Hi Nancy,
Page 207 of the book
"Yes, when very heavy people lose a lot of weight, both their resting energy expenditure and the energy cost of 'getting around' are somewhat reduced. But then, so are the impediments (both physical and psychological) to being more active. Thus this individual might reasonably be expected to be burning 2800 kcal per day after his 50 pound loss. As an aside, the casual reader might protest that these energy expenditure numbers look pretty high. But for anyone who has worked with obese humans in a metabolic research ward, 30 kcal per kg of actual body weight in the sedentary obese and 35kcal/kg in the post-obese moderately active adult are quite conservative expenditure values."

I agree, Nancy, that the example they used was a 5'10" very obese man, however, the formula looks to me to be specific to how active one is and weight. I consider my self moderately active.

I am losing weight on 1850 or so calories of which I am glad, but the speed for the last few pounds is surprising. I must be eating lower than the number of calories I thought I needed for maintanence OR fat calories are matabolized differently........... If I stall or gain, then I will look at the calories and the amount of protein I am eating. I also feel the smaller amount of protein is helping this loss, not as much to cause insulin production.