Protein Scores

26 May 2025

Ranking foods by protein efficiency. Updated occasionally.

Food	Score	Serving Size	Cals	Protein (g)
Tuna steak	89	142 g	184	41
Canned tuna (water)	89	113 g	130	29
Egg whites	85	33 g	17	3.6
Whey protein powder	80	19 g	70	14
Siggi’s (fat-free, plain)	76	170 g	100	19
Chicken breast	75	120 g	198	37
Smoked oysters (water)	65	85 g	110	18
Pork loin	54	85 g	163	22
Smoked oysters (oil)	48	85 g	150	18
Mackerel (oil)	48	100 g	166	20
Ground beef (90/10)	46	4 oz	199	23
Siggi’s (whole milk, plain)	42	170 g	170	18
Steak	38	221 g	614	58
Egg	35	1 large egg	72	6.3
2% milk	27	244 g	122	8.1
Ground beef (80/20)	26	4 oz	287	19
Mackerel (lemon, oil)	24	120 g	320	19
Cheddar cheese	23	28 g	115	6.5
Smoked salmon (chili)	22	90 g	340	19
Whole milk	21	244 g	149	7.7
Bacon	30	3 slices	161	12
Turkey (deli)	48	57 g	64	7.7
Ham (deli)	68	23 g	23	3.9
Salami	23	9.8 g	37	2.1
CorePower Elite shake	73	1 bottle	230	42
Double 1/4lb w/ cheese	26	1 sandwich	740	48
McNuggets	21	4 pieces	193	10
McCrispy strips	35	4 pieces	460	40
Fortra ramen (low-carb)	55	1 package	290	40

Download as CSV. Data sourced from Nutritionix and nutrition labels.

The protein score (out of 100) measures the percentage of calories from protein in a given food—essentially, a measure of how efficiently a food provides protein relative to its caloric content. For someone looking to eat a lot of protein (e.g., ~1g/lb of bodyweight) while in a calorie deficit, this tells you which foods give you protein efficiently.

One gram of protein has 4 Calories, so the score is calculated as $$ \text{Score} = \left\lfloor\frac{4 \times \text{Protein (g)}}{\text{Cals}} \times 100 \right\rceil. $$