NIGHT SHIFT

ndavid28

tips on eating and exercising when working 12 hour nights plus when you have off days???

Dreamin_Skinny

is it possible for you to workout at work? not like lunges and pushups lol, but maybe walking?

AlyssaSoyk

I have the same problem with working nights. If I get the chance I try to walk the hallways, I also drink plenty of water so I don't get the midnight munchies.

juggalotus

I have the same issue. Sometimes I will do an 18 hour shift (2pm-9am) and i have no idea how to log my food after midnight and throughout the night. We do have a treadmill in all the houses...(I work in an ICF) But i would really hate getting all sweaty at work :-/ but Im curious to see what people have to say

ndavid28

yeah i work in a hospital i do alot of walking but the food i think is the bigger part i dont know when to eat if I am eating at the wrong time idk

hush7hush

Same things you would eat if you worked during the day?

ndavid28

yeah girlie cause do u eat before you go home, what do you eat when u wake up and what about when u r off totally messed up schedule

lumberjacks94

What I do for my 8 hour night shift is prepare my meals before I come in and portion them out throughout the night. I try to eat something at least every two hours and drink water throughout the night. Mostly I just lay out fruit on my desk and grab whatever I feel like eating at that moment. I also bring a main "meal" that I eat at various times depending on how hungry I am. I don't eat the bigger meal until I'm most hungry, figuring that makes the most sense. But there is nothing worse than being rushed to work and being unprepared. That means fending in the vending machine and that's just sick and wrong at this point!

sharanranran

Bump for later

ndavid28

hush7hush I have asked the people at weight watchers, dieticians, weight loss proffesionals, all those diets are based off a 8 hour work day with 6-8 hours of sleep at night, I am a nurse sometimes I work 14 hour days and swing shift it gets a little confusing, I think I just have to sit down and come up with a plan and just post a meal for that day thank you though!!

ejohndrow

I just started nights as well (we switch days to nights every 6 mos.) my schedule is: Sleep at 0800-about 1300, gym 1400-1600, ready for work and then arm up at 1745.
Days off my time at the gym can go up to 3 hours a day.
As I've posted before I've gotten into this eating habit of grilled chicke or grilled fish, fruit, veggies and coffee lots and lots of coffee. My nights are a little different though. Right now I'm on the leeward side of base where everything closed at 1800-if you don't bring food over here you're pretty much screwed-or it's like the best diet ever.

ndavid28

thank u everybody

peacefrog08109

I'm a night shift RN, work 12 hr shifts 3-4 times a week. I try to work out the first shift I'm on and any day I'm off. The morning after my last shift I try to work out in the morning. It helps trying to get me back on a "real life" schedule.

kp2002

Hi: I work 12hr nights at a hospital. This may not work for you but it does me. I eat breakfast when I wake up around 1730, then lunch at work around 2300, healthy snacks and lots of water thru the night, then dinner at 0730 on when I get home from work. I also work out before I go to work so I don't skip it. On my days off I try to eat on a regular schedule... hope this helps

ndavid28

I'm a night shift RN, work 12 hr shifts 3-4 times a week. I try to work out the first shift I'm on and any day I'm off. The morning after my last shift I try to work out in the morning. It helps trying to get me back on a "real life" schedule.

I likes thanks girl

sharanranran

I work a week of 12.5 hour nights every 4 weeks as a midwife. I plan that my first night I spread my cals out eating really low cal stuff and each day starts again when I wake up in the pm. So my first day/night my cals last 24 hours. It's a great idea to do your exercise before work to get extra cals. My work means I can't do exercise and sometimes I dont get a break either but I do take advantage of any walking I might get. Also, this way means when you wake up from your last night, you can have a really good evening meal

Hope this helps

snookumss

I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM!

I have a food cart and I work Wednesday-Saturday (sometimes others as well). Those days I don't get to work until 5pm and I usually don't get home till 4am. Weekend nights I work even later (for the bar crowd) and don't get home until between 5-6am! This makes my sleep schedule even crazier... and it rolls over into the rest of the week!

I am super lazy when it comes to getting up in the morning (afternoon) so its really hard to go before work I've done that as well as dragging my butt to the gym after work (working out at 4:30-5:30am). I changed my settings and relabeled my meals to be time ranges instead, so it starts "before 3, 3-6,6-9,9-12 and so on... but the last one says "After".

This helps with my food logging, but its still really hard to balance my body. To keep a regular schedule, to keep my body balanced and keep myself healthy, seems like its balancing on a fine line.

biddybid

Hi there im looking for people to be friends with and communicate with while im losing weight. Moral support

lumberjacks94

I have no idea where to log my stuff on which day because of the night shift thing. I want it to somewhat correlate to my food to that day's exercise but I always get confused how to log it and end up logging nothing :-( At least i'm thinking about it!

JaneDoughSanAntonio

Yah!!! More night shift people! (I thought I was the only one who was having confusion with logging!) I get to work between 5:30 and 7 p.m., and go home from 2:30 to 5:30 a.m. (When I get in kinda depends on how late I was here the night before since I don't get OT.)

I've been logging all my meals on the same day ... you can keep going back to the previous day after midnight. So I'm still up and eating, and posting meals on Tuesday. I guess basically, I'm pretending it's Tuesday until I sleep and get up tomorrow, which will then be Wednesday.

For exercise, I have been logging that the next day, since I'm doing it after I eat, but before I go to bed.

