Night Shift Workers OR Workaholics!

Felesina1

I have 3 jobs. 2 of them are night shifts as a nurse (sedentary) and the other is as a massage therapist. I'm trying to figure out how to stay within a 1250 cal/day diet when I'm going from being awake most of the day at 1 job (massage) to being up all night at another. Are those days that the 1250 cal doesn't mean as much as I'm up almost 24hrs? And how/when do I decide that I'm logging food from one day to the next? It's all one day to me; that is, until I actually go to sleep and wake up the afternoon of the morning I left work, it's 1 day for me. Thoughts?

javarushed

I work a lot of hours myself (swing shifts) and I found the best way to keep decent food available is to keep it iced in a cooler. I'm guessing if you're up for such a period of time that you'd burn more calories then an average person.

I tried to make it so that if I had a late dinner I'd count it for that same day or go off what time I woke up for that day, but it just gets complicated if you can't have a steady eating pattern. To keep things easy, I just log my food from midnight to midnight exactly the following day.

gailygail99

night shifter here! there is an "official night shift" thread on here somewhere, you should check it out. i work 4 days a week from 8p-6a and it is kinda rough. i changed the names of my meals in my food diary to help me keep track better. i start my new day at 6am each day. so eventhough i am getting ready to go to bed in a few hours, i actually begin my diary at 6am. so my first meal is called "meal#1" instead of breakfast since it is really dinner for me. you have to really plan ahead and get your food and snacks together in advance. on my first night back to work i bag up all my veggies and snacks for the next 4 nights. i plan out my meals in the am for the whole day. so i eat at the following times on my work days

6am-meal#1 (then i exercise and then watch some TV then go to bed)
530pm-wake up
630pm-meal#2 (work at 8pm)
12am-snack
230am-meal#3

and that is all. on my first day off i end up eating just two meals and then i go to a normal person schedule for the next two nights. it's crazy so i know how you feel. having more than 1 job though, i would die!! :noway:

dcerna62

Workaholic here. When I work overnight I count whatever I ate as the previous day since I haven't slept yet. Then when I wake up, whatever time that may be, I start the new day.

xraychick77

i go from midnight to midnight

javarushed

@gaily I have 3 categories: Meals for the day, Snacks for the day and Drinks for the day. The rotating swing shift thing throws me off, so I'm not a 100% night shifter

gailygail99

@gaily I have 3 categories: Meals for the day, Snacks for the day and Drinks for the day. The rotating swing shift thing throws me off, so I'm not a 100% night shifter

that is a good idea. to just put them into categories. mine are just meals #1, #2 and #3 and "after workout snack:" and then "snacks"...if my shift was rotating i would be a hot mess. atleast mine is consistent. i have been on it for 8yrs! haha!

javarushed

@gaily I have 3 categories: Meals for the day, Snacks for the day and Drinks for the day. The rotating swing shift thing throws me off, so I'm not a 100% night shifter

that is a good idea. to just put them into categories. mine are just meals #1, #2 and #3 and "after workout snack:" and then "snacks"...if my shift was rotating i would be a hot mess. atleast mine is consistent. i have been on it for 8yrs! haha!

lol I know what you mean. I tried the standard breakfast, lunch and dinner labels, but it looked strange to people when I ate dinner for breakfast etc. The fun part about swing swifts is when you change from the one shift the one week to the next shift and your sleep pattern is all screwed up :P Pulling doubles adds to the fun! I keep extra food in my cooler for such surprises! But relabeling them to meal 1, 2 and 3 and not having those standard breakfast, lunch and dinner labels makes things look so much neater *for pure night shifters*

idivadi

I work 4 nights at a time 730pm to 730am, then I have days off. I have trouble tracking my food also. I added a middle of the night (3-4am) snack to my food diary. I try to keep my calories at the recommended level in the 24 hr period. This I find hard so any tips would be appreciated. 24hrs to spread the 1200 calories is a long, thin spread. I have been working shift for over twenty years and have no idea how to optimize my eating habits. I will be reading your replies to see what I can learn.

Felesina1

While I'm still trying to get a handle on all of this, I think that by not being flexible with my intake when I'm working very long hours is probably worse than just having a day or two of more calories to help get me through 24hrs awake. Once I figure out a good schedule I'll let you know!

Thanks for all replies to my post!

agibsonky

I work nights 7 on, 7 off...I count midnight to midnight and don't eat extra on my first day off, when I'm up for 26 plus hours...I still stay under 1350. Usually 200 cal snack about 1 am, 200-300 cal meal at 3 am and about 9-10 am, 200 cal snack at about 1 pm, dinner with the family, then a small bedtime snack, then sleep for 9-11 hours and start fresh the next morning (my non-vampire week)