working midnight shift

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annamartens12
annamartens12 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have been working midnights since November and stopped tracking my food intake because of that.I also go to school during the day. So I work 11-7 then have school 8:30 to 3. Eating proper meals seems impossible.
I'm a little confused with the days combining into each other. Does anyone else work midnights? and what tips can you give me on tracking. Well any tips in general would be helpful lol . Thanks

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  • fullofsmiles04
    fullofsmiles04 Posts: 158 Member
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    Hi there! Minus a 3 month period last summer, I've worked midnights for the past year and a half. I start work at 10:30p & get done at 7am. I thought long & hard about how I should track my food as well but for me I decided that sticking to midnight to midnight would work best. Once I get to work, I drink a lot of water the first hour and a half. Sometime after midnight, depending on when I get hungry is when I start eating my "breakfast" meal that I log. I generally bring 3-6 different "snacks" and will eat those throughout the night. After work in the morning, whatever I eat before or after a workout or if Im a little hungry after I get home I will enter that in my "lunch" meal. Then I go to bed and whatever I have as the next meal is entered in as "dinner". If I eat in between "lunch" & "dinner" I enter it under snacks.

    I think based on your schedule you could do something very similar. Eat your first meal of the day at work, throughout the night. Pack some healthy snacks to eat while you are at school and use that as your lunch meal and if you eat again before or after you sleep can be your dinner.

    My dinner is usually my only real prepared meal. The rest is servings of fruits or veggies, granola/ protein bars, yogurt, popcorn, string cheese, cottage cheese, oatmeal with of course mydaily fiber one brownie (and sometimes another treat) because I have quite the sweet tooth! lol I hope this helps and you figure out something that works for you!! :)
  • Willowbreeze4
    Willowbreeze4 Posts: 16 Member
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    When I used to work the 11-7 shift I tried to keep my days and nights as normal as possible. I know that can be very difficult. I found that if I came home took my shower and then had breakfast then napped got up at a later lunch say 2ish and then a later dinner like 7:30ish and then brought a yogurt and water with me to work I did okay and then it is easy to track your food and you don't gain the weight associated with the night shift. Again easier said then done but worth a try. Good luck.
  • annamartens12
    annamartens12 Posts: 5 Member
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    Thank you ladies.
    maybe i will try and start tracking tonight. one of my biggest issues is eating before bed. i hate doing it so i wont. makes me feel like im not getting enough calories sometimes. so i need to get onto tracking.
  • tami101
    tami101 Posts: 617 Member
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    Hi, I work 9pm to 8am and after playing around with the logging times I found that going from midnight to midnight works best for me. I also changed the meals to time blocks (12am to 7am, 8am to 2pm and 3pm to 9pm) instead of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Try logging different ways until you find out what is easier and works best for your schedule. But definitely log! Logging really helps me to stay mindful of what I am eating, it's easy to forget about things when I haven't logged them. Best of luck to you! =)

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