Lady nutrition

[Jem Dillon]

My wife just started training with me. She's 31, 5'8", 155lbs. Just lifted for the first time 2 days ago, got up to 65lbs squat, 45lbs press, 100lbs deadlift.

She wants to get stronger and put on some muscle, but she's already carrying a little more body fat than she'd like, and is worried that a proper training diet will exacerbate this.

She's a lovely creature, and shouldnt be worried about this, but I've been trying to get a nutritional plan together for her that won't scare her too badly while still providing enough nutrition to stimulate her training progress. I guess what we're after here is that fabled "recomposition".

She's coming off of some fairly neurotic time-restricted, low-carb eating patterns, and I'd estimate her intake prior to starting training was around 1200-1500 calories a day, under 100g protein, at or under 100g carbs.

From various sources, these are the daily numbers I worked up for her new plan:
176g protein
192g carbs
61g fat
2021 calories

So, my questions:
1) Generally, is this a good starting point for her?
2) What's a reasonable rate of net weight gain for someone who wants to minimize fat gains during a novice LP?
3) What macros should she adjust first if her progress is unsatisfactory for her (either weight increasing too quickly or strength is stalling), and by how much?

I know these broad questions are difficult to answer precisely, and that a lot of highly individual factors are involved. I'm just looking for some general guidelines so that she can feel secure and in control of the process. I love that she wants to train with me, and I want to make it psychologically sustainable for her.

Sorry for the long post, any help is appreciated.

[Soule]

Good luck convincing her to get that much protein. It would be amazing for her, but from my experience the ladies are hard to convince to even eat 1g/lb bw.

[Robert Santana]

Thanks for sharing and we’re glad she took the plunge as well. She doesn’t need that much protein and 100-150 grams are probably sufficient.