Night Shift Worker

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ann2940
ann2940 Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been having really good results with Bob Harper's Jumpstart to Skinny Diet and have about 40 lbs. to lose. However, since I work 3 12-hour night shifts every week, one or two of my "regular" days is actually 24 hours long with a 2 or 3-hour afternoon nap. How do I allot my daily calories? From midnight to midnight? Or does Wednesday, for example, last until I go to bed on Thursday morning? And if Wednesday does last until Thursday morning, then does Wednesday get more calories?

Have any other night-shifters lost a significant amount of weight that would like to share with me how they did it? I am forced into being a creature of the daytime on my days off and confused about how to eat and work out the nights I work.

Thanks for any help you can give me. :)

Ann

Replies

  • size10wannabe85
    size10wannabe85 Posts: 42
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    I work nights too.. my day is from when i wake up till when i sleep some days i'll be awake for 24hrs or more, if i know im going to be up that long i try not to eat much the earlier part of my day and i fit in an extra meal but not a particularly big one.. thats the plan.. sometimes tho when im tired caring about calories goes out the window
  • kagevf
    kagevf Posts: 509 Member
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    night shift here... i know what you mean
  • einzweidrei
    einzweidrei Posts: 381 Member
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    You can choose whatever you'd like to be your "day." I also start my day (calorie logging) at midnight so if I'm eating 1980 calories/day, yes I count them from midnight to midnight even though it feels off. It doesn't really matter how you do it because at the end of the day, you should really pay attention to the weekly calories and see what your deficit is for the week.

    I lost thirty-five pounds. At my previous job, which was also nights, I didn't gain any weight the first year but then all of a sudden the second year I gained fifteen pounds and I was just pushing the overweight mark. I had basically stopped doing anything---I wasn't walking anymore, which was really my only form of exercise, I was eating all kinds of crap and because I wasn't sleeping right, I was eating all hours of the day.

    My advice? Sleep well. Force yourself to go for a walk/exercise. (I just had an awful day of sleep but at 11:38 PM, it's my night off, I walked for about an hour outside.) Log everything. Bring your food/snacks with you to work so you don't have an excuse to run to the store/vending machine.
  • bobkat80
    bobkat80 Posts: 347 Member
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    I go between evenings and nights. When I do work nights it is usually a double shift, from 4pm to 8am. On those days I start my next day at 4am because I need nourishment to get through the rest of the shift! I don't have much, but it helps me to keep going.

    You should try different ways of counting your calories and find out what works best for you. Remember to plan ahead and that will make it easier.
  • strive4more11
    strive4more11 Posts: 213 Member
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    Personally, I go by the day itself. I have my food diary set up as hour times instead of meals. So I just enter what I eat into the time period I ate it. I have found in the past, thats what works best for me because I rotate shifts, but there is no wrong way of doing it!

    Good luck!
  • tami101
    tami101 Posts: 617 Member
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    I work 12 hour night shifts as well. I have tried several ways but have found logging midnight to midnight works best for me because mfp and fitbit both reset at midnight so it is easier for me to keep track this way.

    I also have my meals listed as times instead of breakfast, lunch and dinner. On my off days I switch to daytime hours and eat at "normal" times.
  • udamom
    udamom Posts: 65 Member
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    I work 12 hr nights 3 days a week also. I tend to be a night owl also and rarely go to bed before 1:30-2am. I log midnight to midnight and break my diary up by time 12am-8am, 8am-6pm, and 6pm-12am
    I found once I changed my logging into 24hr and timed blocks instead of trying to play around with which of my meals was breakfast/lunch dinner kinda thing I did much better! (although my diary may look a little weird some days with the majority of my food between 6-12pm)
    good luck!
  • kagevf
    kagevf Posts: 509 Member
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    once I hit the sack - end logging
    wake up start of day - start logging
  • daimere
    daimere Posts: 31 Member
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    When I wake up, that's when I start logging. MFP will let you skip to tomorrow. Which is why I chose MFP. I consider what I eat Wednesday evening, to be Thursday. Now, when I have not done IF, what I would usually do if I was trying to stay up past my normal time, I would reset calories at the normal time I would be asleep.

    Currently I use IF which helps me to stop grazing during my 12 hour shifts. I will eat only during a certain time window. It's helped me a lot because I used to worry so much about having enough healthy food to survive a 12 hour shift (to a potential 16 hour shift). If I am having breakfast with family, I will open my eating window or count a lunch as that current day. I work out when I come home. I also wear a pedometer and try to hit 10k every day
  • steve0820
    steve0820 Posts: 510 Member
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    once I hit the sack - end logging
    wake up start of day - start logging


    This^^

    I work straight nights, wake up at 9pm (start log), go to bed, usually around 2-3pm (end log), threat it as any 24 hour period, regardless of the time it starts and ends.
  • Vex3521
    Vex3521 Posts: 385 Member
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    I have a funky schedule too. I log midnight to midnight. So days I'm not on shift and up at 7 instead of 1:30 that's when I start in.... It gives me "less" eating time on those days but I feel like I'm doing ok. Just got back in the gym and am making some intake and macro changes right now because I think I've really been under-eating and going too low on certain areas.
  • laurenrkelly
    laurenrkelly Posts: 2 Member
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    I work 12 hr nights 3 days a week also. I tend to be a night owl also and rarely go to bed before 1:30-2am. I log midnight to midnight and break my diary up by time 12am-8am, 8am-6pm, and 6pm-12am
    I found once I changed my logging into 24hr and timed blocks instead of trying to play around with which of my meals was breakfast/lunch dinner kinda thing I did much better! (although my diary may look a little weird some days with the majority of my food between 6-12pm)
    good luck!

    I also work nights. I mostly use MFP on my phone, so I wasn't even aware that you could change this setting. I did it this morning, and it made so much more sense! I would get so frustrated with trying to figure out which meal time to log something for, since my meals aren't at "normal" times, so I would just not log them at all. Thank you so much for sharing this! Hopefully now I'll be able to stay on top of logging my meals now! :)
  • knra_grl
    knra_grl Posts: 1,568 Member
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    I work shifts also. When I am waking up in the early afternoon I start the day there with breakfast. I try to make meals I can split in two so I can have mini meals throughout the night to keep me away from the toaster and cookies. My first night shift usually have my meals as a normal day but try to save calories to keep me going throughout the night.

    As far as logging I enter everything before I go to work and if I have to edit I will do it in the morning when I get home. It's easy since I pack everything and know what I am going to be eating.

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