Night shift curse: How to tame it

I work swing shift and there are no tricks, you just burn more than you eat, there are many many nightshifters here on MFP, we have a running thread if you ever want to talk to anyone.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/853064-official-nightshift-thread?page=4

you just have to take control of your own choices. I believe that night shift does present some challenges that many other people would not otherwise have. However all challenges are different for all people anyway. So handle your challenges by finding a solution to the problem. They are your problems and you need to find a solution that will work for you.

Hello, I am also a RN who works nights. The best thing I have done is to restrict my work schedule to no more than 30 hours a week and sleep as much as possibe. This gives me a few days during the week for function "normally." I do not pick up extra shifts -ever. This is what I have to do to stay healthy and sane and if it means a little less money that is ok. When I work at night I usually eat "breakfast" around 2 or 3am and I do not drink anything after about 4:30. I leave work around 7:15 and arrive home at 7:30 most days and do not eat anything - I change my clothes, turn on the tv for a few minutes and then go to sleep.

When I wake up (anywhere from 2p-4p) I have a snack and usually work out. As you can tell, my schedule is pretty strict but as I have gotten older and wiser I realize this is how I need to treat myself. Learning to say no has given me freedom. I am hoping this will help me on my journey to lose weight.

And if you aboslutely cannot cut your hours, try to sleep as much as possible. Sleep deprivation is a culprit in weight gain.

Hi all. I am an RN who works the night shift. As a general rule, it is a researched fact the people who work night shift are less healthy than people who work day shift simply because of sleep deprivation and eating habits.

I am interested to read what some of your favorite tips are to being fit and eating right while working this shift. I do really good on the days that I'm off, but I struggle when I work because of the way I have to sleep. Any and all suggestions would be great. Thanks!

I am a police officer and this is my 5th year on night shift. I certainly don't concider myself "unhealthy," lol.

I eat the same as anyone else. Just at different hours. I have an omelet at 3 in the afternoon instead of 8 in the morning...and I eat about every 3-4 hours or so until I eat my last meal around 3 or 4 in the morning. You just have to ignore the stigma of when meals are "supposed to be eaten."

I like to do my weight training after work, so between 7-8am. I go home and then go to sleep. I never take prescription meds to help me sleep. I do take melatonin on days that I am not feeling especially tired, and it helps me to sleep as much as I need to. When I do cardio, I do it after waking up in the afternoon. This schedule works great for me, but just find something that works for you. Not everyone is going to respond positively to the same routines.

I make my meal plans for a week ahead of time here on MFP. Once again, just ignore the "times" that you are "supposed to" eat and just log the things that you will eat between waking up and going to sleep on the same log here on MFP even if they are technically 2 days. I plan ahead because it helps me to stick with the plan rather than just going back later and logging what I ate and hoping for the best. (This also worked before I was on third shift, even though I wrote it down in a notebook instead of coming here...I've only been on this website a couple of years so far)

I hope this helps some!

I joined a few months ago while on a 2nd, (3:30 to Midnight), for 2 weeks and then back 12's, (5:30pm to 6am), for two weeks. Using my smart phone and laptop to log in EVERYTHING is crucial! By the time I was heading to work I had logged in all the foods I ate, the foods I would eat that night and all exercise. With that I knew exactly where I stood. From there, with the numbers staring me in the face, it was stil my choice. This was very sobering and helpful.

Also, and this is also key, get friends on here! They can help keep you in line and you can encourage them also. Please feel free to add me if you like.

Hoping the best for you. You can do this!!

Night Shift RN (12 1/2-13 1/2hr shift) for over 13 years now. Used to be able to bounce back from a shift easily on days off. Now it takes 2 days to bounce back. Worse of all insomnia on the days off is ridiculous.

Time of day is not meaningless. We are human beings and our bodies were not created to be functioning at night.

Regardless of the fact that I know my health suffers from working at night, I would not trade the benefits of working at night for working during the daytime. Benefits-less visitors, less doctors, no stuffed shirts,easy going coworkers also more money.

Some changes I have made over the years that help at least not gain as much. Like Belinda, pack own food. I also try not to schedule any extra shifts. On the day I work I sleep really late that morning. I don't exercise on the days I work because I feel really tired at work. On my feet most of the shift so I think that should count as exercise. Recently limiting coffee. I now drink tea with splenda to help through the night.

If anyone has any tips on how to log food let me know. Worked last night and I put all of my meals up until 7am on the previous days meals. When I woke up today at 2pm I put meals for today. Since I don't have to work tonight I will probably not meet my calories today.

