night shifts !

wowser3

Hi all.
I am a permanent night shift worker. This plays havoc with my appetite, eating routines etc etc.
Anyway, what I wanted to know is, when do you think I should count my calories from and to? From when I wake up until I go to sleep again? Or from midnight to midnight? I don't really know how to work it.
Thanks.

AngelicaDulas

I know that MFP automatically "resets" to the next day's diary at midnight for your time zone. I would say to plan ahead what you are going to eat and log it all on one day??? Maybe. Thats rough though, you might have to play with it for a few days and see what works for you.

MegJo

I posted the following tips on another night shift forum so I'll post them here too!

I do things I bit different then the night shift majority. I "pretend" I'm a dayshifter. For example: when I got up up around 1500 I logged breakfast, I ate lunch right before I came into work at 1930, I'll have a snack around 2200 and another snack around 0000, dinner at 0200 and if needed a small snack around 0400. I will log it all under the day I woke up (Friday in this case). When I go in to edit my diary after 0000 I just click back to the previous day.

This helps me feel more "normal" and it allows me to see what I'm eating in a day while my body is up and functioning.


Tips:

--Plan your day out when you first wake up. After breakfast I log what I'm going to eat for the rest of the day. By doing this I hardly EVER go over my calories. I can't say enough how much this one action has helped me.

--Get into a eating routine and try to stick with it. If you have to flipflop night shift and day shift (thankfully I do not) have a dayshift eating schedule and a night shift eating schedule. Try to schedule when you're going to eat your major meals and then have some snacks around those times.

--Pack snacks. String cheese, fruit, shrimp with cocktail sauce, snap peas, vitatops, pickles, nuts, turkey pepperoni, popsicles, popcorn, yogurt

--Exercise. Just because we work nights doesn't mean we don't have to exercise - get it in when you can!

Hope that helped! My dairy is open if you want to take a look.

Crystal817

I'm with Meg!

I log from the time I wake up until the time I go to sleep... all in one day. So from about 3pm-7am the next day.

hjy319

I also work night shift, I log from wake up to sleep. I know several others log by times example 0000-0400, 0400-0800, 0800-1200, 1200-1600, 1600-2000, and 2000-2359. And then also others who log from midnight to midnight, using this your breakfast and dinner would be on different days. What it really boils down to is what is easiest for you. You can change your diary settings so that you can name your meals anything you want.
I like the wake to sleep method simply because it is what makes sense for me. I tried the midnight to midnight and felt odd about logging calories on a different day, I like to know what I am eating in one day (when i wake up to when i go to bed) I have never tried the time system, as I like to know my breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner calorie break downs.

sloanranger57

Hiya night-shifters, I too work permernant night and need to work out a night shift plan. I too have decided to pretend my night is day and eat accordingly. Last night od four tonight. I work 4 on and 4 off.

Fab to have night-shift support

Jo x

allie7383

Fellow night-shifter here as well! I do the time frames.. So mine are 12am-8am, 8a-4p, and 4p-12a... i've found it easier for me just to keep things organized whether i'm working or not.

kkellam1

I work a rotating shift. Rotates on a random basis and never the same week to week. What works for me is what a poster above mentioned. Simply log it on the day that you wake up. Midnight is just an arbritrary cutoff point that you can ignore. Sure, you have to click or swype back to the previous day to enter things, but that's no big deal once you are used to it.

If you eat spread out through the day (remember to keep snacks with you), the rythym shouldn't be a problem. I mostly stick to the categories of breakfast , lunch dinner when i log but I don't care if I get it in the wrong category. Sometimes it's easier to find a recent food under a different daypart, so I go ahead and log it there. It's my daily total that matters.

The most important thing (in my opinion) is that you always keep to your "good list" of foods. By a few weeks in to this effort, I had worked out which food was off limits and which food was ok. This list plus your limit for calories are the two things that you stick to no matter what. I know that this is a controvertial statement, but for me they are non-negotiable. I do not believe in cheating with off-limits foods and I do not believe it is acceptable to exceed your calorie allotment. It's like the old saying, "plan the work and work the plan."

Finally, log, log, log. Log everything and do it either in advance like a lot of people do or just before you eat it (I do this). Logging after the fact doesn't do anything but keep a diary. I believe one of the big purposes of logging is to make you examine your decision before you eat it. That gives you a moment to pause and make sure it's the right decision.