Working 3rd shift

ArelysSantiago

Does anybody have any helpful hints on tracking their meal when working shift. My day starts and ends on different days, what I usually do is end my day when I get up around 5 or6 pm and jump to the following day starting with breakfast. Thanks

cingle87

Im currently working nights so how i plan my logging is as follows. When I wake up not matter what day it is thats breakfast so for example i might wake up at 3pm , then lunch whould be 7/8ish and then evening meal would be 3amish. So for me I log all that on the day I wake up so example 21/06/13, even though I ate my evening meal on the 22/06/13.

MelissaDoc

The majority of my shifts are over night but I still work a day shift here and there and also I'd like to pretend I'm not a vampire, so I do like to enjoy the sunshine on my days off. That being said, it is almost impossible to get on a consistent eat/sleep schedule. So, the only thing that has been working for me is to do a 24hr method. So this morning when I go on my break at 3am that is 'meal 1' and when I have my real breakfast around 7:30 that is 'meal 2'. But say I did not work the over night my breakfast would be 'meal 1'.

I hope this helps! It took me a while to figure out what works best for me.

grimendale

I work from 6 pm to 6am, and I tend to eat my meals in the normal order, but log them out of order such that all meals eaten in one calendar day are logged as a day, even though I slept in the middle of it. I log lunch first, a little after midnight, then dinner at 8am, then breakfast at 5 pm. I find logging based on calendar rather than sleep cycle makes it a little less confusing, particularly when you switch from a normal to a nocturnal schedule and back.

kindasortachewy

I don't count it as a new day until I sleep - its 12:52am here ( I work 6pm-6am ) and I will eat dinner in a few hours, I will log it for 6/21 not 6/22 because I havent slept yet.

brandileigh78

I changed my breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks to 0000-0600, 0601-1200, 1201-1800, and 1800-2359. It makes it easier to track by the times I eat and I don't have to figure out what meal is what.

godsgrl33

I have changed my "meal times" to 12 am-4am, 4am-8am, 8 am-12 pm, 12 pm-4pm, 4pm-8pm, and 8pm-12 am. So, whatever I eat from 12 am until 11:59 pm, that is a day. Some days will have different times that have food in those slots, and sometimes I will be sleeping. I guess Brandiward 78 did something similar. The point is, to find something that works for you, and staying in your calorie range in every 24 hour period.

bigcle82

I work 10pm-830am, before I was tracking my day lunch and night lunch all together so I separated it with lunch for anytime in the day and work lunch at night around 3am. I make sure when I prepare my lunch I just log everything in before leaving home so I dont have to worry about then. All I have to log in is my cardiovascular which I do the first 30 mins of my lunch

freyaheart

When I worked nights the first thing I ate was breakfast and my last meal before bed was dinner. It also drove my father nuts when he would meet me after work for "breakfast" and I would order spaghetti.

hilaryhill

Ive been on WW before when I was working night shift as a nurse (3 night shifts a week) and what I would do is I would start the next days points/calories at midnight and then it went until the next midnight. Then on my nights off Id eat normally.

Oh_Allie

I switched mine from breakfast/lunch/dinner to time slots, too. 12am-6am, 6am-11am, 11am-3pm, 3pm-8pm, 8pm-11:59pm and I just log in whatever time I ate and try not to worry about if my breakfast is at 10pm and my lunch is in the middle of the night.

tigersword

When it hits midnight I log my food for the next day. As long as you're consistent it really doesn't matter how you split it up. I log everything I eat specifically to the calendar date that I eat it. No confusion that way.

kmalex

I work second shift and I log waking up to going to bed as a day. Unfortunately MFP changes at midnight always. So I changed my time zone be 4 hours behind my actual time zone. This way MFP and I are on the same day until 4am and when I eat dinner at 1am it doesn't think yesterday is over yet.

I did also change my diary to "Before 10AM(usually sleeping), 10AM-2PM(Breakfast), 2-4PM(Snack), 4-8PM(Lunch), 8PM-Midnight (Snack), After Midnight (Dinner)". It just seemed easier to keep track of everything that way.

Hope that helps!

lacroyx

When it hits midnight I log my food for the next day. As long as you're consistent it really doesn't matter how you split it up. I log everything I eat specifically to the calendar date that I eat it. No confusion that way.

This is how I do it.

kimbtaylor1

I work 2300-0700 and the way I have logged is by the hour. If MFP shows its a new day then thats the day I post on. But this is my normal eating schedule on my work days.

0100-breakfast
0600-lunch (I need to do better...making myself eat this)
1800-dinner (biggest meal of the day for me seeing as I will be up all night)

On my off days my schedule goes back to the norm for the most part.

SilverLotusGirl

I work twelve hour nights and I still do my time logging from midnight to midnight. I don't have breakfast, lunch dinner, but I have 4 sections based on time of day. I log the same way regardless of if I'm working or not. It works for me.

hhayes06

I changed my breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks to 0000-0600, 0601-1200, 1201-1800, and 1800-2359. It makes it easier to track by the times I eat and I don't have to figure out what meal is what.

This is what I do now. When I worked midnight to 10am I would log from the time I woke up til the time I went to sleep and be a day ahead. Now that I wake up at 3pm and go to sleep around 7am this is easier for me. Try different things and see what works best for you.

ArelysSantiago

Thank you everybody for your input this is tremendous help. I think section my days by time.

knekno

Another vote for changing "meals" to time of day, and counting calories for 24 hrs.