Luna writes:
If there is anyone here with good, sound, medical advice on this,

Probably not ;-)

The general rule of thumb, me thinks, is don't try to lose more than 2
lbs/week. If you *happen* to lose more, fine, but if you're "only"
losing 2 lbs/week, don't try harder.

First, what rate of weight loss is healthy? Is it 1% of body weight per
week? More? Less?

"It depends". You need enough protein to avoid muscle catabolism, and
enough calories to keep your immune system at al running normally.
Add vitamins and minerals, and anything you can squeeze out beyond
that is probably OK.

Second, is it true that to lose weight you should eat 8 - 10 times your
body weight in calories?

To lose weight, you have to have a caloric deficit. That takes into
account calories eaten, resting metabolism, activity, adaptations to
diet, everything. If it's a net loss of calories, you'll lose weight.
As far as calculating calories based on weight, it depends on the
individual (a lot, sometimes) and how much overweight you are (the
more overweight, the less kcals/lb to start with, in general)

So a 120 pound person who wants to lose weight would eat between 960
and 1200 calories a day? My confusion comes from thinking that's a
mighty small amount of calories. (Not that I weigh 120 pounds, lol)

I'm 158, and when I want to lose weight I have to eat only 1200
kcals/day (7x) PLUS do aerobics (500 kcals/day). The math says I'm
netting only 700 kcals (~5x, mostly protein at that point), vs a base
metabolism of around 1950, for a deficit of 1250 kcals/day. So much
for the math. Anything less drastic, and my weight just stays
constant.

Also, Lyle recommends you never eat less than 80% of your base
metabolism. So for me, at 1950 kcals/day, my diet shouldn't be less
than 1560 kcals/day. Tried it, didn't work :-(

Me, I think you shouldn't eat less than your resting metabolism (1470
for me), and make up the extra deficit though extra activity instead.
But again, tried it, didn't work for me.