Greetings and welcome aboard!

Very nice introduction. Sounds like you are already dong very well and I'm sure that will continue.

Just one point about your description - when you say you had an extremely efficient metabolsim, that would mean that you needed far LESS food to maintain your weight and activity level. It sounds more like your metabolism was rather inefficient - which is what happens when you are eating properly and are physically active. It's like a car engine - if you put an engine in a car that is capable of blazing acceleration and amazing top speeds, all while pulling a house trailer, that engine is NOT going to be very effecient even when idling at the stop light.