Food journaling

celestelovesmoney
celestelovesmoney Posts: 16
in Food and Nutrition
Do you journal and calculate your intake and activity based on the time you've been awake to the time that you go to bed OR do you do so based on the 24 hour day?

I don't know if I've explained what I mean clearly, but for instance, I've been recording what I've eaten and my exercise activity based on what I do from the time I've been up to the time I go to sleep. Seeing as I usually wake up late and end up staying up until the early morning hours (I.E. my "day" would consist of 3pm - 3 am).

Does that really matter to log it on the same day or a different day? Furthermore, if I've been watching what I've been eating for July 11th (if I woke up at 5pm) and am still up, eating/snacking on the 12th (until I happen to fall asleep at 3am), can that be seen as the "same day" although, technically it's obviously not the same day, but as far as daily logging goes, can I count what I eat/do on the same day? Or do I log anything I eat past midnight as consumption carried out on that day?

I am so sorry if I do not make any sense. I'm trying to break down what I'm saying, but that may make it a bit more confusing.

Replies

  • grimendale
    grimendale Posts: 2,153 Member
    It doesn't matter which you do, so long as you are consistent. When I work nightshift, I tend to log based on midnight to midnight for convenience. When I am on a nomral, diurnal schedule, I tend to count a day as from when I wake up to when I sleep, even if I am up past midnight. Do whichever works for you, and stick with it.
  • jonesgrrl
    jonesgrrl Posts: 8 Member
    Do it from the time you woke till you sleep. Your meals in accordance.even if you had a breakfast food for lunch mark it still in your lunch section of your diary. I keep strange hours too. I usually don't wake up till 2 or 3 pm and go to bed 4 or 5 am so it made perfect sense... keep up the good work !
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    It doesn't matter, as long as you consistently log the same every day. Calories can't tell time.
  • aliceb39
    aliceb39 Posts: 84 Member
    My day is when I wake up until I go to bed. When I have my "bedtime snack" at 1 a.m., I still count it as the same day. One of my friends has started posting her meals as midnight-6 a.m., 6 a.m.-noon, noon-6 p.m., and 6 p.m.-midnight. Just do what works best for you. Remember, you can set up the diary the way you want, so you could have it in the order of lunch, dinner, breakfast if that makes more sense to you.
  • jewel22887
    jewel22887 Posts: 72
    My hubby and I work crazy hours and the rules in our house is the day doesn't change until we go to sleep. Even if that means 7am ends monday and tuesday starts at 1pm :)
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    I changed my food diary to time segments. I prefer this because my sleep pattern is sometimes a little out there, so it's easier for me to just log food by when I ate it rather than whether it was breakfast lunch or dinner.
  • celestelovesmoney
    celestelovesmoney Posts: 16
    Thanks guys!! :)
    It's actually really good to see that I'm not alone with the crazy hours that I keep. The answers make perfect sense and are already helpful. I think I'll go ahead and continue with what I know. It just helps even more to know that others are pretty much in the same boat as me. Again, thank you guys! ^_^

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