The amount of muscle that one loses in a deficit has everything to do with how lean they are to begin with and how much of a deficit they are in and finally their overall genetic. I honestly don't get the claim's from Lyle about a generic 800-1000K a day deficit which can guarantee fat loss without muscle loss and I really don't see any convincing testimonials to the claims either.
Dougz if your avatar is recent, you have plenty of bf such that you can probably be on a fairly high deficit. I (on the other hand) have to lose at a much slower rate. I am going to give you information from Alan's Nov 2008 AARR. He says that for a moderately overweight (not obese and not average) person you can lose 2-3lbs a week and not compromise muscle loss. So Dougz keep it simple and keep your loss down to 2-3lbs a week for now. When you become more of the average build then cut down the loss to 1-2lbs a week.
With respect to setting up macros you really should subsribe to the AARR and grab the Jan 2009 issue because Alan lays out exactly how he derives macros for his clients. You said that you think Alan said to not get less than 160g of carbs.... Sheesh I wish he said that. I would LOVE to have 160g of carbs a day on my cut.
I don't think he said that. Some of the best free material I have read about carbs and how many you need is on Lyle McDonald's site. He actually has an article called "How many carbs do you need" or something like that. Just an FYI the answer is zero.
Alan will likely agree with Lyle's article but add that the amount of carbs you should plan is realated to the amount of activity that you do. If you are endurance athlete you need more carbs than if you are coach potato.
Again I highly recommend you splurge the 10 bucks for the Jan issue as Alan breaks it out in a very easy to read table for you based on if you are low activity, high activity or moderate activity. This will answer your question pretty definitvley I think and help you to dance around all the mis-information out there.
www.alanaragon.com (click on research review)
Also, a 2 week stall really doesn't mean anything. I would hold out for at least another 2 weeks and see if a woosh doesn't happen in that time if you are truly interested in keeping your weight loss to about the same as it was. I am thinking you did not all of a sudden develop the need for less calories as you suggest.
Hope this helps some!