night shifters!

wcasie

Hello! I am pretty new to mfp... but i was wanting the opinion of some night shifters. how do you count your calories. do you go midnight to midnight? wake up to bed time? Some days, as you know, are really long and others I only get one meal in so I was looking for tips to manage. Thanks!

punkrawkcutie

Midnight to midnight because i function on regular hours on my days off and otherwise it's too hard to track

shockrina

My mom works nights and tries to stay on that even when she's off. On nights she works she starts her day when she wakes up for work (she does 7p-7a) and her last meal is before she goes to bed after she gets off work.

IrishCloud

YES I use to do the same ....7pm-8am.

Keebler125

i agree with the last poster (shockrina).
when i worked nights and heck even now.. i do not go by midnight to midnight. rather when i arise for the day and when i retire for the day.
honestly, i would not worry too much on the TIME, but rather the cycle.
since everyones "day" is different, and very few people eat breakfast at the same time, i would only concern yourself with the cycle of the day, rather than the TIME of day.
hope this helps

K

Grantmas

I just switch so that I track the time i am awake as one day, most nights at work i dont have much after midnight though. Maybe a cup of milo at around 3.

T0M0

I don't really work a night shift but i do start work at 3am so my day starts at 02:15. I go to bed about 21:15.

My diary is broken down into 5 sections 02:15 - 06:00, 06:00- 10:00, 10:00-14:00, 14:-17:00 17:00 -22:00. I just log anything i eat / drink into the relevant time slot.

I did post a while back asking about the fact that i'm up for about 19hrs a day on a work day compared to someone who works a 9-5 shift getting a proper 8-9 hrs sleep per day. Does that mean i burn more calories and in turn allowed to eat more?. I think the only way to find out would be to wear a HRM for 24 hrs to see how many cals i would burn.

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punkrawkcutie

I did post a while back asking about the fact that i'm up for about 19hrs a day on a work day compared to someone who works a 9-5 shift getting a proper 8-9 hrs sleep per day.
:

this is why I do midnight to midnight... If i did sleep to sleep, some days would be 2 days worth of calories (which isn't right). I think you need to do what works for you

wcasie

thanks everyone!! These are all good advice! I will think about it and try to see what works best for me!

MaggieP86

I've lost 40 pounds as a night shifter. The best thing I can think is you want to eat the goal calories while you're awake, rather than allowing yourself to overindulge/undereat at odd times.

I start my day whenever I wake up, end it when I go to bed. Even my morning workouts (real morning, not wake-up mornings) go on the day I'm still 'living'.