Metabolism Reset: Give Up?

You gained 6 lbs, but have you gained inches? When you eat at a deficit for a while, your body burns through its glycogen stores. Glycogen is bonded to water, so when the glycogen goes, so does the water. This causes the large initial loss most people see when they start eating less. Once you start eating at maintenance again, your body will refill those glycogen stores, and the water will come back causing an apparent weight gain. Water is quite dense, so 6 lbs is within the realm of possibility for water weight gain. If you have been tracking inches, and haven't gained there, you haven't gained fat. If you haven't been tracking inches, start. I would recommend you continue eating at maintenance for another 2-3 weeks and see if your weight levels out (understanding that you may fluctuate up or down by 5 lbs or more in a normal day, so watch the average, not the individual values). If it does, you know you only gained water. You might also want to look at how you are determining how many calories you consume. Are you using a food scale? If not, that might be the culprit. Hope that helps.