Working (and eating) on night shifts

Mangoose

Hi there, I know there's a thread about night eating, but my situation is a bit different. Every 1 in 6 weeks, I have to work a week of nightshifts. This means essentially that my meals get shifted along the day, as I wake up at 2pm, then have my 'breakfast', then lunch would come around dinner time etc etc.

It's the dinner meal that's throwing me. I've heard theories about people eating normally, people eating only liquids (soup) and some don't eat at all!

It's a bit of a weird balance between getting enough nutrition and not pigging out (the urge on nights to munch chocolate etc is 10 times stronger!)

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Many thanks

bluestar239

I went through the same thing at my last job. As long as you don't go over your calorie intake and eat healthy you are fine. I had dinner like I normally would. Even though your hours are switched around a bit, the body still needs the nutrition, and even though the night shifts are only temporary, the body does get used to it. As far as junk food, oh yeah the cravings kick in like mad lol. If it got real bad (especially for chocolate) I would take a mini size one with me to work and have that to ease my cravings, or even some low fat cocoa. Hope this helps you

Mangoose

Good to know, thanks very much!

So this whole ' don't eat after x o clock' is rubbish?

That makes sense, a calorie is still a calorie no matter when you eat it, right?

Mark

bluestar239

Yes, it's all rubbish. As long as you don't go over your calorie intake you are fine

nuttybuttersmommy

The problem with eating at night is thats when people usually go to bed... I think it has something to do with eating and then going right to lay down an sleep and not having the chance to burn some of the cals off... if you eat at night and dont go to bed right a way I dont see a problem... but could be wrong...