Energy balance
Obese individuals lose more total weight than leaner individuals for the same caloric deficit, but it takes significantly longer to reach the weight loss plateau due to a higher proportion of fat mass loss and slower metabolic adaptation.
If you are heavier, you will likely lose more total weight from the same dietary changes than a lighter person, but it will take much longer. Do not compare your speed of loss to someone who is already lean. Your body has more energy stores to draw from, but the process is slower.
Figure 2 shows that a 120-kg woman loses more weight at a steady state for a given diet perturbation than an 80-kg woman... Note the very long timescale for weight loss and the greater timescale for the more massive woman, with half-times of approximately 330 days versus 450 days for the 80- and 120-kg women, respectively.
Why this rating
Based on a computational model validated against human data, but specific comparisons are model-derived predictions.
Source
Mechanisms of Metabolic Fuel Selection: Modeling Human Metabolism and Body-Weight Change
Kevin D. Hall · IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine · 2010
DOI 10.1109/memb.2009.935465
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