Night Shift Nurses !

hipstocia

Hi there! Night shift RN here. What do you other nurses do about recording your meals? On days that I work (but didn't the night before) I get up at a normal time and have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, then breakfast again at the end of my shift. Do I record that all for one day? Or let my end of shift breakfast count for the next day?

caileag26

I count wake-up to sleep-time. On my daytime days it's morning to night. On my nights on, it's late afternoon until morning. I used to try to do it for actual calendar days, from midnight and midnight, but it just didn't work out for me.

dbfutrell662

I'm no nurse, but I work 5p-2a m-f. I count a day as when I'm awake. I've found the working this shift I can intermittent fast pretty easily. Most nights I eat at 8pm and do not eat again until 2-3pm the next day. Not advocating anything, just giving some insight to my day.

elphie754

I am not a nurse, but rather a paramedic who strictly works night shifts (co-workers swear I am a vampire). I count from midnight to midnight, that way every "day" is identical in terms of hours (if I counted from wake time to sleep time my "day" hours would vary too much. I also do this because then it lines up with my 24hr burn via Fitbit.

I relabeled the meals to 12am-6am, 6am -12pm, 12pm-6pm and 6pm to 12am instead of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack. I have followed that method for 18 months now and it has had some great results for me (almost 100lbs lost).

fishshark

im not a nurse but i used to work 10pm to 6am.. i usually pre logged.

smokeatr9

I work rotating day/night shifts and I am struggling to be consistent with logging. It doesn't help that when I'm on nights for 2 months, I still try to live a "normal" schedule on my days off. @elphie754, I'm curious - how did you change the labels for your meals? I think that may be of great help to me!

Losewtforlife4him

I work 1-2 nights a week as a RN working 12 hr shifts. On nights I work, I will eat my calories for that day during the day and save part of them for during the night to keep my total of 1200-1400 calories. Then when I wake up the next day after I working, my calorie amount starts over. I used to feel like after midnight, my new calorie day started and then I would be panicking that next day when waking up feeling like my calorie bank was slim. It was not good. I felt defeated. So this way, I feel better knowing that my calories even if eaten after midnight are still being used up from my day before work that I saved for at work no matter what time they're eaten. Does that make sense? I asked a similar question and posted a few months ago and got helpful responses. You may want to check that out too.

hnahae

elphie754 wrote: »

I am not a nurse, but rather a paramedic who strictly works night shifts (co-workers swear I am a vampire). I count from midnight to midnight, that way every "day" is identical in terms of hours (if I counted from wake time to sleep time my "day" hours would vary too much. I also do this because then it lines up with my 24hr burn via Fitbit.

I relabeled the meals to 12am-6am, 6am -12pm, 12pm-6pm and 6pm to 12am instead of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack. I have followed that method for 18 months now and it has had some great results for me (almost 100lbs lost).

I do this as well but I relabeled the meals first meal, second, and third, same with the snacks. This way nothing is screwed up on my days off when I function like a normal human being.

SmashleeWpg

I'm not a nurse but a dispatcher so I work rotating 10 hours shifts of days (7am-5pm) evenings (5pm-3am) and nights (9pm-7am), and I just log meal one as breakfast, then a snack, meal 2 as lunch, then a snack, meal 3 as dinner, then pre/post workout or evening snack, regardless of whether breakie is at 645 am or 5 pm. Basically a 24 hour period as someone else mentioned, so that it aligns with my fitbit steps/calorie burn

elphie754

smokeatr9 wrote: »

I work rotating day/night shifts and I am struggling to be consistent with logging. It doesn't help that when I'm on nights for 2 months, I still try to live a "normal" schedule on my days off. @elphie754, I'm curious - how did you change the labels for your meals? I think that may be of great help to me!

There was an option to edit meal
Names somewhere. I honestly can't remember exactly where.

nicsflyingcircus

elphie754 wrote: »

I am not a nurse, but rather a paramedic who strictly works night shifts (co-workers swear I am a vampire). I count from midnight to midnight, that way every "day" is identical in terms of hours (if I counted from wake time to sleep time my "day" hours would vary too much. I also do this because then it lines up with my 24hr burn via Fitbit.

I relabeled the meals to 12am-6am, 6am -12pm, 12pm-6pm and 6pm to 12am instead of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack. I have followed that method for 18 months now and it has had some great results for me (almost 100lbs lost).

My days are labeled 12-4, 4-8, 8-12, 12-4,4-8 and 8-12 and I slap my food in whatever the appropriate time is whether I am working or not

Krav_Maga

Click on the Food tab, then click on settings in the secondary tab list below and there you can rename your meals and change other items.

@smokeatr9

LilRedRooster

I'm a nurse, work 7p-7a, and my "Monday", I stay up for 24 hours then sleep. I've found that trying to log in the hours I'm awake doesn't really work for me, because they vary depending on where I fall in my scheduled time, which is NEVER the same week to week. If I split days, have three in a row, etc., especially since I go back to a regular schedule on my days off, my time awake can be anywhere from 24 hours to 16 to whatever.

I log it basically at it appears on my MFP, so when it switches over at midnight, I start logging for the next day. Even when I switch back to my "normal" schedule and then to nights frequently, I do that, because it makes it easier for me to keep track of my calories if it just follows how I open the app. So everything for me is midnight to midnight, so that I can keep track of the calories in the 24 hour period more easily.

For labeling, I have mine "Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, vitamins, supplements", because I don't consider protein shakes a meal, and I have vitamins that I log, but obviously aren't a meal. I did try to break the day into chunks, but I only work 3-4 days a week, and on my days off, I don't eat like I do when I work or the same hours, so that didn't work well for me.

supermancollector

I'm now in the health care field and have struggled with this also. I work 11pm-9am 4 days a week, the days I work I have been eating when breakfast when I get home then head to bed for 7 hours. I get up for dinner and if I have enough calories left over I take a snack with me to have during my shift. The days I'm not off I have 3 light meals a day. It has been working for me but my progress has slowed lately.