Eating and rotating shifts

IvyLynnH

I work a two week rotating shift which of course means that every two weeks I have to flip my eating/sleeping schedule upside down. When I switch, I tend to only consume half of the calories I need to in a day and barely drink anything because I don't feel good. My workouts on those weekends are nonexistent because I haven't gotten enough sleep and of course haven't consumed enough food.
I eat great on afternoon/nights and am satisfied with what I eat but when I am on days, I am always hungry and get into anything that is within arm's reach. I eat the same meals on days and overnights. I have been doing this for 6 years now and nothing I have done seems to work.
One guy at my work said he only eats during the day (he wakes himself up for breakfast and lunch) and then eats dinner on first break and doesn't eat anything else for the rest of our shift which is still another 7 to 9 hours. I cannot do this as I suffer from sleep deprivation migraines and don't think that it is healthy to disrupt my sleep to eat nor do I think it is healthy to work a physically demanding job all night with no fuel.
Any shift workers out there have suggestion on how to eat during change over weekends and how not to be starving all day while on day shift?
Thanks in advance for everyone's thought and opinions.

JBanx256

I work rotating 12-hour shifts, 4 weeks of day shift then 4 weeks of night shift, repeat ad infinitum.

On day shift, I have a bar/shake first thing when I roll outta bed and head to the gym. I have a mid-morning snack a couple hours into shift, so around 0800 hours(usually fruit & a protein bar). I normally end up eating my lunch in 2 parts (just a weird habit I got into, probably because as it is, it's rare when I don't get interrupted multiple times when I try to eat at work and have to run calls?) - the first noonish and then the second maybe 1500 hrs. Granted the nature of my work those are sort of target times, as sometimes it may be 1400 hours before I even eat the first part of my lunch. Anyway, I eat a meal with the fam as soon as possible after I get home, so maybe 1845hrs. And then I have a pre-bedtime snack of cottage cheese/Greek yogurt etc before I crash out for the night.

For night shift, basically everything is the same, just bumped 12 hours (so snack ~2000 hours, first half of dinner ~midnight, second half ~0300 hrs), pre-bed snack when I get home in the morning ~0645 hrs. Then bar/shake when I wake up & to the gym and then a late lunch before I get ready for work.

On my days OFF, I have a little bit more normal meal schedule to eat with the fam and all that, although pre-training & pre-bedtime snacks are consistent.

nossmf

I worked rotating Day/Swing/Mid shifts for 13 years, though in my case we rotated every two days instead of every two weeks. (Would have MUCH preferred rotating every 2 weeks!) For days/swings, I kept the exact same eating/sleeping schedule. Main difference is when working days I would go to work immediately after waking and hit the gym after work; when working swings, I would exercise upon waking and before work, then hit the sack immediately after work. I normally only eat two meals per day, which I kept at 11am and 6pm, regardless days/swings...I just had one meal at home, the other at work.

Mids were always my hard point, but for meals I still tried to keep to two main meals, one about 5 hours after waking, the other 6-7 hours after that, same as my days/swings schedule, just offset for waking up at a different time. If I wake at 4pm prior to a 10pm shift, I'll try to eat about 9pm and 3am (going to bed immediately after getting home)...if I wake at 9pm just before that shift starts, I eat at 2am/8am (going to bed a few hours after getting home).

I allow myself one snack as needed, something with a bit of protein in it to help promote not only satiety but also alertness. Cheese and crackers, spoon of peanut butter, or yogurt foot the bill nicely.

For exercise, I typically avoid it during my mids, as sleep tends to heavily influence how productive my gym time is (not to mention safety...would hate to drop a weight on my foot/head due to falling asleep mid-lift!). If you're going to do two weeks at a shot, I would give at least 2-3 days of simply existing and adapting to the new sleep routine before trying to add a gym session.

For me, my days off I would keep my days/swing eat/sleep routine for consistency. If you are going to have two weeks of days, with a weekend off between, keep the days schedule on that weekend, rather than trying to adapt differently and then re-adapt back starting Monday. After you transition back, THEN you can relax on that weekend.