Are You Eating Enough Protein During Menopause?

You might be eating less than you used to, exercising more deliberately, and still wondering why your body seems to be changing. For women in their 40s and 50s, protein deserves a closer look.

New analysis from Australia’s CSIRO has put numbers around something that is easy to overlook: women aged 40–55 may be falling well short of an identified protein target during the years when many are navigating perimenopause and menopause. CSIRO’s analysis of the 2023–24 National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey found that dietary protein intake in this age group was around 35g below 1.2g/kg of body weight, with only about one in three women reaching that level.

It doesn’t mean every woman needs exactly 1.2g/kg, or that protein alone can prevent the weight changes associated with menopause. 

But it does raise a useful question: are you eating enough protein to support the body you want to keep strong through midlife?

Why Does Protein Matter More In Midlife?

Protein is more than a gym nutrient. Your body uses amino acids from protein to build and maintain muscle, along with other tissues and proteins involved in everyday functions. As we age, maintaining muscle becomes increasingly relevant because muscle mass and strength are closely tied to physical function and independence.

The menopause transition adds another layer to the conversation.

A recent review of menopause, female sex hormones and skeletal muscle found evidence of reductions in lean or muscle mass across the menopausal transition, although the authors also emphasised that high-quality evidence directly linking menopause itself to muscle loss remains limited. They also noted that the muscle-building response to protein and resistance exercise may be blunted in older women.

In other words, this isn't simply a story about hormones. It is a story about age, activity, nutrition, and changing physiology arriving at roughly the same time.

That makes preserving muscle worth thinking about long before it becomes an obvious problem.

How Much Protein Do Women Actually Need?

Australia's current Nutrient Reference Values list a recommended dietary intake of 46g of protein per day for women aged 19–70, based on 0.75g/kg of body weight. For women over 70, the RDI rises to 57g.

But the Australian reference intake is not necessarily the same thing as a target designed around an active woman trying to optimise muscle retention in midlife.

That's why the recent CSIRO analysis is interesting. It examined a higher intake of 1.2g/kg, and found that women aged 40–55 were, on average, about 35g short of that level. 

For a 70kg woman, 1.2g/kg works out to about 84g of protein per day. That is considerably more than 46g.

It also illustrates why a single protein number cannot work for everyone. Your body weight, age, activity, training, overall diet, and individual circumstances all matter.

And the broader research is not completely settled. A 2025 systematic review examining protein and amino-acid requirements across life stages concluded that the evidence remains limited and inconclusive for determining precise average requirements across populations.

So think of 1.2g/kg as a useful evidence-informed reference point, not a universal menopause prescription.

Is Protein About Weight Gain During Menopause?

This is one of the most important distinctions to make. Weight changes during midlife can be influenced by many factors, including changes in activity, energy intake, body composition, sleep, hormones and ageing. Eating more protein does not automatically cause fat loss.

Interestingly, CSIRO's own interpretation of its findings pushes against the idea that simply eating less is always the answer. The organisation says its survey data found that almost eight in ten women aged 40–55 in its Total Wellbeing Diet member survey reported weight gain during this life stage.

Protein may matter because of what it helps you maintain, rather than because it is a special weight-loss food. That means muscle.

Resistance training provides the stimulus. Protein supplies amino acids. Adequate energy, sleep and overall nutrition provide the wider environment.

The goal isn't to turn menopause into another diet challenge. It is to make sure the foundations of your diet still support the body you are asking to carry you through the next few decades.

Menopause isn't a reason to eat less of everything. It may be a reason to become more deliberate about what you're eating.

What does research say about protein and muscle? 

Protein and resistance training make more sense together.

A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis by González-Gálvez et al. (2024) of resistance-training studies in healthy postmenopausal women found improvements in physical fitness and body-composition outcomes following resistance training.

Other research adds an important nuance. A 2024 randomised controlled trial by Ioannidou and colleagues, published in The Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging, compared resistance training, a high-protein diet and the combination of both in 55 postmenopausal women over 12 weeks. Resistance training increased skeletal muscle mass and strength, while the researchers found no clear additional benefit from adding the high-protein diet to resistance training for the body-composition and strength measures they assessed.

That is useful because it cuts through the idea that simply increasing protein will transform your body. It won't replace lifting. It won't replace movement. And it certainly won't compensate for a diet that lacks overall nutritional quality. Protein is one part of the system.

What Does A High-Protein Day Look Like?

You don't need to start measuring every gram tomorrow. A simpler approach is to look at your meals. Ask yourself: Where is the protein?

Breakfast might include eggs, Greek yoghurt or another protein-rich food. Lunch could centre around chicken, fish, tofu, lentils or beans. Dinner might include lean meat, seafood, tofu or legumes.

Then consider the gaps. If breakfast is mostly toast and coffee, lunch is a salad with very little protein, and dinner is your only substantial protein meal, the problem may not be your dinner. You may simply be leaving too much of the day's protein until the end.

Spreading protein across meals can be a practical way to make a higher daily intake easier to achieve. And you don't need every meal to look like a bodybuilder's meal prep.

The Australian Dietary Guidelines continue to emphasise variety across the five food groups, including lean meats and poultry, fish, eggs, nuts and seeds, legumes and beans, plus milk, yoghurt, cheese and alternatives.

3 Protein Mistakes to Avoid During Menopause 

1. Only thinking about protein at dinner. If most of your daily protein arrives in one meal, it can be harder to build a consistently protein-rich diet. Look for opportunities earlier in the day.

2. Assuming more protein automatically means less body fat. Protein is important, but weight and body composition are influenced by total energy intake, activity, muscle mass, sleep, and many other factors. Increasing protein without considering the rest of your diet isn't a guaranteed fat-loss strategy.

3. Treating a shake as a replacement for real food. A shake can be convenient. It can also be useful when work, travel, or training makes a proper meal difficult. But whole foods bring much more to the table than protein alone: fibre, vitamins, minerals, fats and other compounds that contribute to overall dietary quality.

Making Protein Work for You 

Start with your current diet rather than trying to overhaul it. For a week, simply notice how much protein you’re getting at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

If you’re consistently coming up short, look for simple ways to add more: yoghurt at breakfast, eggs at lunch, legumes with a salad, or fish, chicken or another protein-rich option at dinner.

If you’re active, resistance training deserves equal attention. And if you’re unsure how much protein is right for you, an Accredited Practising Dietitian or healthcare professional can help you work it out.

The CSIRO finding is useful because it makes a common nutrition gap easier to see. But it shouldn’t become another number to obsess over.

The bigger goal is simple: eat enough, get enough protein, train your muscles, stay active, and build habits you can maintain.

Once you know you need to pay more attention to protein, the next challenge is making it work in real life. Busy mornings, skipped meals, and days when cooking isn’t practical can all make it harder to consistently get enough.

That’s where a product like OneFit® can fit into the routine. Each serve provides 25g of hydrolysed collagen protein, alongside 5g of creatine monohydrate, electrolytes, L-carnitine, probiotics, and other nutrients.

It’s not designed to replace protein-rich meals or a balanced diet. And because collagen isn’t a complete protein, it works best alongside a varied diet that includes other protein sources.

Think of it as a convenient option for the days when getting a protein-rich meal isn’t as easy as it should be. The fundamentals still come first: quality food, sufficient overall protein, resistance training, sleep, movement and consistency.