Confused on night shift!

Slasher09

I am getting so lost with how to factor in my meals. I’m 9m on night shift and it hasn’t gotten easier.

So I work at 645p and I get off at work at 715a 3x a week. On my first shift of the week I am awake all day (up at 7a with the kids) and all night, and my last shift I sleep after work and then go back to sleep normal time with everyone.

My lunch break varies....I take it anytime between midnight and 4am....but some days I don’t get a break (small, freestanding ER....so if people are delivering babies, or literally dying or a 1:1 for psych there’s no one taking a break).

I’m having trouble determining if my lunch break should be factored into the calories of the day prior or the next day. When I’m home, awake during the day (4x/wk) I eat normally and then 3 days I eat a little around 2-3p when I get up....maybe a little bit witn the family around 6p, I might be able to sneak in a snack around 10p depending on if I was able to eat earlier and how busy we are, and then my main meal is on average 1-3a.

Anyone dealt with the same and actually figured it out? I feel like I’m either constantly slamming coffee....or constantly eating, but yet seem to have equal amounts of days where since I hadn’t eaten in 16hrs and I can’t get to my lunch I snack off our candy drawer

cmriverside

It doesn't matter how/when you log meals. And you can eat one or two meals per day, that is the way a lot of people have to eat with busy schedules.

Some people rename their meal slots to time slots, so instead of Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks, they'll name them 12AM-4AM, 4AM-8AM, 8AM-Noon, etc.

You can do that at FOOD > Settings

https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

Slasher09

cmriverside wrote: »

It doesn't matter how/when you log meals. And you can eat one or two meals per day, that is the way a lot of people have to eat with busy schedules.

Some people rename their meal slots to time slots, so instead of Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks, they'll name them 12AM-4AM, 4AM-8AM, 8AM-Noon, etc.

You can do that at FOOD > Settings

https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

I guess the biggest issue I have is that one week Monday-weds I may work overnights...so Monday I’m awake from 7a until 9a the next day...and then I follow that schedule until Friday morning when I’ll sleep until like 2-3p and then go back to bed around 10p and wake up sat morning and live like other people until I go back to work on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday. It’s hard to keep switching and on days like my first day on I don’t know where the cutoff would be for food one day and then the next because I’ll eat dinner before work if I can (6ish) and then my dinner break is anywhere from midnight to 4a, and then I’m also having coffee around 3-4a, etc. it’s proven to be very hard on my body completely switching sleep and food cycles twice weekly

paperpudding

Sounds overthinking it to me.

Just log each day from midnight to next midnight ( our standard western way of recording days) and log whatever you eat on that calendar day as that day.
Sure, this may mean some days are more calories than others due to shift changeovers etc - but that doesn't matter, it is the average that matters.

It might help you to look at weekly calories rather than daily ones - as long as your week is within your calorie allowance, it is all good.

grimendale

I kept the standard 24 hour period when I was switching between day, night, and swing shifts regularly. I'd log it as whatever meal I was eating from my perspective, but applying it out of order to the current 24 hour period. So my first meal of a given diary day would be my lunch at 12:30 am. I'd get home and have dinner around 6 am, go to sleep, then get up around 4:30 pm and have breakfast, which would be the last meal I'd log that day. Lunch would be the start of the next logging day.

cmriverside

Slasher09 wrote: »

cmriverside wrote: »

It doesn't matter how/when you log meals. And you can eat one or two meals per day, that is the way a lot of people have to eat with busy schedules.

Some people rename their meal slots to time slots, so instead of Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks, they'll name them 12AM-4AM, 4AM-8AM, 8AM-Noon, etc.

You can do that at FOOD > Settings

https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

I guess the biggest issue I have is that one week Monday-weds I may work overnights...so Monday I’m awake from 7a until 9a the next day...and then I follow that schedule until Friday morning when I’ll sleep until like 2-3p and then go back to bed around 10p and wake up sat morning and live like other people until I go back to work on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday. It’s hard to keep switching and on days like my first day on I don’t know where the cutoff would be for food one day and then the next because I’ll eat dinner before work if I can (6ish) and then my dinner break is anywhere from midnight to 4a, and then I’m also having coffee around 3-4a, etc. it’s proven to be very hard on my body completely switching sleep and food cycles twice weekly

Okay, well that is where you are right now so that is what you have to work with. Lots of people do shift work.

I agree with paperpudding, why not just look at weekly calories?

For instance, my weekly Goal is 12,600. I don't always eat exactly right at my 1800 per day. I have a spreadsheet (not sure that would be helpful to you,) and I go by weekly calories, and running averages.