Night shift

Options
Hey! Does anyone here have any advice for me. I work 12 hour nights. One week I do a 24 hour week. And the second week I do 60 hours. Has me all over the place. If anyone here does this or similar can you give me advice on eating, exercising.? I find my self sleeping a lot on my long week. I wake up when my partner is eating dinner.🙈

Replies

  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
    Options
    When you eat is largely irrelevant when compared to how much you eat so the best approach is to eat to the schedule that makes it easiest for you.

    Given the odd routine you have it might be worth tracking your calories weekly so that you can balance out days where you eat more with days where you eat less.

    Maintaining a weekly 3500cal deficit will provide the same results as a 500cal daily deficit.
  • grimendale
    grimendale Posts: 2,154 Member
    Options
    Back when I was on night shift/swing shift, what worked for me was keeping my "days" consistent with the usual 24 hour period, but logging my foods out of order. For example, I would eat my first meal at 12:30am, which was my lunch. I'd eat dinner around 6am, then go to sleep. I'd wake up and have breakfast at 5pm, which would be the last meal I'd log that day. As @Danp said, it's largely irrelevant when you eat, so just pick a system that works for you and be consistent.
  • naynerrn
    naynerrn Posts: 8 Member
    Options
    I work 3 12 hour night shifts a week. I stay to the usual meal times. So, when I wake up in the afternoon I’ll try to get some exercise then eat a normal dinner. I’ll have a snack around 2000-2100 and again around 0130-0200. On my way home I’ll usually have some oatmeal or Greek yogurt.