Absolute rubbish.
To maintain a weight of 280 lbs requires more calories than to maintain a weight of 180 assuming similar lifestyle.
Somebody weighing 280, eating the amount of calories required to maintain 180 will lose weight.
I know, I've lost nearly 40 lbs eating more calories than my more active friend who's steady at about half my weight.
I'd guess it depends on the lifestyle, actually. Considering calorie is needed for three things: chemical activity (also called metabolism, including food processing, heat, and baseline living), physical activity, and brain activity.
Normally brain activity is the same for everybody, or is in a baseline. You don't really burn less calorie when you think less, you just get fatigued more or less rapidly.
What's different in a "thin" person and a "fat" person, is heat dispersion. If you look at a person with thermal vision, you'll notice thin people tend to let go of more heat than fat people (if you've got some fat, you could also get naked a bit and touch it after an hour, it'll be colder than no-fat places, for instance, under your arm, even if you let it lifted so that heat doesn't build up). Don't underestimate our hot-bloodness, it does burn a lot of calories, as scientists will tell you, why are insects, fishes and in a less meaningful manner bird, more efficient at producing meat than cattle (cows, sheep, etc), is that they are cold-blooded, less wasted calories into heat !
For physical activity (even walking), a fat person is going to expend more than a thin one. I think you all get the point.
So if the lifestyle is more car-desk-car-telly-bed than walk-stand-walk-jog-bed, it does put one more at a drain here.
I'm also putting under the carpet the fact that muscles drain more than fat to "live", and that cold food doesn't give all its calories than hot because the body has to heat it. Or how much coffee/tea you're drinking instead of cold water.