Your posts here make it sound like faders affecting things, which implies you have been working in post fader mode, and you therefore maybe need to take some time to better understand this stuff. And if you don't understand what is going on you should not trust yourself comparing what you've experiencing now with past behavior.
The Pro Tools reference guide contains a good description of fader and plugin signal flow, but it does not fully clarify things for new users. Here is a useful video
http://therecordingrevolution.com/pr...o-tools-video/
Get the meters in pre-fader mode. Set the mic preamp input gain safely down as others have advised. *listen* to the sound from the mic/preamp/DAW chain as well as look at the meter level. There is just no reason to be pushing it hot. Why not? You have more digital headroom/gain than you know what to do with in the Pro Tools mixer. And that has been discussed in many hundreds of posts on DUC. And as many of those posts warn that the cheap premps in low-end interfaces frequently sound like crap when pushed hard--it's not just about digital clipping.
And when is it you hear all the extra room noise and breathing? While tracking or during playback? If it's mostly tracking then are you monitoring though Pro Tools or the interface hardware? (where is the mix knob set on the interface?). Is that the same as before?
Same artist talent? Mics are going to pick up breathing and most of that comes down to the mic skills of the talent.
Being anal, those thingies are "level meters" not "volume meters". And hopefully you are not using track faders as volume knobs.
Beyond that what exact mic are you using, to record what type of vocals? All relevant settings are what? preamp knob position? pad engaged? What are all the switches on the mic (if any) set to? If a large condenser, is the talent using the correct side of the mic? Photos of the recording space sound treatment, mic setup/being used by the artist, etc. that you can provide will encourage folk here to give you advice.
And what other thread? Folks here not going to go track down your other posts. Please follow the DUC guidelines and create one thread per topic.