Working 3rd shift

ArelysSantiago
ArelysSantiago Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Does anybody have any helpful hints on tracking their meal when working shift. My day starts and ends on different days, what I usually do is end my day when I get up around 5 or6 pm and jump to the following day starting with breakfast. Thanks

Replies

  • cingle87
    cingle87 Posts: 717 Member
    Im currently working nights so how i plan my logging is as follows. When I wake up not matter what day it is thats breakfast so for example i might wake up at 3pm , then lunch whould be 7/8ish and then evening meal would be 3amish. So for me I log all that on the day I wake up so example 21/06/13, even though I ate my evening meal on the 22/06/13.
  • MelissaDoc
    MelissaDoc Posts: 71 Member
    The majority of my shifts are over night but I still work a day shift here and there and also I'd like to pretend I'm not a vampire, so I do like to enjoy the sunshine on my days off. That being said, it is almost impossible to get on a consistent eat/sleep schedule. So, the only thing that has been working for me is to do a 24hr method. So this morning when I go on my break at 3am that is 'meal 1' and when I have my real breakfast around 7:30 that is 'meal 2'. But say I did not work the over night my breakfast would be 'meal 1'.

    I hope this helps! It took me a while to figure out what works best for me.
  • grimendale
    grimendale Posts: 2,153 Member
    I work from 6 pm to 6am, and I tend to eat my meals in the normal order, but log them out of order such that all meals eaten in one calendar day are logged as a day, even though I slept in the middle of it. I log lunch first, a little after midnight, then dinner at 8am, then breakfast at 5 pm. I find logging based on calendar rather than sleep cycle makes it a little less confusing, particularly when you switch from a normal to a nocturnal schedule and back.
  • kindasortachewy
    kindasortachewy Posts: 1,084 Member
    I don't count it as a new day until I sleep - its 12:52am here ( I work 6pm-6am ) and I will eat dinner in a few hours, I will log it for 6/21 not 6/22 because I havent slept yet.
  • brandileigh78
    brandileigh78 Posts: 4 Member
    I changed my breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks to 0000-0600, 0601-1200, 1201-1800, and 1800-2359. It makes it easier to track by the times I eat and I don't have to figure out what meal is what.
  • godsgrl33
    godsgrl33 Posts: 307 Member
    I have changed my "meal times" to 12 am-4am, 4am-8am, 8 am-12 pm, 12 pm-4pm, 4pm-8pm, and 8pm-12 am. So, whatever I eat from 12 am until 11:59 pm, that is a day. Some days will have different times that have food in those slots, and sometimes I will be sleeping. I guess Brandiward 78 did something similar. The point is, to find something that works for you, and staying in your calorie range in every 24 hour period.
  • bigcle82
    bigcle82 Posts: 134 Member
    I work 10pm-830am, before I was tracking my day lunch and night lunch all together so I separated it with lunch for anytime in the day and work lunch at night around 3am. I make sure when I prepare my lunch I just log everything in before leaving home so I dont have to worry about then. All I have to log in is my cardiovascular which I do the first 30 mins of my lunch
  • freyaheart
    freyaheart Posts: 220 Member
    When I worked nights the first thing I ate was breakfast and my last meal before bed was dinner. It also drove my father nuts when he would meet me after work for "breakfast" and I would order spaghetti.
  • hilaryhill
    hilaryhill Posts: 156 Member
    Ive been on WW before when I was working night shift as a nurse (3 night shifts a week) and what I would do is I would start the next days points/calories at midnight and then it went until the next midnight. Then on my nights off Id eat normally.
  • Oh_Allie
    Oh_Allie Posts: 258 Member
    I switched mine from breakfast/lunch/dinner to time slots, too. 12am-6am, 6am-11am, 11am-3pm, 3pm-8pm, 8pm-11:59pm and I just log in whatever time I ate and try not to worry about if my breakfast is at 10pm and my lunch is in the middle of the night.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    When it hits midnight I log my food for the next day. As long as you're consistent it really doesn't matter how you split it up. I log everything I eat specifically to the calendar date that I eat it. No confusion that way.
  • kmalex
    kmalex Posts: 39 Member
    I work second shift and I log waking up to going to bed as a day. Unfortunately MFP changes at midnight always. So I changed my time zone be 4 hours behind my actual time zone. This way MFP and I are on the same day until 4am and when I eat dinner at 1am it doesn't think yesterday is over yet.

    I did also change my diary to "Before 10AM(usually sleeping), 10AM-2PM(Breakfast), 2-4PM(Snack), 4-8PM(Lunch), 8PM-Midnight (Snack), After Midnight (Dinner)". It just seemed easier to keep track of everything that way.

    Hope that helps!
  • lacroyx
    lacroyx Posts: 5,754 Member
    When it hits midnight I log my food for the next day. As long as you're consistent it really doesn't matter how you split it up. I log everything I eat specifically to the calendar date that I eat it. No confusion that way.

    This is how I do it.
  • kimbtaylor1
    kimbtaylor1 Posts: 210 Member
    I work 2300-0700 and the way I have logged is by the hour. If MFP shows its a new day then thats the day I post on. But this is my normal eating schedule on my work days.

    0100-breakfast
    0600-lunch (I need to do better...making myself eat this)
    1800-dinner (biggest meal of the day for me seeing as I will be up all night)

    On my off days my schedule goes back to the norm for the most part.
  • SilverLotusGirl
    SilverLotusGirl Posts: 537 Member
    I work twelve hour nights and I still do my time logging from midnight to midnight. I don't have breakfast, lunch dinner, but I have 4 sections based on time of day. I log the same way regardless of if I'm working or not. It works for me.
  • hhayes06
    hhayes06 Posts: 189 Member
    I changed my breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks to 0000-0600, 0601-1200, 1201-1800, and 1800-2359. It makes it easier to track by the times I eat and I don't have to figure out what meal is what.


    This is what I do now. When I worked midnight to 10am I would log from the time I woke up til the time I went to sleep and be a day ahead. Now that I wake up at 3pm and go to sleep around 7am this is easier for me. Try different things and see what works best for you.
  • ArelysSantiago
    ArelysSantiago Posts: 3 Member
    Thank you everybody for your input this is tremendous help. I think section my days by time.
  • knekno
    knekno Posts: 20 Member
    Another vote for changing "meals" to time of day, and counting calories for 24 hrs.

Categories