Should women in midlife be eating less protein?

A couple of days ago, I came across a TIME article with a headline that immediately caught my attention: “Could Eating Less Protein Help You Age Better and Live Longer?”

I have spent years encouraging women in midlife to eat enough protein. Protein supports repair, immune function and many of the everyday processes that keep the body working. It also helps us hold on to muscle, something that becomes increasingly important as we get older. So when new research appears to contradict what we thought we knew, I want to understand why.

I found the paper behind the headline and read it. It was a thick read, covering everything from human

metabolism to the lifespan of mice, worms and yeast.

I was looking for the answer to one practical question:

Does any of this change what a woman in midlife should eat?

I expected to find an argument for eating less protein. What I found was much more specific.

What the researchers were really asking

This was not a new experiment in which people ate less protein and lived longer. It was a review of about 350 earlier studies.¹ Most of the lifespan research came from mice, worms, flies and yeast. The few human studies were short and looked at changes in metabolism, not lifespan.^2,3

The researchers were exploring an idea: could reducing protein, or certain amino acids within protein, slow some of the processes involved in aging?

Amino acids are the smaller parts that make up protein. We use them to build muscle and other tissues, but they also send messages inside the body.

When amino acids are plentiful, a pathway called mTORC1 helps the body grow and build. That is necessary for muscle. When protein or particular amino acids are reduced, a hormone called FGF21 may rise, changing how the body uses glucose, fat and energy. In some animal studies, these responses improved metabolic health and sometimes extended life.¹

The question the paper cannot answer

At this point, I wanted to know what “less protein” actually meant. How much were the researchers suggesting we eat?

The review does not give us a number. The human evidence is also a poor match for the women reading this article. One study included lean men, while another specifically excluded women in perimenopause or with irregular menstrual cycles.^2,3 Both lasted only a few weeks and measured metabolic changes, not aging or lifespan.

That leaves us with an interesting line of research, but not a recommendation for women in midlife. The review does not show that women in midlife would improve their health or longevity by eating less protein. It also does not tell us what amount might provide metabolic benefits while still supporting muscle.

So how much protein are we actually talking about?

The well-established protein RDA, or Recommended Dietary Allowance, is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. For a woman who weighs 150 pounds, that works out to about 54 grams of protein.

You can think of the RDA as the body’s general operating budget. It is intended to meet the needs of nearly all healthy adults, but it is not personalized for preserving muscle through menopause, losing weight, recovering from illness or training regularly.

The current US dietary guidelines recommend 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram.⁴ For that same 150-pound woman, this would be approximately 82 to 109 grams per day. This is also the middle ground I recommend in The Clear Head Plan, adjusted for the individual.

Women who train regularly may need more. The International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends a broader range of 1.4 to 2.2 grams per kilogram for female athletes, depending on their training, goals and energy intake.⁵

This is why a protein headline cannot be applied to everyone. A mouse eating specially formulated laboratory food is not easily compared with a 52-year-old woman trying to preserve muscle through menopause.

Have we become a little too obsessed with protein?

The TIME article turned this research into a fairly simple question: might we live longer if we ate less protein? The review itself is nowhere near that decisive. It does not tell us how much is too much or what the ideal amount might be.

Still, the headline landed at the perfect moment. We are currently putting protein into everything. Cereal, chips, cookies, coffee and even water, which was apparently not doing enough already. There is now a name for trying to squeeze the highest possible protein number into the day: proteinmaxxing.

I understand how we got here. Protein matters, and many women in midlife would benefit from being more intentional about it. But somewhere along the way, “make sure you eat enough” became “see how much you can possibly fit in.”

Perhaps that is the useful takeaway. The review does not give women a reason to start cutting protein. It does give us a reason to step away from the protein scoreboard. Once our needs are met, a higher number is not automatically better.

A better question to ask

The protein conversation is usually framed as “more or less?” But I think the more useful question is:

Enough for what?

Enough to meet basic needs? Enough to preserve muscle while losing weight? Enough to recover from strength training? Enough for a woman whose appetite has dropped or whose total food intake is low?

Those are different situations, and they will not all produce the same answer. For most women in midlife, the practical priorities remain straightforward: eat an appropriate amount of protein across your meals, strength train so your muscles have a reason to use it, and look at the quality of your whole diet rather than chasing one nutrient as high as it can go.

There is clearly more to learn about protein, amino acids and aging. But this review does not change what I would recommend to women in midlife, and it gives us no new protein number to aim for.

For now, I remain comfortable with the middle ground: enough protein to support strength, muscle and the demands we place on our bodies, adjusted for the individual.

The goal is not to eat the most protein. It is to eat the right amount for the woman eating it.

References

1. Knopf, Bailey A, and Dudley W Lamming. “The hallmarks of protein and amino acid restriction in aging and longevity.” Cell press blue vol. 1,5 (2026): 100079. doi:10.1016/j.cpblue.2026.100079 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42639474/ 

   
   

2. Nicolaisen, T.S., Lyster, A.E., Sjøberg, K.A. et al. Dietary protein restriction elevates FGF21 levels and energy requirements to maintain body weight in lean men. Nat Metab 7, 602–616 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-025-01236-7 https://www.nature.com/articles/s42255-025-01236-7 

   
   

3. Ferraz-Bannitz, Rafael et al. “Dietary Protein Restriction Improves Metabolic Dysfunction in Patients with Metabolic Syndrome in a Randomized, Controlled Trial.” Nutrients vol. 14,13 2670. 28 Jun. 2022, doi:10.3390/nu14132670 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9268415/

   
   

4. U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030. 2025 https://cdn.realfood.gov/DGA.pdf

   
   

5. Sims, Stacy T et al. “International society of sports nutrition position stand: nutritional concerns of the female athlete.” Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition vol. 20,1 (2023): 2204066. doi:10.1080/15502783.2023.2204066 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10210857/