how much protein do I need per day

I am 266 lbs and 6ft 3 ins tall
my calories are around 4000 a day and I have beed told so many different ways to work out my protein needs its getting me confused
I ahve used onsite calculators and bmr calcs and they are all different some say 400g and others say 200g
how can it be so different? has the world gone mad?

Id go for 400g Protein, 500g Carbs and no more than 100g Fat at your stats. So about 4500cals, assuming your goal is to build muscle and that you are not particularly overweight at the moment.
 
There is so much difference as its still wildly debated, and there are a lot of "medical people" who like to err on the side of caution with regards to nitrogen retention and the kidneys.  There is no right or wrong answer per say, I personally like eating between 1.5-1.7 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. I know a lot of people who do well on 1.2g/lb though. Again though if I overdo the carbs I gain fat, so I favour a high protein/moderate carb diet.
 

Forgive me for sounding like a potential fool, but, when you see those guys in prison that do weight training, they seem to do pretty darn well on a basic prison diet, whatever that is. I remember seeing a programme on t.v. some time ago, a guy was put in prison for selling kitchens and bumping people off, I think he got 8 months, but when he came out he was ripped and his overall mass had increased significantly. My point is, can a simple diet gain substantial gains such as this, cause I'm starting to think that maybe we don't need as much as we think we do, or as someone on here mentioned, do we only need 1.2g per lb of lean body mass, not total mass? Interesting.

Hi mate every one says different im eating 270g a day

Reasearch supports 1g/lb bodyweight, unless you have higher body fat then you can get away with less.
 
General margin I use is 0.8g - 1.2g/lb.  Depending on bf% and age.
 

Going to try 300g as 400 is a awful lot and not easy to consume in a day

Liddy


Reasearch supports 1g/lb bodyweight, unless you have higher body fat then you can get away with less.

General margin I use is 0.8g - 1.2g/lb.  Depending on bf% and age.

What research supports this?

Nitrogen balance techniques suggest that the protein requirements to attain zero nitrogen balance in those that engage in resistance training range from 1.2–2.2  grams of protein per kg of bodyweight (0.55 - 1g per lb).
 
Full text.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.g..mc/articles/PMC2129150/
 
Abstracts.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14971434
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15798080
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11023001
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1763249
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15212752
http://sportsci.org/jour/9901/rbk.html