food and all-nighters

Sooooo it's 5am, can I have breakfast yet? I didn't sleep last night, or, tonight, or.... I have not gone to sleep since finished my meals from yesterday so when does the day start over?

goodness gracious I can't even tell if that makes sense or not

Replies

  • EngineerPrincess
    EngineerPrincess Posts: 306 Member
    It's 3:30am here and I'm asking myself the same question. Engineering classes xP
  • kindasortachewy
    kindasortachewy Posts: 1,084 Member
    I work 6pm-6am and so it does get confusing. I just log it on either day and work towars a weekly calorie deficit instead of daily
  • astronomicals
    astronomicals Posts: 1,537 Member
    eat whenever you want.. hit your calories for the day...

    thread/
  • 1a1a
    1a1a Posts: 761 Member
    When I'm being kept from sleep for one reason or another, and I get hungry, I eat, not good for reducing bodyfat if I consume more than I need but hell, it's stressful time, I'm already being deprived for sleep, be damned if I'm going to be hungry too.
  • zrmac804
    zrmac804 Posts: 369 Member
    I sympathize; I've been doing 12-hour night shifts and it's tough to plan for sleep, let alone meal planning. Unfortunately, late-night calories still count :ohwell: It's really up to you how you want to record your days. I usually consider one day as being from midnight to midnight, but you might find something that works better for you.
  • favhrnstr
    favhrnstr Posts: 55
    You can try changing the titles of your meals. Perhaps you could even make them time ranges (12-3a, 3-6a, etc.) to account for strange "meals".

    (PS- I feel for all you 3rd shifters. I did it for a year and hated it. Thank you for your sacrifice!)
  • SHDenver
    SHDenver Posts: 87 Member
    Do you sleep during the day? If you're working regular overnights it may be helpful to change up your idea of when a "meal" should occur. When I did overnights I would go to sleep after getting off, wake up and usually do lunch because I didn't like breakfast at the time, then dinner, then a meal when I was working the overnight. In that case you could switch up your MFP Categories to reflect the times you want to eat. ie. 12PM for "Breakfast", 8PM for "lunch", and 2AM for "Dinner" or something like that. Like others have said this site is all about calculating calories burned vs. calories consumed, so as long as you're within your daily goal it should work out. Would that be helpful? Good luck!
  • SHDenver
    SHDenver Posts: 87 Member
    Should have read ALL the other comments before replying :)
  • Candice_Says
    Candice_Says Posts: 24 Member
    I feel you! I was a shift worker and a full-time law student. Now, I'm a shift worker and studying for the bar exam. I never know what time of day or what day of the week it is! I found that it worked for me to divide my diary into blocks of 8 hours: 7-3, 3-11, and 11 to 7. I also have an "Other/Wine" category for well... duh...
  • JisatsuHoshi
    JisatsuHoshi Posts: 421 Member
    I usually eat cottage cheese for late night. Keeps me full until brunch time.