If your wife has been in caloric restriction for an extended period of time, she may have metabolic damage. I recently stumbled upon Layne Norton's work - he has a PhD in Nutritional Science and is a bodybuilder/powerlifter, and he makes some compelling arguments (and reviews of the literature) about how the metabolism responds to prolonged caloric restriction.
Here's a good place to start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHHzie6XRGk