Graveyard shift and calorie counting.

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Dymlostalos
Dymlostalos Posts: 3
in Health and Weight Loss
Okay I feel like this might be a dumb question but its bugging me so ill ask anyways.

I work graveyards 9pm-9am and I have issues calorie counting because if these difficult hours.

I feel on one hand that a day should count as my period of wakefulness, but of course the site switches over to a new day at midnight.

My question is, should I log my foods as my period of wakefulness or by the sites?

for example, I wake up around 7pm i eat breakfast at around 9pm,lunch at midnight or one, and dinner around 8am, snacks of course in between, and then i goto bed around 11 or 12, and do it all over.

If i log it by the way the site would have you do it, then in theory i eat breakfast on a different day then i eat lunch and dinner and it kind of feels off to me. what do you guys think?

Replies

  • dave4d
    dave4d Posts: 1,155 Member
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    I rotate shifts and work graveyards sometimes too. I go midnight to midnight with my eating schedule. I guess it depends on if you maintain the graveyard sleep pattern on your days off. If you maintain the same pattern for sleep, I'd go from waking to sleeping for a day.
  • hjy319
    hjy319 Posts: 269 Member
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    I work a mid to 8a shift, I just log my foods during my awake hours and log my meal times in the notes section, just incase I need to look back.
    I have also had people tell me to just log midnight to midnight, but it seems odd to me to have 2 days worth of meals on a 1 day log, so I decided to keep everything on one day.
    tonight I started at 1045 pm with breakfast, I just moved ahead a day on MFP log and logged it as breakfast for Tuesday.
    Hope that helps.
  • Dymlostalos
    Dymlostalos Posts: 3
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    Yeah I tend to switch over to a normal sleep day on my days off, friday/sat/sun
  • hjy319
    hjy319 Posts: 269 Member
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    sorry 2nd post, computer wasn't working
  • Dymlostalos
    Dymlostalos Posts: 3
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    That makes perfect sense thanks hjy319!
  • allie7383
    allie7383 Posts: 865 Member
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    hey there! I work a 11pm-7am shift, and I changed the settings in my diary to make my day go from midnight-midnight, in 8 hour time frames.I wasn't really sure how to log mine as well, since technically my breakfast time was late afternoon. Now I start my day with what I eat at work and I've found that to work well for me. :happy:
  • dave4d
    dave4d Posts: 1,155 Member
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    A few years ago when I first started logging my meals I tried doing it from waking to sleeping, but then some days I'd eat 7 meals and others 5. I found that by going midnight to midnight, even though I have already had tomorrows breakfast, and probably morning snack before I go to bed, I can keep it at a 6 meal a day plan.
  • philip31
    philip31 Posts: 57 Member
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    I work nights driving trucks and read somewhere that you should eat a large meal (dinner) before you go to work and have a light snack before you goto bed...

    Therefore I have logged midnight to midnight in 4 hr intervals.. I have dinner at night before I goto work to get me recharged, eat fruit at work (making sure i'm eating something every 4 hrs).. Then I usually have a small breakfast before i goto bed (weetbix, milk and banana)

    Has worked well for me..
  • addman72
    addman72 Posts: 220
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    I work rotating shifts but when I do night its 6pm - 6am. I still manage to log it normally.

    When I wake ( 4pm ) I have a lunch , around 9pm its dinner.

    I'll snack midnight -1am and then its brekky ( usually oats ) at 4am.

    I then train at 6.30am after work and might have a protein shake afterwards before going to bed around 8.30am

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