night shift logging times problem

LongIsland27itl
LongIsland27itl Posts: 365 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Ok so since I'm on the night shift, I used to start my calorie day when I wake up, at around 1pm, that worked just fine, but I thought it may be bettet to start my calorie tracking at 12am like everyone else. That is not working well at all, I need to switch it back, but I have about 50 cals left and its only 7pm.
What are my options in regards to switching my logging times? I think I either have to keep logging on this day until I wake up after work tomorrow, and go way over cals for the day, or starve myself thru my shift and not eat until I wake up tmro with a fresh start. If anyone has any input thanks.

Replies

  • mab5338
    mab5338 Posts: 14
    Hi, you probably are not alone! Just a thought, can you change your timezone on the app to something that would let you see a normal BLDS day?
  • favhrnstr
    favhrnstr Posts: 55
    You can change your meal names from the MFP default and name up to 6 meals. I like the time zone idea, too.
  • LongIsland27itl
    LongIsland27itl Posts: 365 Member
    You can change your meal names from the MFP default and name up to 6 meals. I like the time zone idea, too.
    that's not what I was asking really. Basically I'm asking if I'd have to either fast, or add a nights worth of food into the day which would put me way over calories, in order to reset to where I was begining my day when I wake up as opposed to resetring at midnight
  • babyprincessjulz
    babyprincessjulz Posts: 4 Member
    I would continue to eat as you typically would and track so that one day would "go over" (and one under), or skip tracking for one day to get the logging back on track.
  • robdel302
    robdel302 Posts: 292 Member
    I have the same issue so I start all of my food tracking a day head. Hence all my food for today is actually logged on Wednesday. I also have my meals split and named "first meal, second meal, third meal" etc. I try to log and eat at approximately the same time every day. I also plan all my meals out so I know what to eat at each meal. I had to swith how I log food since I go to the gym in the morning and after work. MFP required me to eat back 1000 calories before going to sleep in a few hours. To recfity this I've had to switch to TDEE-20. This has allowed me to drop bodyfat while eating larger meals throughout the day but the same calories. I just don't need to eat 1000+ calories four hours before bed.

    A few things to note:
    -You need a general idea of your average TDEE. I use bodymedia so this wasn't hard but may take some trial and error for you.
    -You can't log workouts on MPF or it will knock your daily calorie limit up beyond your defecit.
    -Posting your log will always show you gaining weight since MFP thinks you're eating more calories a day and not burning it off.
    -Posting a food log a day late doesn't show seem to show on a timeline. But this is of no concern to me anway.
  • LongIsland27itl
    LongIsland27itl Posts: 365 Member
    I have the same issue so I start all of my food tracking a day head. Hence all my food for today is actually logged on Wednesday. I also have my meals split and named "first meal, second meal, third meal" etc. I try to log and eat at approximately the same time every day. I also plan all my meals out so I know what to eat at each meal. I had to swith how I log food since I go to the gym in the morning and after work. MFP required me to eat back 1000 calories before going to sleep in a few hours. To recfity this I've had to switch to TDEE-20. This has allowed me to drop bodyfat while eating larger meals throughout the day but the same calories. I just don't need to eat 1000+ calories four hours before bed.

    A few things to note:
    -You need a general idea of your average TDEE. I use bodymedia so this wasn't hard but may take some trial and error for you.
    -You can't log workouts on MPF or it will knock your daily calorie limit up beyond your defecit.
    -Posting your log will always show you gaining weight since MFP thinks you're eating more calories a day and not burning it off.
    -Posting a food log a day late doesn't show seem to show on a timeline. But this is of no concern to me anway.
    thanks for the post, I'm aware of my TDEE, I don't use MFP to log activity tough, I calculate my TDEE with workouts already incorporated into it, so no eat-back for me. I use IIFYM.com/calculator. As for ltarting my food log when I wake up, I wind up back-logging as I eat thru the night (it'll technically be Wednesday but ill still have to log for Tues), which I don't mind (I guess you log ahead while I log back).
  • JDHINAZ
    JDHINAZ Posts: 641 Member
    Just eat how you normally would, and change your settings however you want. It will only look like you've gone over one day, but you won't in actuality. Don't get hung up on what one day looks like in your log. It'll make you mental.
  • grimendale
    grimendale Posts: 2,153 Member
    What I usually do on nights is eat at my normal times, but log screwy. I eat lunch at midnight dinner at 9am and breakfast at 5pm , and that is what I log on a given day, in that order. Technically, breakfast for tomorrow (based on sleep schedule) gets logged for today, bu it keeps everything consistent on a calendar basis and allows me to log as I go without having to jump between two different diary days.
  • LongIsland27itl
    LongIsland27itl Posts: 365 Member
    Just eat how you normally would, and change your settings however you want. It will only look like you've gone over one day, but you won't in actuality. Don't get hung up on what one day looks like in your log. It'll make you mental.
    well I started this day at 12am on the 23rd and I need to drag it to 1pm the 24th so I am actually eating an extra days worth of cals because of this (my desire to change start times) so ill be about 1700 cals over my weekly deficit. Ill try and shave off a couple hundred cals from each day for the remainder of the week to lessen the damage.
  • LongIsland27itl
    LongIsland27itl Posts: 365 Member
    What I usually do on nights is eat at my normal times, but log screwy. I eat lunch at midnight dinner at 9am and breakfast at 5pm , and that is what I log on a given day, in that order. Technically, breakfast for tomorrow (based on sleep schedule) gets logged for today, bu it keeps everything consistent on a calendar basis and allows me to log as I go without having to jump between two different diary days.

