Night shift/ shift work?

Hey. I have the same problem... sorta. But I work a combination of 1st and 3rd shifts. So my eating schedule, sleeping schedule, etc is all out of whack all the time. I've decided that I'm going to do midnight to midnight instead of when I wake up till when I go to bed. That way, when I'm working 3rd shift, I can get on and log everything for the day, and then start over at midnight for the next day. Keep my calorie count that way. I seem to have more time to log everything when I'm bored at work.

I have the same issue. I have a semi - active job that goes until midnight sometimes. I don't go in until the late afternoon, giving me plenty of time to sleep in. But I waste my day in the process. And at night I come home tired, wired, and unable to sleep until dawn, and you've probably noticed that sleeping in until the early afternoon is less restful than sleeping through the night.

Also there is a higher risk of binge eating. At night I come home craving sugary, simple carbohydrates and that is typically when binges occur. My calories until then are typically perfect.

The key to addressing this problem I think to get as much sleep at night as your schedule allows, try to eat balanced foods with some source of protein if you must eat late at night, get in your exercise shortly after waking in order to get it out of the way, and try to relax and wind down an hour before bed. I really am a hypocrite though, It's past three in the morning here...

i have been working overnights for over 2 years now, and although at times its been a struggle, ive managed to loose 20lbs while on them. In the beginning my nights were in a row, now they are scattered and have to go back to days on my days off due to the kiddos.

Heres what works for me ; Whenever i wake up or go to bed i count my days as hours. so whenever i wake up and have breakfast i will graze 2-3 hrs until my next "snack" and so on. If I have slept during a meal i will BRING one to work with me. If i am up all day and all night I will try and space them out a little more so i can actually have something while at work that night. Example: Wake up at 11am on saturdays (i work 2pm until 6am on sunday morning) I will have breakfast (300 cals) when i get into work at 2 snack (1-200) cals, "lunch" between 5 and 6 (3-400 cals) snack at 9 and "dinner" at midnight-1am. (400cals)

If you wake up about 4pm for work eat breakfast when you wake up, at 3 hrs in between meals and pack your food for work. I always end up doing terrible when I dont plan and end up sending out. I have a sit down job and everyone at my work LOVES to eat. So when they order, i eat with them~ just my meals I hope it helps and isn't too confusing. It took a lot of trial and error for me and months of "maintence"

Another guy at work also does the midnight to midnight plan and logs everything in between and it works well for him!

Best of luck, its so hard when you are tired and not able to think clearly! And SLEEP when you can!

I've been on a static midnight schedule for close to 4 months and a shift worker for much longer. When I first started my job I gained quite a bit of weight in the first years. In the last while I've reworked how I eat and when to improve my diet. While only 10 lbs has changed in weight I FEEL much better.

Some of my colleagues swear by always eating at the same time of day no matter what time you're supposed to sleep.
That means if you eat lunch at 12pm then you eat lunch at 12pm even if you're trying to sleep. Some of the others I talk to like to change things up depending on personal commitments. I've found the most important thing is to keep track of how many 'meals' I've been having in a 24 hour period.

When I'm working a night shift I generally have some dinner as soon as I wake up around 5pm. Before going to work around 830pm I'll have a snack, sandwich or light meal.Once at work I'll go for a coffee at around 11pm. If I didn't eat much before work I'll grab a bagel or soup to go with the coffee. At around 3am when I'm starting to feel a bit groggy I'll have another meal I tend to go for sandwiches, soups, and/or salads. Recently I've been bringing my own food to work which is a huge saver of time and money. Depending on how I do sometimes I'll have a meal in the morning around 7am.

The benefit I've found from this is not having to break up my sleep due to hunger pains in the middle of my downtime. The downside is that I can find it hard to eat when I shift my sleep pattern back to a more normal day schedule on my off days.

Hope this helps!

Thanks everyone for responding. I found many of your ideas helpful. I think I am going to log from midnight to midnight, as this idea seems common among many of you shift workers. Also, I like the idea of "time-slotting" meals. For myself, "breakfast" is typically at 5pm and dinner around 3am. However, whereas in the past I have eaten dinner with the family at 5pm and called it breakfast, I believe I should eat actual breakfast foods at this time instead. I will try this and see how it goes.

you don't have to eat breakfast foods at any certain time. You can if you like but if your family is having lasagna then have lasagna and log it as your morning meal Your body cant tell the difference.

I work 11pm-7am 5 days a week. I work in IT and I am at my desk through out the night. I don't concern myself much when it comes to eating "breakfast" foods or "dinner" foods. I focus on hitting my calorie and macros as close as I can. Typically do a IF (Intermittient Fasting) type of eating. This just means I will eat most of my calories in 1 sitting. Usually at work but sometimes I will wait until after I workout in the late AM. I try to squeeze in walk breaks when I can. I find it helps boost my alertness and wakes me up. Above all else I make sleep my #1 thing. I find doing chunks of 3-4 hrs then waking up to do things for a few hours then falling back asleep didn't work for me. I get between 6-7hrs straight sleep and I find it works for me.
When I lack sleep I over ate trying to stay awake at work and didn't bother exercising since I was too tired.

Typical day for me
10:30pm wake up go to work
4-6AM Eat
7AM Off work and hit the gym between 8-11am it just depends on what I have planned.
Noon-2pm. Eat again if I haven't eaten all of my calories from earlier
3-4pm in bed asleep

On my days off I flip back to normal schedule but still eat 1-2x a day.