I am going to have to agree with Anita; there seems to be something to carb and calorie cycling which totally revs metabolism and increases energy usage by the body significantly.

I remember the first few days of "maintenence"... I ate about 1600 calories and 90 carbs daily. I previously was consuming 1150 and I think 50. Wouldn't you be surprised that I dropped tons of fat... not only scale weight, but all of it was fat because I dropped several sizes, and shrunk down significantly more than I would have for that sort of poundage loss.

Of course since then the loss has slowed down and I am now maintaining . However, I think if I went back to my previous 1150 intake level, I would again drop weight quickly (because my body has adapted to the higher intake).
I think it is that combination of feast and famine, letting your body know it's OK to keep burning fuel at a normal rate by giving it tons of food one day, and then pulling the switcharoo on it by restricting calories & carbs the next day, that allows you to get the most bang for your buck. I'm sure there is a hormonal explanation for all of this (leptin and what not), but either way I fully agree with her findings.

Too many times this has happened to me. I used to think that fat loss corresponded with binge eating giving the appearance that eating more can help you lose weight, but after evaluating my own experiences, the only thing all the high intake sessions had in common was the high intake - the higher carbs and calories. I didn't feel like my body was driving me to eat all the times. My state of mind for each session was very varying. Some days I was physically hungry, others I was not. Some days I just wanted to eat, other days I felt normal. The only common bond was that the incidence occurred following a period of prolonged dietary restriction, and was proceeded by significant body fat loss the next few days afterward (not just scale weight, but I physically shrunk several inches... a very efficient type of weight loss).