Calories in VS Calories out when working out

[Yammi 94]

For the past 6 months I have been moderately working out at OrangeTheory three times a week, which is a High Intensity Interval training Session 1 hour long. They track your heart rate during the session and provide you with a grid showing what zone you are in based on your heart rate. During a typical session it estimates that I burn from 800 to 900 calories. My question is that I am in Maintenance mode and eating 1800 calories a day and 2000 on the days I work out. I am on the low side of my range at 182 this morning and don't want to go down much more. How has anyone adjusted their caloric intake and how much to offset the calories lost during the workout? I know that you should not eat the calories lost but I feel that there should be some increase in caloric intake. I am afraid of gaining weight by increasing my calories. Even if I up my calories, I can't see how to as I am already eating 5 meals a day. On the work out days I add a Protein bar and banana post workout. Any feedback would be great. Thanks and I look forward to some feedback and input.

[JamieLogical 8,727]

So as a runner, this is something I *really* struggled with. I did not want to lose anymore weight, but as I was training for a half marathon (now training for a full marathon), the scale kept creeping down. The first thing I did is replace some of my meals/snacks with more calorie dense foods. cheese and nuts are great sources of extra calories, while still getting your Protein in. I also had to add in one or two extra "snacks" per day. I had been eating 5 times a day. I now eat 7 times a day most days. I also, finally caved in and started having a carb-only snack. Before my runs I will have a Clif Bar or a piece of whole grain toast with Peanut Butter.

I also got a FitBit Blaze so I could more accurately track my calorie burn through the entire day (had just been using a heart rate monitor while running). And by logging my food for a while (don't have to anymore) I was able to make sure my calories in vs. calories out were pretty balanced. So far so good. I got to my lowest weight of 10 pounds below goal, but I have been sticking there for a while now.

[Yammi 94]

Thanks for the details. I have been extremely consistent on logging my food on MFP over 600 day streak so far. I will look into the fitbit blaze. As I write this reply I am eating a large Apple with 2 tbs of Peanut Butter. Good luck on your full marathon, I hope to be there some day. I really enjoy the running portion of the session. I will keep this thread updated with my results.