Question about Logging Food! Opinions please!

LoseItJourney

So, wondering what others think about this.

I am a night owl, my day isn't 6am-9pm like most people, I am more of an 11am - 3amish.
This being said, I don't do the whole nothing after 8pm or something, as that would mean 6/7 hours of being awake and not eating, which isn't a nice feeling.

So, like tonight, when I do have a snack at 12am-1am...

Would you log those calories in the previous day (ie, tonights logged as Fri 12th ) or the current day (Sat 13th)


I'm thinking Fridays since my sleeping isnt like most people, but I don't know.

herblackwings39

I'm having a salad and some cherries right now. It is logged on Friday since I haven't been to sleep yet. I just find it easier to go from wake up to sleep with my food diary, but you can do either way.

ShengHuo

I work nights, so my day is quite wonky as well. I find it easier to log my food based on the 24hr calendar day, because then on my nights off I don't get confused (I have a slightly different wake/sleep schedule those days.)

I changed my meal names to
2400-0800 (this covers my work hours)
0800-1800 (when I get home and my big sleep hours, so usually only a snack goes here)
1800-2400 (when I'm most active outside of work)
Drinks (It's easier for me to log because then all my common drinks show up in one spot instead of having to find them for different times)

So it looks pretty funky in my diary, over the 24hr period it ends up the same. I just find it much easier to keep straight in my head.

trudijoy

if you eat after midnight on Friday then i'd count that as Friday. Your Friday clearly goes by slightly diff times....

LoseItJourney

Thanks Everyone I am doing the friday posting, I just didnt know what others thought of that

allall1

Either way works. Just be consistant with what you choose to do. I have a similar day exactly like yours and I log from time I get up to when I go to bed for the night. I just got through logging my last snack and it's midnight. I put it on Friday. Don't sweat the small stuff!

AnaCoffee

I'm often the same way, being an uber-night owl. I always hated that "nothing after 8 pm" line because then I'd be starving by the time I went to bed. Like another said, my day ends when I go to sleep. I ended my count early tonight because after an hour, I knew I was full (and too sick from something I ate) and not going to eat again. I'll start Saturday when I wake up.

dwmaestradeb

I don't think it really matters when you log it as long as you are consistent about it. If you're always having a meal at 1:00 a.m. on Saturday, then decide where you're going to put that meal and keep it there. I use 11:00 p.m. as my cut-off because that is when MFP moves me forward to the next day...anything I eat after 11:00 gets logged to the next day. I second the suggestions to set your diary by times instead of meals since your schedule is so different. I think it's great you're being so conscientious about logging!

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emo1124

I count food as being eating on the day it was when you woke up -- so if it's Wednesday when you wake up, and then you eat food after midnight and go to bed and wake up Thursday, that late night snack still counted for Wednesday. Waking up is what starts the new day, not the clock striking midnight (we aren't Cinderella!!)

laurynwithawhy

I have the same schedule as you, and I log a "day" as when I wake up to when I go to bed. So a 2 am snack on Thursday "morning" goes on Wednesdays diary.

babyluthi

Shift worker here. I log my calories and exercise from midnight to midnight.

pkoll

I work evenings and stay up late, and some nights. If I have calories left over to use, I'll log them on yesterday's. If not I log them on today's, but keep in mind it cuts into the amount you have for the rest of the day. It all goes into the same week- so I"m not even consistent with how I do it.

anewlily

Literally, breakfast means when you 'break' your 'fast'. And that is when your day begins. If you wake up at 2pm in the afternoon and eat a bowl of cereal, thats your breakfast. Thats when you start logging. Doesn't really matter when you do what you do... as long as you log it and keep track.

melaniecheeks

You can do midnight to midnight, or any other 24 hour period. Or you can do sleep to sleep. Whatever suits you best.

Lynn_SD

OP,
I have pretty much the same schedule as you. I used to log all my food intake on the day that I wake up (so Friday noon to Saturday 4 am, or whenever I went to sleep, would be logged on Friday.)

There is a problem logging this way, though, that no one else mentioned. Logging this way means that when you are finished for the time period and press "complete", nothing appears in your News Feed. Others with normal schedules will have an automatic post that says you "completed your food diary for the day" and even adds if you were under your caloric intake for the day. If your diary is open, it also provides a "View Diary" link. I find that having that automated post very motivating, and most of my MFP friends will comment with encouraging responses.

I actually posted an inquiry about this issue on the website questions thread a few weeks ago. I was told that the website automatically switches days at midnight, but there were two possible work-arounds. One was changing your time zone in the settings area. This did not work for me, especially being on the west coast PST. The other fix is to log all of your food intake on the day that you are FINISHED, which would be Saturday in the above example. I have been doing this for the past few weeks and it works great! Now my logging completions are auto-posted in my News Feed.

Good luck with whatever method you choose!