Shift changes

stschulz

I am a little puzzled how work and changing shifts impacts my calorie counting
I work nights. 12 and eight hour shifts. I decided easiest would be to treat a day as what is a day for me. So I start counting with breakfast at 5 pm. Or 9 pm. works ok while I am working, 'cause I sleep most of the rest.
Problem starts after my last shift. I finished my "day" at 8 am in the morning and go to sleep. Usually some time that night I get up. Now I have used my calories from the previous "day". I sleep a little or am awake, depends how tired I am. The following day I am awake during the day. Which means I would eat something in between and breakfeast in the am.

I know, sounds stupid. But somehow that does not work well.

Maybe I should count 24 hr periods regardless whether my day is at night or not.

Any advise?

stschulz

I am a little puzzled how work and changing shifts impacts my calorie counting
I work nights. 12 and eight hour shifts. I decided easiest would be to treat a day as what is a day for me. So I start counting with breakfast at 5 pm. Or 9 pm. works ok while I am working, 'cause I sleep most of the rest.
Problem starts after my last shift. I finished my "day" at 8 am in the morning and go to sleep. Usually some time that night I get up. Now I have used my calories from the previous "day". I sleep a little or am awake, depends how tired I am. The following day I am awake during the day. Which means I would eat something in between and breakfeast in the am.

I know, sounds stupid. But somehow that does not work well.

Maybe I should count 24 hr periods regardless whether my day is at night or not.

Any advise?

vldowd

I also work rotating shifts and log my food according to my sleeping times. I usually have a cut off time for when I normally go to bed. :yawn: Such as Swing Shift is 0200 and Graves is 0800. I created an additional category for Nights for logging my food consumed during the wee hours. I usually just make a comment under food notes for odd hours worked. At times, I will work 16 hours in the same 24 hour period so the logging can get kind of wild. On my changeover days I don't worry too much if I go over a little, I usually make up for it on the following day.

stschulz

I'm glad to see I am not alone with that.
Not worry to much about eat over is a plan. Best solution so far.
Maybe try to get some extra exercise, but that is kinda hard too after working 4 days with 2 twelves in a row.

Newman4AU

I have also worked nights/ and rotated out every month. It is almost impossible to match your intake to a normal schedule. The best thing that worked for me, is to treat every day according to your sleep schedule, not a 24 hour calendar. One big key - no matter how tired and hungry- don't eat big and go to sleep.