Hi Mike, good work. I'm another larger fellow (started in the 340's) I did have plenty of stalls, plateaus and furious drops along the way (about 18 months) So I can relate.

It's unlikely that you're converting fat into muscle, at least that's the way I understand it, you lose fat and build muscle at the same time (if that's your definition of "converting" then I agree!)

Question for you, do you have a glucose meter? I'm finding a new way of thinking about energy storage and metabolic pathways from stuff by Marty Kendall. If you don't have one, pick one up just for the fun of it and do one thing.

Measure you waking blood glucose level.

Mine has always been on the "high" side in the mornings and I never thought much about it and chalked it up to something called "Dawn Phenomenon" I'm starting to believe with some practice and insight that this might really be a signal of energy abundance in my system. Currently I'm investigating Marty's "Data Driven Fasting" idea - It's very interesting and I'm trying to get in touch with my hunger cues via the data of blood glucose readings on waking and pre-meals.

Anyway, just a thought. And another bit of data, my AVERAGE over the 18 months of first losing was between 1-2 lbs - 1.6 if I recall. The drops can in fits and spurts like mentioned above by others. Loss was very fast at the begining and tapered at the end, but at the end I was also pushing hard on IF fasting - and might have been doing my body a disservice by focusing on high fat refeeds rather than my new approach of focusing on nutrient density.

When you have a lot of fat to lose, You don't necessarily need to eat more of it. You can, and it's probably not that harmful (unless you mix it with hyperpalatable or hyperprocessed carby foods) but you want to try to burn the fat you store rather than the fat you eat for quicker weight loss.

Whew, that was a mouthful of opinion right there. Good work and keep going!