I was lucky enough to find a gym that's open 24 hours during the week, but maybe if you don't have that option, you could take a set of dumb bells to work, do some lifts and crunches and push-ups here and there ... if you stick with 10 reps at a time, you could probably avoid sweatiness

skinytinktobe

I work nights, which is the reason why I put lots of weight on. Biscuit there and then, few pieces of cheeses and anything else I could find.
How I work it out now is this:
I don't ever sleep before going on to my first night shift so I have my three meals during the day and have the last meal at around 7 pm so I don't get hungry before midnight. After midnight, I count it as a new day so I have breakfast at around 2.30 am or even later if I can manage it. When I get home I will not eat as I do not want to go to bed with full tummy.
Depending when I wake up I have lunch and then tea. As I don't start my night shift until 9pm I try to eat my main meals at home because I do not stop for a break until after 1-ish in the morning when I think of having a breakfast. I do usually have a sandwich for my breakfast (with lots of salad) as that seems to fill me up quite well and I do not feel hungry and tempted to have a snack of some kind. If I get really desperate around 5 am and feel hungry I make myself a hot chocolate and that does the trick. I managed to lose some weight. I lost 14 lb in 6 weeks with some emotional binge eating days in between when I ate everything and anything I got my hands on. But that is just me, I need these off days sometimes. Otherwise I would go crazy as I love my food and sweets. One good thing is that as the time goes on you really start to think about what you eat and how much and your off days are not as sinful as before.
I only started to lose weight when I joined MFP and although it is totally addictive the support you get is brilliant.
Good luck to you all.
You are welcome to add me if you like.

Tabbi_RN

I also am a night shift RN. I work 12 hour shifts (7pm-7am) 3 times a week, and commute an hour to get there. What I have done is changed my settings on here. Instead of Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner/Snacks I have it broken up by times. I eat "breakfast" right before i head to work so my first meal is around 5:30pm, I eat a snack at work around 10pm, and i eat "lunch" at midnight, i eat another snack around 3am, and "dinner" at 6am. I drive home and go to bed. Now as an RN you never know whats going to pop up so I dont necessarily get to eat right when I want to. So thats why i changed my settings into times, starting with when I wake up. Meaning my breakfast section has been renamed 4pm-12am, lunch has been renamed 12am-4am, and so forth. snacks i just left as snacks. I dont complete my logging until right before i go to bed that following morning. I keep on the night schedule even on my nights off. If I get up earlier than normal I log the food in the correct time section and just try to do better with spacing out my calories or work out to earn extra. I too try to work out every night i have off. At work on quiet nights I will do laps (just walking) in the hallway. It helps that I have friends at work that enjoy walking with me. Hope that helps!

upsydaisy2011

I'm glad I found this post as I'm due to work my first set of night shifts since starting logging on MFP. Tonight is my first night and I don't sleep before starting nights so I will have had my usual 3 meals before I go. I've some fruit and a yoghurt to take with me for when I get hungry and I've got a special k cereal bar to have when I hit that 3am wall of tiredness. Taking a big bottle of water with me. I will probably be on my feet for most of the shift if it's a busy one (I work 9pm - 8am). When I get home I'll have breakfast before I go to sleep. As I'll be sleeping I guess I'll miss lunchtime but will have a normal evening meal before going to work and again will take a selection of snacks. I also find that things like a wholemeal pitta bread with reduced fat houmous is also a good one. Some like to have a "main meal" during the night but I just find it bloats me and makes me uncomfortable.

lovebug885

I also work nights 7pm-7am as an RN at a busy hospital. I try to eat a meal with a lot of protein right before i leave for work. Usually I'm pretty busy for the beginning of my shift so I usually eat around 2am. Most shifts I have either a kashi bar and fruit, special K cereal, or oatmeal. I try to drink water through my shift. When i get home i usually have a small meal or snack before going to bed.

Play_outside

I am a full time nursing student and also work in the hospital. So I don't have a set schedule at all. When I do full time practicum rotations I have 2x12hr days and then 2x12hr nights, or maybe 3x12hr nights if I can get in a paid shift at my job following practicum shifts. I find what works best for me is to treat a night like it is a day-I keep basically the same schedule just swapped around, although I don't eat any large meals on nights, mostly just snacking. I always bring fruits and veggies to work on my night shifts, and things like almond butter and cottage cheese. I tend to work out at weird times anyway so that doesn't make a huge difference for me (I often go for a run at like 11pm-so on night shift I'll do something first thing in the morning instead).

Another GREAT option for exercise, depending where you live in relation to where you work, is either commuting by bike, or if you live too far away to do that (as I do) you can drive part way and bike the rest! Guaranteed exercise and it will help you with energy levels at work too!

melaniemarie486

I work 1900-0830 ~13.5 hours 3-4x a week!

If I wake up at 1600 I go for a 4-6 mile run or quick workout (usually something quick and intense that doesn't take up much time... 100-120 steps/ minute for 20 minutes on a stair-stepper is my routine)! I try to do this 1-4x a week. Most other days I wake up at 1700. I log walking at work as exercise because sometimes I am walking non-stop the entire time. I wore a pedometer for a few weeks in May to estimate my miles walked at work.

My food diary starts at 0000.

My first meal is usually between 0000-0300, I log this as LUNCH.

My second meal is at 0900, I log this as DINNER.

My third meal is when I wake up at 1700, I log this as BREAKFAST.

Everything else is logged under SNACK.

I know it's backwards but it works for me !