    Yeah, you basically backlog, that's what I, going back to doing. My meal names are set to 12am-4am, 4am-8am, 8am-12pm, 12pm-4pm, 4pm-8pm,8pm-12am this makes things pretty easy and less confusion with ridiculous meal names like breakfast lunch dinner (no such thing for 3rd shifters)
  • ctalimenti
    ctalimenti Posts: 865 Member
    I work three nights in a row.

    I don't have my meals named. I just have one big category that I call food.

    I log 12am to 12am.

    Yeah, I have the same issues as you.
  • Cait_Sidhe
    Cait_Sidhe Posts: 3,150 Member
    I've had way too much coffee to properly answer this right now.

    Just go over for the day, you're not really going over. And rearrange your diary how you like it. Voila.
  • LongIsland27itl
    LongIsland27itl Posts: 365 Member
    I work three nights in a row.

    I don't have my meals named. I just have one big category that I call food.

    I log 12am to 12am.

    Yeah, I have the same issues as you.
    I think you may be happier logging from when you wake up to when you goto sleep instead of 12am-12am
  • Cait_Sidhe
    Cait_Sidhe Posts: 3,150 Member
    My diary works like this since I work both overnights and days. I just log the food where I eat it. Works for me.

    8am-12pm
    12pm-4pm
    4pm-8pm
    8pm-12am
    12am-4am
    4am-8am
  • LongIsland27itl
    LongIsland27itl Posts: 365 Member
    My diary works like this since I work both overnights and days. I just log the food where I eat it. Works for me.

    8am-12pm
    12pm-4pm
    4pm-8pm
    8pm-12am
    12am-4am
    4am-8am
    Right, but more curious not about what slot u log a meal but when you start a calorie day IE your first entry for the day
  • Cait_Sidhe
    Cait_Sidhe Posts: 3,150 Member
    If my first meal is 4-8pm, that's when I log it. If it's 8am-12pm, I log it there. If it's 4am-8am, I log it the previous day. For instance, Fridays I stay up as long as I can to rearrange my schedule. My last meal before sleeping is usually 12pm-4pm. But I wake up around 5am, and I usually eat a protein bar to start my day, so I log it in the 4am-8am slot. Does that make sense? It's all within a 24 hour window, and 24 hours is 24 hours.
  • tamadrummer001
    tamadrummer001 Posts: 71 Member
    I am a night shift RN and this is how I am doing it. I fast for the day when I am making the change from days life with the family to night shift. At 6pm I begin to eat and that is my "breakfast" that is the only time in the day I have bread/rice/potato carbs. Then throughout the night q3-4h I eat, so at about 9-10 we are eating again whether its a shakeology/GNC lean 25 or a whole food meal and then again at 2 and a last snack at 4-5 and then I am done eating until 6pm. Everything I eat goes onto the prior days list and then I know if I over ate because I may have eaten in the AM if I get called in to work or something.

    Hope this helps man. PM me if not and I will try to help out some more.
  • LongIsland27itl
    LongIsland27itl Posts: 365 Member
    If my first meal is 4-8pm, that's when I log it. If it's 8am-12pm, I log it there. If it's 4am-8am, I log it the previous day. For instance, Fridays I stay up as long as I can to rearrange my schedule. My last meal before sleeping is usually 12pm-4pm. But I wake up around 5am, and I usually eat a protein bar to start my day, so I log it in the 4am-8am slot. Does that make sense? It's all within a 24 hour window, and 24 hours is 24 hours.
    my mistake, I understand now. I was thrown off because I'm so used to having to hit X amount of protein fat carb in one day that I wasn't thinking in other terms
  • ksavy
    ksavy Posts: 271 Member
    I still log midnight to midnight with 00-04, 04-08, 08-12, 12-16, 16-20, and 20-24. My shifts go all over the place so trying to log as each awake period as a day doesn't work well. I tried doing that at first, but when switching from days to swings to mids in no rational order, logging in time slots just made things easier on me.

    *Edit spelling*
  • Cait_Sidhe
    Cait_Sidhe Posts: 3,150 Member
    If my first meal is 4-8pm, that's when I log it. If it's 8am-12pm, I log it there. If it's 4am-8am, I log it the previous day. For instance, Fridays I stay up as long as I can to rearrange my schedule. My last meal before sleeping is usually 12pm-4pm. But I wake up around 5am, and I usually eat a protein bar to start my day, so I log it in the 4am-8am slot. Does that make sense? It's all within a 24 hour window, and 24 hours is 24 hours.
    my mistake, I understand now. I was thrown off because I'm so used to having to hit X amount of protein fat carb in one day that I wasn't thinking in other terms
    I'm also all about hitting my macros, but I look at it as a 24 hour thing. You can look at my food diary for clarity if necessary (although macros are off today due to candy indiscrepancy).
  • coppertop_4
    coppertop_4 Posts: 258 Member
    I too deal with things on a 24 hour basis. So it doesn' t matter when I log my first meal. My times are set just like Cati_Sidhe.
    Your protein/calories etc are for a 24 hour period no matter when you eat.

    I say log now until you're done with this day and then change your settings to be whatever you want them to be. This should NOT make you eat any more food!! It will just make your log look funny and you can use the FOOD NOTES at the bottom for an explanation if you want. <--- hope that's the answer you were searching for

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