Night Shift Nurse Needs Advice

kmbtrigger24

Anyone else on here share the struggle of working night shifts, while trying to achieve weight loss and better health?

I work weekend night shifts -Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 7PM to 7AM.

I have struggled with my weight since being a teenager. In 2019 I reached my heaviest of 200lbs and I am just under 5 foot. I have managed to lose around 30 pounds and keep it off but I have been working on becoming healthier as a whole. Currently, according to my smart scale I am 40% body fat. I have always had a bad relationship with the scale and food and I am trying to heal those things. It has gotten better over time. My main focus is decreasing my body fat % and becoming healthier.

I have been watching many pod casts and am learning about macros and nutrition. I am currently on a calorie deficit of 1600 calories and 140GM of protein per day. My biggest issues is cravings and binging especially when working night shifts. I am trying to focus on eating whole foods and only eat protein supplements when needed or in replacement of say a candy bar. In addition to nutrition I am drinking 80oz of water per day, getting 8-10K steps in per day, and strength training with dumbbells 3-4x per week.

During the month of June I went to 1900 calories because I was tired overall and very hungry all of the time. I kept my weight right around 167-168 pounds. I am ready to start moving in the right direction and lose some more body fat. So I started cutting again on June 29th with the nutrition macros above.

Does anyone have any tips, or advice? Is anyone else in the same boat?

I am also trying to expand my community on here and support. Feel free to give me a friend request, as we are all in this together!

JBanx256

Police officer here, work a 2-2-3 with rotating days/nights (either 6a-6p or 6p-6a)

I meal prep once/week and load up my cooler (it rides shotgun in my patrol truck) with a meal and any snacks for the entire shift.

MaggieGirl135

I’ll second prepping and bringing food to work.

Mischante

I'm a NOC Nurse as well. I've been working this shift for over 10 years now. I've managed to lose 40+ pounds since January by staying within my calorie budget and getting a minimum of 10,000 steps a day. What has been working for me is planning out my meals for the work week and having them ready to go. I focus on getting my protein intake and lots of vegetables.

kmbtrigger24

Mischante wrote: »

I'm a NOC Nurse as well. I've been working this shift for over 10 years now. I've managed to lose 40+ pounds since January by staying within my calorie budget and getting a minimum of 10,000 steps a day. What has been working for me is planning out my meals for the work week and having them ready to go. I focus on getting my protein intake and lots of vegetables.

Thanks for the advice! I have been meal planning pretty for a while now and that definitely helps on the weekends. During the weekdays when I am off is when I have been having the trouble. My cravings get to me. I also am thinking that I have plateaued out a bit. I think I am going to decrease my calorie goal for a couple weeks and see what happens. Thanks again!

kmbtrigger24

JBanx256 wrote: »

Police officer here, work a 2-2-3 with rotating days/nights (either 6a-6p or 6p-6a)

I meal prep once/week and load up my cooler (it rides shotgun in my patrol truck) with a meal and any snacks for the entire shift.

Thanks for everything you do in your line of work! Your advice is great, I do meal prep and that helps immensely. I make it a goal to not eat anything extra and only eat what I bring at work.

Have any advice for cravings? Some times for a couple days I just have cravings that are incessant. Thanks!

AnnPT77

kmbtrigger24 wrote: »

JBanx256 wrote: »

Police officer here, work a 2-2-3 with rotating days/nights (either 6a-6p or 6p-6a)

I meal prep once/week and load up my cooler (it rides shotgun in my patrol truck) with a meal and any snacks for the entire shift.

Thanks for everything you do in your line of work! Your advice is great, I do meal prep and that helps immensely. I make it a goal to not eat anything extra and only eat what I bring at work.

Have any advice for cravings? Some times for a couple days I just have cravings that are incessant. Thanks!

Is there a correlation with a specific point(s) in your menstrual cycle, by any chance? Some women choose to eat at maintenance calories for those few days.

Also, look for other correlations - possible triggers.

Examples could be poor or not enough sleep, high stress, particular patterns in eating (timing or relative size of meals/snacks, particular nutrient combinations, maybe even specific food choices), over-exercise or certain types of exercise, etc.

If there's a pattern of possible triggers that aren't purely food-related, that would suggest some experiments with non-food strategies to improve the situation.

Best wishes!