Dairy and eggs

How much protein is in parmesan?

A tablespoon of grated parmesan has about 1.4 g of protein.

That's 28 g of protein per 100 g, or 6.8 g for every 100 calories.

Protein per serving

Protein and calories in common servings of parmesan, from USDA data.
ServingWeightProteinCalories
1 tablespoon5 g1.4 g21
1 oz28 g8.1 g119
100 g100 g28 g420

How parmesan compares

Other dairy and eggs, ranked by how much protein you get per 100 calories.

FoodProtein per 100 gProtein per 100 calories
Whey protein powderwhey-based 78 g 22 g
Egg whitesraw 11 g 21 g
Greek yogurtplain, nonfat 10 g 17 g
Cottage cheese2% low-fat 11 g 13 g
Skim milknonfat 3.4 g 9.9 g
Plain yogurtlow fat 5.3 g 8.3 g
Ricottapart-skim 11 g 8.3 g
Eggswhole, hard-boiled 13 g 8.1 g
Mozzarellapart-skim, low moisture 24 g 8.1 g
Swiss cheesesliced 27 g 6.9 g
Milk2% reduced fat 3.3 g 6.6 g
Cheddar cheeseregular 23 g 5.7 g
Fetacrumbled 14 g 5.4 g
Whole milk3.25% fat 3.2 g 5.2 g

How it fits into a meal

For building muscle, Schoenfeld and Aragon's 2018 review of the research suggests about 0.4 g of protein per kilogram of body weight at each meal, spread over at least four meals a day. At 170 lb (77 kg), that's about 31 g a meal. A tablespoon of grated parmesan covers about 5% of that.

Work out your own daily and per-meal target with the protein calculator.

Nutrition data: USDA FoodData Central ("Cheese, parmesan, grated", FDC ID 171247). Actual values vary by brand, recipe and cooking method, so treat these numbers as close estimates.