High-Protein Meal Plan on a Budget with AI

The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans now recommend 1.2-1.6g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. That's 50-100% more than the old RDA of 0.8g/kg that had been unchanged for 70+ years.

A high-protein meal plan on a budget is possible because the cheapest protein sources on Earth are plant-based. Dried lentils cost roughly $0.01 per gram of protein. That's 8x cheaper than vegan protein powder and 5x cheaper than ground beef. AI meal planning can optimize every meal for protein-per-dollar using ingredients already in your kitchen.

For a 150-pound person, the old recommendation was about 54g of protein per day. The new guidelines say 82-109g. For a 180-pound person: 98-131g. (Not sure what your number is? Use our free macro calculator to get your personalized protein target.) Most Americans aren't eating anywhere close to those numbers across evenly distributed meals. Men average 97g per day (looks fine until you realize it's mostly piled into dinner). Women average 69g. Older adults drop to around 66g, right when they need protein most.

Meanwhile, grocery prices are up 29-32% since 2019. 47.4 million Americans live in food-insecure households. 23% of college students report food insecurity, more than double the national rate.

So the recommendation went up, prices went up, but nobody told people how to actually afford it. Here's how.

This is the part that changes how you think about protein.

The protein leverage hypothesis, developed by researchers Raubenheimer and Simpson at the University of Sydney, says humans prioritize protein intake over everything else. When protein is diluted in your diet, you keep eating fats and carbs until your body gets enough protein. You overeat everything else to compensate.

A controlled trial tested this directly. Reducing dietary protein from 15% to 10% of calories caused participants to eat 12% more total calories. The extra food came from savory snacks between meals. A 5-percentage-point drop in protein drove a 12% increase in total energy intake. Researchers calculated that this effect alone could drive an obesity epidemic.

This explains why ultra-processed foods are so effective at making people overeat. They dilute protein while packing in cheap fats and carbs. What the researchers call "protein decoys" (foods that smell savory and protein-rich but contain almost none) keep you reaching for more.

Protein also has the highest thermic effect of any macronutrient. Your body burns 20-30% of protein calories just digesting them, compared to 5-10% for carbs and 0-3% for fat. Eating 100 calories of lentils means your body uses 20-30 of those calories on digestion alone.

A meta-analysis of 37 RCTs found higher-protein diets resulted in 1.6 kg greater weight loss than lower-protein diets at the same calorie level. Not because protein is magic. Because protein keeps you full, costs more energy to digest, and stops the snacking cycle that low-protein diets trigger.

This is why eating more protein on a budget isn't just a fitness goal. It's a weight management strategy, a satiety strategy, and honestly, a spending strategy. People who eat enough protein snack less. People who snack less spend less on food.

The protein industry has convinced people that hitting protein targets requires expensive supplements, specialty foods, or premium ingredients. It doesn't.

Source	Cost per gram of protein	Protein per serving	Notes
Dried lentils	$0.009	12g per 1/2 cup cooked	Also 8g fiber
Dried black beans	$0.012	8g per 1/2 cup cooked	Complete with rice
Peanut butter	$0.017	8g per 2 tbsp	Calorie-dense
Tofu (firm)	$0.03-0.05	10g per 1/2 cup	PDCAAS near perfect
Canned chickpeas	$0.05-0.06	7g per 1/2 cup	Drain and rinse
Vegan protein powder	$0.069	25g per scoop	8x the cost of lentils
Tempeh	$0.10	16g per 1/2 cup	Fermented, great nutrition

Sources: Plant Based and Broke, VRG

A PCRM study in JAMA Network Open (2024) found that a low-fat plant-based diet reduced food costs by 19%, saving approximately $650+ per year. An Oxford study in The Lancet Planetary Health found plant-based diets are 21-34% cheaper than standard diets across high-income countries.

The protein powder market is worth $24.6 billion with retail margins of 30-50%. Dried lentils deliver protein at roughly 1/8th the cost. For most people eating enough calories from varied whole foods, protein powder is an unnecessary expense.

The rice-and-beans combination deserves special attention. Rice is low in lysine but high in methionine. Beans are the opposite. Together, they form a complete protein with all nine essential amino acids. A serving costs $0.30-0.50 for roughly 30g of protein. This isn't a hack. It's how billions of people around the world have eaten for thousands of years. Dal and rice in India. Black beans and rice in Brazil. Mujaddara in the Middle East. Waakye in West Africa.

And soy protein scores a perfect 1.00 on the PDCAAS scale, matching the highest-quality animal proteins. A meta-analysis of 9 clinical trials found no significant difference in muscle mass and strength gains between soy protein and whey protein supplementation. For the full breakdown of hitting 150g+ protein on a vegan diet, I wrote a complete guide.

For muscle building specifically, the math is even clearer. The ISSN recommends 1.4-2.0g/kg for muscle growth. You can hit that for well under $5 a day with whole plant foods.

Even people who eat "enough" total protein often eat it at the wrong times.

A typical American day looks something like: coffee and toast for breakfast (5g protein), a sandwich for lunch (15g), and a large dinner (50-60g). That's 70-80g total, but the distribution is terrible.

