted support for maintaining healthy skin, strong joints, and a resilient body.

Every adult, especially those over 30, should consider taking a high-quality collagen supplement like Revive CollaPure. Doing so will not only help you hit your daily protein intake target, but it also provides a unique type of protein that delivers benefits other protein sources can't match.

Why Choose CollaPure for Your Collagen Supplementation?

There are a lot of collagen products on the market. Some are worth your money, but most are not due to factors like source, processing, and bioavailability.

CollaPure is a premium collagen supplement that goes above and beyond to deliver noticeable results. It's 100% grass-fed, sourced from pasture-raised cows, and lab-tested to ensure purity. 

Free from fillers and made with natural ingredients, CollaPure is also hydrolyzed for better absorption, allowing your body to easily access the key amino acids needed for maximum benefits.

Each serving provides 12 grams of hydrolyzed bovine collagen peptides from both Type I and Type III collagen for a broader range of health benefits, including:

• Youthful Skin & Fewer Wrinkles

• Joint Pain Relief & Better Mobility

• Strong Bones & Reduced Risk

• Healthy Gut & Improved Digestion

By incorporating CollaPure into your daily routine as one of your protein sources, you're not only helping meet your protein goals, but you're also giving your body a specific type of protein it needs to thrive from the inside out.

Is Timing Your Protein Intake Important?

Some research shows that distributing protein intake evenly throughout the day, rather than consuming most of it at one meal, may optimize muscle protein synthesis (MPS) and support better overall muscle health.

For example, protein-feeding studies suggest that consuming 20-40 grams of protein per meal maximizes the MPS response in most young adults. For older adults who are less sensitive to the anabolic effects of protein ingestion, this range increases to 30-50 grams per meal to achieve similar benefits.

So, yes, it's ideal to aim for a full serving of a complete protein at every meal and to balance any snacks you have throughout the day with a source of protein (ex: pairing Greek yogurt with fruit or adding collagen to your morning coffee).

However, the exact timing, like eating protein every three hours or immediately after a workout, probably isn't as necessary unless you're an athlete, bodybuilder, or someone with concrete performance goals.

Whatever timing strategy works best for your lifestyle, just make sure you include a serving of protein with each meal and consume enough total protein each day to support muscle maintenance, recovery, and overall health.

Conclusion 

Most people think of protein primarily as a building block for muscle growth. While that’s one of its key roles, protein is essential for nearly every system in your body.

From maintaining strength and supporting immune defense to promoting skin, bone, heart, and brain health—and even aiding in weight management—adequate protein intake plays a critical role in overall wellness.

Regardless of age, fitness level, or health goals, making sure you get enough protein (including incomplete but valuable sources like collagen peptides) can help you maintain vitality, slow age-related decline, and enhance your quality of life.