Shift work, how do you cope?

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JOYOUS62
JOYOUS62 Posts: 104 Member
in Introduce Yourself
From tonight I am starting 3 n/s's, now today by the time I go to work I will have more or less used my calorie intake for the day, I have a snack during the night and nothing else till dinnertime tomorrow evening due to being asleep most of the day, so no way will I have had nearly as many calories as I should have. I cant eat during the night the way I do in daytime and it just messes me up. Anyone else find this a problem and if so, how do you deal with it?

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  • carolineire
    carolineire Posts: 65 Member
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    I'm in the same boat. I try to eat my breakfast when I come home, then my lunch when I wake up about 4 or so, then I might snooze a bit longer then have dinner. I bring my snacks to eat in work, so I'd have something around 11pm, then a yoghurt about 6am. It's probably not ideal but it's doing ok for now.

    I did see a nutritionist once who told me to eat dinner when I woke up, lunch about 9pm, and breakfast about midnight, that did also work so maybe try that?
  • rduhlir
    rduhlir Posts: 3,550 Member
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    You can re-title the food columns, they don't have to be lunch, dinner, breakfast, etc...you can put times on them if it help you better.
  • dave4d
    dave4d Posts: 1,155 Member
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    I plan my meals from midnight to midnight. It makes up for the extra meals on my first night, and the lack of meals when I go back to a day schedule. I try to workout as soon as I get up, whatever schedule I am on. Some days it is at 3 am, others at 8 am, and on my night shifts at 1pm. I've been working the same rotating schedule for almost 19 years. I do like my days off.
  • 20kb13
    20kb13 Posts: 161
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    There is an official night shift thread.. someone suggested to me to change my meals to times. So I have my meals set as midnight-6am, 6am-noon, noon til 6pm, and 6pm-midnight. I usually wake up and have breakfast between 4-6pm depending when I wake up, have coffee and a small snack before I leave the house at 9pm. I eat my next meal at work between 1-2am depending when I have time to eat it and I put this on the next days food log, I eat another meal/snack once I am home from work around 7 or 8am. So even though I am putting it on the next day... when I wake up and eat again it is on the same day.

    Anything I eat from midnight until 11:59 pm is considered my calories for that day, it doesn't matter when I sleep because I am still reaching my calorie goal each day. Hope this helps
  • cally69
    cally69 Posts: 182 Member
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    Hi

    I work nights from time to time and I work my calories from midnight to midnight but I also think of my calories as a weekly budget. If I eat over one day and under the next it doesn't matter as long as I'm within my weekly calories. This works on normal weeks as well.
    Hope this helps
  • chervil6
    chervil6 Posts: 236 Member
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    i just take some fruits and either brazil nuts, almonds or walnuts if im working night shifts
  • JOYOUS62
    JOYOUS62 Posts: 104 Member
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    Thank you all for your very helpful replies, will rethink my timing, I would need to do a midnight-midnight as most nights we dont get finished until around then. I like the sound of a weekly budget, I think this would help me as well. Thanks again
  • AngelaKelly02
    AngelaKelly02 Posts: 73 Member
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    I work crazy hours, different times every day. I plan what I will eat each day and when I will eat it so that I will be able to eat while I'm awake/working. I don't necessarily eat breakfast first thing in the morning or lunch at midday or dinner in the evening. You should think about what you'll be doing and when you'll be hungry and just space your meals out to suit you.
  • Chrissy180
    Chrissy180 Posts: 30 Member
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    I TOO FIND THAT THE 12 TO 12 IS THE BEST WAY TO TRACK MY CALORIES. I KNOW YOU CAN ACTUALLY CHANGE THE NAME OF YOURS MEALS FROM BREAKFAST, LUNCH AND DINNER UNER THE SETTINGS TO WHATEVER YOU WISH. IT MAY MAKE IT EASIER TO DO THE TIME FRAMES AS SOMEONE ELSE SUGGESTED. GOOD LUCK
  • Hbazzell
    Hbazzell Posts: 899 Member
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    I work 3, 13 hour shifts on, then three days off. They rotate from three nights to three days about monthly. With that being said it is hard to judge what "day" I am on. I decided to start a new day at midnight, even if I havent slept yet and I am still eating during my shift. I also changed my food catagories to a "duty" catagory so I can watch what I eat at work separatley. So for example, I am still at work and it just turned into the new day two hours ago...I had a banana and logged it. When I wake up later "today" I will have to base my day around the banana calories. I do my water the same way. Midnight (no matter if I am awake or not) is my new day.

    :)

    I hope that helped....I am a little longwinded.
  • Railr0aderTony
    Railr0aderTony Posts: 6,804 Member
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    You can re-title the food columns, they don't have to be lunch, dinner, breakfast, etc...you can put times on them if it help you better.

    Yes, I work swing shift and on my night shifts i have a column called Oh Crap I am working Thirds, that is normally filled to the brim with snacks, I can not eat meals for some reason on nights but I snack all night and as long as I figure it in my calories it has not slowed me down one bit. good luck, there are many other nightshift people on MFP, we have a running thread if you ever get bored or just want to talk to other nightshift people.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/853064-official-nightshift-thread?page=4
  • BelindaDuvessa
    BelindaDuvessa Posts: 1,014 Member
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    Not a problem for me, honestly. I log everything I eat from midnight to midnight, instead of trying to break it in to Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. I try to exercise most days in some way, to offset the weird scheduling of food intake. Really, though, I look at my totals at the end of the week and base my success off of that.

    Planning is key, especially if you don't eat meals at night. Pack a lunch box with healthy snacks. That way you are eating something. But if you are snacking, be sure to eat a little more often than just once a night.

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