OK OK I'm here, lol 
You probably already know this, but in a nutshell, your metabolism is your body's ability to burn calories 24/7 (i.e. not just when you're exercising). If you can make your body do a better job of this, you're going to lose weight MUCH easier - AND you're not going to gain it back (coughWWcough). But if you're doing things that slow it down (and note that many medicatons can contribute to that, as can natural aging) weight loss is going to be difficult to impossible.
There isn't really a scale or a chart that can tell you how fast or how slow your metabolism is. But there are a few good indicators.
If you're trying desperately to lose weight and it's not happening - or if you're even putting on weight - you're metabolism is crawling. What that means is that your body is realizing that it's not getting enough food and so has slowed everything down so that it doesn't burn as many calories while it functions. This means that while you're eating less, your body is holding on to every calorie and gram of fat with a death grip. Why? Because it doesn't want to starve and it's built to keep you alive as long as possible, even at the hands of Weight Watchers  (ok a little stab in there, I couldn't resist! lol)
NUMBER ONE - How are you eating? From what I can recall from your posts, I don't think it's enough. If you're eating anything less than, oh, around 1600-1800 calories (for most women, some women require even MORE than that), you're doing a number on your metabolism. (Personally, I think WW is simply WAY too low in calories - see the thread Alicia/HansSolo posted today for a good discussion of that).
Other things that'll slow your metabolism - if you're living a pretty unactive lifestyle (take the stairs! lol), not getting enough protein, sleep, water...
As I said, meds can make the metabolism kick start tricky, particularly antidepressants. Drastic weight loss or gain can also really screw with your metabolism and send it into a tailspin. The biggest thing I'd say though is that if you're not eating enough calories (and if you're following WW, you're probably not) then you're not doing yourself any favours in the weight loss (or HEALTH!) department.
The best way, IMHO, is to get a good idea of what your body needs to simply survive (BMR) and use that as a *guide* to how many calories you should get. For example, my BMR is around 1300 + I burn around 600 calories a day just living my life (walking around, eating, making food, sitting, sleeping even) + I exercise pretty regularly. So I know that a good level for me is around 2000-2100 calroies. If I'm trying to lose weight, it's safe to cut a max of 20% of what my body needs - for most women, as Sinead said, this evens out to about 500 calories or on average 1 lb a week. For me, that's about 400-420 calories that I could safely cut a day. Remember, if you're exercising, you need more calories!
Use these numbers as a guide (not just mine - yours too.) There's no need to walk around with a calculator in your pocket, but these calculatiosn can give you a good idea of what your body needs to stay healthy and lose weight.
Oh goodness, anotehr long post. I really can ramble can't I Well I hope that was helpful! Let me know if you have any questions though. 
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Re: KAREN (leoandoreosmom) - Please read this!!!