The Mamerow et al. study found that distributing protein evenly across three meals (~30g each) boosted 24-hour muscle protein synthesis by 25% compared to eating the same total protein skewed toward dinner (~11g/16g/63g). Same amount of food. Same total protein. Dramatically different results based solely on when you ate it.

The threshold matters too. Research shows that roughly 25-30g of protein per meal maximally stimulates muscle protein synthesis. Below that, you're leaving gains on the table. Above it, you get diminishing returns for that specific meal. Spreading 0.4g/kg across 4+ meals is the practical recommendation.

Hitting 30g of protein at breakfast on a budget isn't hard with plant foods:

• 1 cup cooked lentils (18g) + 2 slices whole grain toast (8g) + 2 tbsp peanut butter (8g) = 34g (cost: ~$1.00)
• 1 cup edamame (18g) + 1 cup quinoa (8g) + 2 tbsp hemp seeds (7g) = 33g (cost: ~$1.50)
• 1/2 block firm tofu scramble (20g) + 1 cup black beans (15g) = 35g (cost: ~$1.50)

The older you get, the more distribution matters. Older adults need a higher leucine threshold (3-4g per meal versus 2.5g for younger adults) to trigger the same muscle protein synthesis response. Skipping breakfast protein isn't an option when you're over 50 and trying to prevent muscle loss.

Knowing that lentils are cheap is step one. Turning lentils into meals you actually want to eat, seven days a week, while hitting 30g per meal across breakfast, lunch, and dinner, while using up what's in your kitchen before it goes bad, while not eating the same three things on repeat? That's where it falls apart for most people.

70% of nutrition app users quit within the first month. The top reasons: too time-consuming to track, too complex, decreasing motivation. Meanwhile, 38% of Americans say they don't have groceries on hand when they need them. The problem isn't knowing what to eat. It's consistently executing it.

A dedicated AI meal planner can handle the optimization humans can't:

• Maximize protein-per-dollar automatically. The AI builds meals around the cheapest protein sources in your pantry. Bag of lentils, canned chickpeas, frozen edamame, block of tofu. It spreads those across the week in varied meals so you don't eat the same thing every night.
• Distribute protein across meals. Instead of a protein-light breakfast and a protein-heavy dinner, the AI ensures ~30g at each meal. It doesn't forget that you ate a low-protein lunch and compensates at dinner.
• Reduce food waste. Meal planning cuts grocery spending by up to 25%. Americans waste $1,300-2,275 per year on uneaten food. The AI uses what you have before suggesting you buy more.
• No logging required. You don't scan barcodes or weigh portions. The AI knows what went into the meals it suggested and tracks protein automatically. That's why people stick with it instead of quitting in week 3.

Batch cooking is the other budget lever. A Sunday batch cook of 2 lbs dried lentils, 5 lbs rice, 2 lbs dried chickpeas, and seasonal vegetables costs about $15.50 total and yields 20+ meals at roughly $0.78 per meal. Compare that to eating out at $20.37 per meal on average. The AI can plan your batch cook, then build daily meals from those prepped ingredients all week.

MealThinker tracks your protein across meals, builds around what's in your kitchen, and handles the nightly dinner decision so you don't waste money ordering takeout because you couldn't figure out what to cook.

Try MealThinker free for 7 days. No credit card required.

How much protein do I need per day?

The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines recommend 1.2-1.6g of protein per kilogram of body weight, up from the old RDA of 0.8g/kg. For a 150-pound person, that's 82-109g per day. For a 180-pound person, 98-131g. The old recommendation of ~54g for a 150-pound person is now considered insufficient for optimal health, muscle maintenance, and satiety.

Is plant protein as good as animal protein?

For practical purposes, yes. Soy protein scores a perfect 1.00 on the PDCAAS scale. A meta-analysis of 9 clinical trials found no significant difference between soy and whey protein for muscle gains. A Harvard study of 131,000+ people over 32 years found that substituting plant protein for processed meat protein reduced mortality by 34%. Rice and beans together form a complete protein for $0.30-0.50 per serving.

Do I need protein powder?

No. The protein powder industry is worth $24.6 billion with 30-50% profit margins. Dried lentils deliver protein at roughly 1/8th the cost ($0.009/g vs $0.069/g). If you eat enough varied whole foods, you can hit your protein targets without supplements. Protein powder is a convenience product, not a necessity.

Does protein timing matter?

Yes. The Mamerow et al. study found that evenly distributing protein across meals (~30g each) increased muscle protein synthesis by 25% compared to eating the same total protein skewed toward dinner. Aim for 25-30g per meal across 3-4 meals rather than a low-protein breakfast and a protein-heavy dinner.

How can I eat high-protein on a tight budget?

Build meals around dried lentils ($0.009/g protein), dried beans ($0.012/g), peanut butter ($0.017/g), and tofu ($0.03-0.05/g). A PCRM study found plant-based eating saves $650+ per year. Rice and beans form a complete protein for $0.30-0.50 per serving. Batch cooking a week of meals from dried legumes and grains costs roughly $0.78 per meal. AI meal planners like MealThinker can optimize protein-per-dollar from ingredients already in your kitchen.