Night-shift Problems, Too few calories, Sleep?, HELP!

owensmommy0925
owensmommy0925 Posts: 14
in Health and Weight Loss
I am a nurse in the ER working the night shift...three 12hr shifts a week. I am unsure how to go about dieting and eating. I am currently trying the Advocare 24-day challenge. I am confused on how to get my body on an eating schedule since half the week I am on a dayshift schedule and the other half I am on a nightshift routine. I have tried to eat when I get home from work at 8am then eat later when I wake up around noon-1pm, and then again before I go into work at 7pm. I have been snacking throughout my shift since I do not have enough time to sit down and eat. I am wondering if I should try not eating after my last meal before I go into work. What do you think? Do I need to eat while at work to fuel my body? Also, how much do you think sleep contributes to weight loss? I do not get a lot of sleep working nights and having a 1year old at home.

Also, I have a problem taking in too few calories, I try really hard to eat three decent size meals throughout the day with a few small snacks. I track my calories and still remain at around 1000. I know I need to up my calories to lose weight because I am putting my body into starvation mode. I also need to increase my fluid intake because I think my body is holding onto water because I am constantly bloated to no end.

I need advice if you have any. Thanks.

Replies

  • j_harley50
    j_harley50 Posts: 36
    Hi, I too work nights as a cop. Usually my shifts are 10pm til 7am or if it's the weekend it's 9pm til 7am. However I'm finding that I'm losing most weight during those times.

    My break is usually 2am which would go down as my breakfast for the day. Plus I'll take food in with me. Like home made sandwich (lot healthier than processed crap). I don't snack either basically I'm just not hungry. More likely I'll down a can of red bull but I now make it the sugar free one to give me my second wind.

    When I finish at 7am I go in shower straight to bed. No food. And then I usually get up about 3pm 4pm. I'll have a snack then maybe dinner around 7pm. I don't bust my cals allowance and usually shift the most weights during this time.

    As for your 1000 cals intake. The body requires the minimum 1200 just to get by. The body will go into metabolic syndrome if you eat to little. Crazy I know but you need to eat a bit more to lose more. Itd down to our DNA. we have genes going back to caveman days that when the body reacts to a famine (shortage of food or in our case the diet) it actively try's to slow down metabolism so weight can be put on. It's a survival mechanism that's triggered. By eating more the body thinks there is plenty of food and metabolic rate is kept constant.

    So try raising your cal I take you'll find you'll get better results.

    And feel free to add me on MFP I sue and log everyday.

    John

    :)
  • asystolern
    asystolern Posts: 21 Member
    hello there! i am a nightshift ER nurse also. what has worked best for me is to eat my big meal before i go to work. Some nights you can't sit down so i bring low cal snacks or a protein shake to munch /drink as I chart. i try to stop eating around 5am-ish so i don't go to bed full. if i am still hungry ill just drink water. so far its been working for me. i turned by food diary into morning/afternoon/night/snack to try and keep some consistency.

    hope this helps!! we can do this together!!

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