A good plan puts food first and uses a supplement only for the gap. Anyone choosing a protein powder for beginners can follow three steps. Know your daily target, find out what your meals already give, and add one serving where it fits best.
Your Daily Target Comes First
Your starting point is the daily allowance from the Indian Council of Medical Research's National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN). 1 It is 0.83 g per kg of body weight, the same for men and women. At 64 kg, that comes to about 53 g a day.
ICMR-NIN's sample menus for women assume a weight of 55 kg, which gives an allowance of about 46 g. Their suggested day for a sedentary woman of that weight supplies about 57 g from food alone. 1 That is worth knowing before choosing protein supplements for women, because meals may already cover the need.
What Your Meals Already Give
Keep a simple record for two or three ordinary days. Note each meal and its rough amounts, then add up the protein using labels for packaged foods and the Indian Food Composition Tables for home cooking. 2 Raw masoor dal, for example, has 24.35 g of protein per 100 g, so a 30 g portion gives about 7.3 g. 2
If you subtract what your meals give from your target, what is left is your gap. Say your target is 53 g and your meals average 38 g. The gap is 15 g, and that is the only amount a supplement needs to cover.
One Serving to Fill the Gap
Choose a product whose single serving roughly matches your gap. Check three lines on the label before buying: serving size, protein per serving and sugar. ICMR-NIN points out that every figure on a label depends on the serving size it refers to. 1
Taking several supplements together adds cost without filling a gap that one serving already closes. If the gap is small, food may be the easier fix, since a glass of milk or a bowl of curd can add 5 to 7 g.
When and How to Take It
Timing is flexible, so pick the meal that is lightest for protein. For many people that is breakfast or the long afternoon gap. A daily protein shake taken at the same time is easy to remember and easy to count.
Protein powder for smoothies works well too. An unflavoured powder blends into milk with a banana, a few dates or a spoonful of oats, and a chocolate or coffee flavour can go straight into cold milk. If you use milk, count its protein as well, since 200 ml of cow's milk brings roughly 6.5 g more. 2
Mistakes to Avoid When You Start
A common mistake is treating a supplement as a meal. A shake in place of lunch leaves out the grains, vegetables and fibre that the rest of the plate brings. Another is taking more than one serving because the first felt easy, which pushes protein above what the plan needs.
Flavoured powders can also carry sugar, so read that line every time you switch products. And keep the food record going for a while, because the gap often shrinks once meals improve.
How Horlicks Protein Fits a Beginner's Plan
Horlicks Protein powder is sold in 36 g sachets, each with 24 g of protein and 4 g of prebiotic fibre. It comes in Chocolate, Coffee and Unflavoured, and you prepare it with 200 ml of cold water or milk. There is also a 240 ml milkshake, ready to drink, with 20 g of ultra-filtered milk protein and no added sugar.
Horlicks Protein is made as a protein powder for adults, and the brand's own guidance is one serving a day. In the example above, one sachet would more than cover the 15 g gap, so it can replace a low-protein snack and leave meals unchanged.
Reviewing the Plan
After two weeks, repeat the food record. If your meals have improved, the gap may have shrunk enough that you need the supplement only on busy days. If you have a health condition, or your target feels hard to reach, a dietitian can adjust the plan for you.
To conclude, planning protein with supplements starts with ICMR-NIN's 0.83 g per kg and an honest look at what your meals already give. Use one serving to close the gap, read the label before buying, and take it at the meal that is lightest for protein. Review the plan every few weeks, and get as much of your protein from food as you can.
Sources
1. ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition. Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024.
https://nin.res.in/dietaryguidelines/pdfjs/locale/DGI_2024.pdf
2. ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition. Indian Food Composition Tables, 2017.
https://www.nin.res.in/ebooks/IFCT2017.pdf