Glad to see there are other vampires:laugh: trying to get in shape in 2013!

I have fought with my weight most of my life, and also as a night shift RN, knew losing the weight was going to be tough. I needed to remove temptations and reasons to keep ordering out. I started by eating before I left the house. I eat my breakfast at three in the afternoon, but usually it is more of a dinner and is my biggest meal of the day. I pack a small cooler that I carry in over my shoulder of food, and put all of this food into the tracker before I leave the house. It usually including some type of frozen vegetable since size, a fruit or two, a sandwich - I use laughing cow cheese instead of mayo or sliced cheese on my sandwich, a fiber one bar, sighted a frozen pretzel or small Baggie of rice cakes, and a yogurt.

Working out is harder. With my hours worked and driving time, my day is shot by the time I get home. I only get to workout on days I do not work and the days that I didn't work the day before, so I can get up a little earlier. As for days were I work a few days in a row, and get home about 7ish and r up at three in the afternoon. My husband keeps the kids quiet and gets them off the bus for me. I did have to work overtime because I am the sole provider, so it can be tough to make the time, but something I am learning is the word "no". It has become necessary. The hospital will go on without me. Let me know if u want friends-would love to have someone who understands exactly where I am coming from.

Night shift here also, been doing it for 8 years now. IMO it helps me cause all the cravings I have for bad foods I cant have because the places are closed :-)

I work out at around 3am which for me is the afternoon.

I just treat it as a regular day and eat what I would eat if I were not working nights. Usually 3 meals and a snack. I just log them into the time slot that I eat them. I've been working overnights for so long, I'm kind of pigeonholed into it. Not going to let the fact that I work nights interfere with anything.

I'm glad you posted this question. I work shift and have found the responses helpful. Your research is right about increased health problems. I attended a lecture on this many years ago and it was also noted that there was a proportion of workers that dropped out very quickly because they just could not tolerate the disruption - about 10%. I am finding it harder as I get older.

Third shifter here too. Work ER registration/switch board. Very small hospital so I am unable to leave my office. I am only one here for third shift other than the Dr and RN's. So I can not go walk outside, or down the halls etc I work 11pm to 7am 5 days a week. I eat my breakfast around 10pm, my first snack around 1am, my lunch around 3-3:30am and my dinner around 6am. I then eat a second snack at 8:30 am. I will add you as a friend. Feel free to look at my food diary to see what I eat. I work out 3 to 4 days a week. Some days when I get out of work (work out for 1hr) and other days is on my days off at a 24hr gym. Yup, I work out there at 2 am, 3 am, 4am.

I make sure I get good sleep usually 7 to 8 hrs a night. Some days I sleep shortly after getting home from work, other days, I stay up till 1pm and then sleep from 1pm to 8:30pm - 9pm

My Diary is open, if anyone wants to look. I log from midnight to midnight. It was too difficult (or maybe I was over complicating....) for me to log it as actual meals. But by logging anything I eat within a certain time frame, I am much more accountable to what I eat. I do the same thing with exercise. If it's after midnight, it goes on the next day. I really only pay attention to my end of the week totals, not so much my daily totals.

My trick is to get a physical job. I have an overnight job that pays rent, so I can work a part-time day job to gain experience to get me my dream job. So my overnight one is janitorial....mopping and housekeeping in general is a lot of physical work.

Hey,

I've been working 3rd shift for 6or7 months now and about 2 wks ago I was working another job during the day but I was getting no sleep and eating horrible so I quit my day shift job and now I'm just trying to get myself in a routine but its been really hard. I get off at 7am so I try to fall asleep withing 2 hrs of getting off and I wake up around 4:30 to do the Insanity workouts with a friend by the time I get home at 6 or 7 I eat something and then start to get tired around 9 which sucks cuz I work at 11p. So all I can tell you is try to set yourself some sort of schdule and see what works best for you I know sometimes if I can't sleep I will go for a run or do some sort of workout to wear myself out so I can sleep...hope you figure something out

I love Night Shift! Been working 11pm-7am for 5 months now, been losing steady the whole time Factory work where we get breaks every 2 hours helps, natural time to graze with lunch at 3. I workout when I get home and have a protein shake and lately breakfast. Sleep from noon until 2 or 3 hours before work (depending on OT start times) I typically try to cook up my meat for a couple days worth at a time. Same with things like sweet potatoes, quinoa, and couscous. This helped me portion out my dinners a lot.

The thing that makes it all work out for me is staying up overnight hours on weekends. Might not be possible for everyone, but my weeks go a lot better (typically 6 day work week) so it's worth the sacrifice.