Logging on an odd schedule (kind of long)

belimawr

Hey,

Ok, I really should have posted this before the new year, as I expected to change how I recorded my daily habits on January 1, but I only thought of it yesterday, and I wanted some opinions.

I work nights. This presents a bit of a logistical problem with recording at times. I What's breakfast to me is dinner to others. This really isn't too big of a deal though.

The way I do it now is the first meal I record as breakfast is the first meal I eat, and so on. So, I work for Tuesday starting Monday night, so I consider the meal I have when I wake up Monday evening as Tuesday's breakfast. Seemed to make sense.

The problem as I think of it now: I have 'long' days. In short, my last day of the work week, I tend to stay up from when I get home in the morning, until evening, and try to sleep at night so I get a full day out of my days off. This also means I have a 'short' day before resuming my work week. In my diary, this creates a nightmare. So Saturday may show me eating 3,000 calories (although IIRC I've never gone that high); Monday only 1,000 or less. Of course my periods of activity are skewed similarly.

It occurred to me I should start logging for twenty for hours starting midnight. So, really "lunch" would be my first meal for the day, and "breakfast" recorded as the last. This would eliminate the above problem.

Does it make a difference to accuracy how I log? Is it better I log the larger and smaller intakes as I do now as my "awake" time is appropriately distorted? I figure while I await my kitchen scale I might as well get this sorted.

MaryCS62

It does make sense & you can actually re-set your meal names in MFP settings. Default is B, L, D, Snacks, but there are actually 6 settings you can use. You can enter them in 4 hr increments as 12-4a, 4-8a, 8-12n, etc. & log food during the times you actually eat. It might help you figure out where/ when you're spending your calories & macros. I was actually thinking of breaking snacks into morning, afternoon & evening snacks to track exactly when I seem to need extra food.

Ninkyou

I'd just rename your meals (you can redo it in your diary settings somewhere).
Just do like.. Meal 1, Meal 2, Meal 3, etc. Or you could do Late Night Breakfast, Early Morning Lunch, etc. Whatever tickles your fancy and makes it easy for you.

Really, it doesn't matter as long as you're tracking everything. If your daily calories look confusing to you, you can base it off weekly calories too.

Francl27

Yep I'd do what the previous poster said and change the meal names to times. For the rest, as long as you have a good average in a week, it really doesn't matter if you eat more some days and less others.

bwogilvie

All that matters is that you find a way to log that you can do consistently. It also helps to think of your calorie goal as a daily average. You might eat more on a long day, and less on a short day. I think of my calorie goal as a weekly goal: some days I might be 500 over (especially if I didn't have a chance to exercise); others I might be 500 under. It all works out in the end.

elphie754

I work nights as well. What I do is count midnight to midnight.

Cortneyrenee04

I agree, it doesn't matter. You can change the meal names, but it all averages out in the end.

Liftng4Lis

So long as your in a deficit, the time of consumption doesn't matter.

belimawr

Thanks for the input. I saw quite a few threads relating to accuracy and such, so figured I'd throw it out there. The midnight to midnight thing was what I was thinking of doing, and it seems the best thing.