Night Shift

KimKnight5720
KimKnight5720 Posts: 1 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi, I work night shift 3 nights a week. I'm trying to figure out when to count my meals. On a typical night I eat at 5pm, midnight and 4am and then usually 8am before I go to bed. Would I count the 8am meal for the day before since I haven't slept yet, or do I count it as a new day and start at 8am and go to 4am that night?
Hope that makes sense!

Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,197 Member
    edited November 8
    It does make sense.

    Here's what I'd say: Pick what feels best and works most often for you. It really doesn't matter. Our bodies don't reset at midnight, even though MFP does.

    In fact, daily calories aren't that big a deal. Whaaaat?

    No, I'm not being radical here: Weekly average is more important. Consistent eating habits can be helpful psychologically, for appetite and compliance and that sort of thing, sure. But if you have a low day or high day occasionally, but the weekly average is close to your goal, you're golden. That's not advocacy of wild swings in eating, or "have a blow out then make up for it afterward" (generally a bad idea ;) ), but just a suggestion that daily strictness needn't be absolute, so we can relax and be real.

    If you use the phone/tablet version of MFP (or could sometimes), you'll find that it has a 7-day average all calculated out for you, and you can pick the exact days included. It's under the "More" menu, sequence of clicks is Nutrition/Calories, then Week View. You can look at either net calories (i.e., adjusted for exercise) or total calories (total eaten).

    Best wishes!

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