Nightshifters HELP!

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K8egrl22
K8egrl22 Posts: 9
in Health and Weight Loss
So I know I'm not the only one that works night shift that is trying to loose weight. My question is how do you manage your caloire intake for the day. Most of the days I work I'm up for close to 24 hours. I stay awake all day with my daughter and then work 12hrs overnight. The problem I run into is I run out of calories before I run out of day! Any help would be great! And feel free to add me as a friend I would love to meet more people!

thanks
Kate

Replies

  • EHuntRN
    EHuntRN Posts: 320 Member
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    Hi Kate...I have been going thru this for the past 4 months and not sure how to do it correctly.... When I started I used to log from my waking hours until I went to sleep...which gave me about as many hours to log as a person working the 12 day shift....for the last week I have tried it the MN to MN way and I find myself running out of cals before MN...this was not the case when I did it the other way...so I think when I go back to work Wed nite, I am going to continue to log my days as I live them...meaning when I wake up to go to work at 4pm thats when my logging for the day will start, except my first day...it always throughs me off....I end up having 4 meals on that day so I make sure they are low cal to fit the cal "budget"!!
  • snkeller24
    snkeller24 Posts: 459
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    How many calories are you "burning" with energy. How far over do you go? I work 12 hour shifts and find that I eat more at work then when I'm home on my day off.
  • sing1998
    sing1998 Posts: 38 Member
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    i worked night shift for many years and i lived "as if" i was a regular day person. meaning, when i got off work at 7am my day began, i ate breakfast, took kids to school, came home and slept, woke up in the afternoon and picked them up from school, had supper with them, then i ate a light snack around 10 before going to work and my day of eating was finished. i never ate at work though everyone else did and we were always having birthday parties. i just never wanted my metabolism to work at night. instead, i would exercise at work. i had hand held weights and a stool to work with. sometimes i'd do stair climbing. i drank lots of fluids all night. this worked for me and i never gained weight. good luck to you to find a system that works!
  • EHuntRN
    EHuntRN Posts: 320 Member
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    I pack my lunch and snacks and try to not to eat outside my lunch bag...I might snack on a few graham crackers in the unit...but like the other poster said..how many cals are you burning with energy...I wore my HRM once and burned 2000 cals in 12 hours...not sure if that included my BMR cals or not...but still that led me to believe even if I do go over a few cals....I prob needed them...thats why I want me a BodyBugg!!!
  • harvick29fan
    harvick29fan Posts: 28 Member
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    Working overnights used to wreak havoc on my sleeping and eating patterns. I used to go home and go right to bed, when I got up I would have breakfast, lunch was actually at 6pm'ish, then I had my dinner at work. However...it would definitely create more of a challenge if you are up for extended amounts of time.
  • alyssa92982
    alyssa92982 Posts: 1,093 Member
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    I work 8 hr nites-I start my day officially at midnite-I have a light snack about 2am which is usually green tea, a fruit, and granola bar. Then about 5:30am I will eat crackers w/ peanut butter, a fruit, and coffee. I sleep from 9am-3pm then eat dinner about 6pm. That leaves room for another snack later about 9:30pm to wrap up my day off logging. This has worked so far for me. Good luck. Its not easy for sure!

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