Night Shift

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howej1
howej1 Posts: 1
in Health and Weight Loss
Anyone have any tips on eating and tracking food for those of us who work at night. I have funky transitions with lots of sleep lost, extra eating on first nights and no eating the day after my shifts finish. What about the nausea? Any ideas for that?

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  • resptech97
    resptech97 Posts: 147
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    I work night shift. My first night back I eat breakfast, I nap till time to get up and ready for work. After I get to work...somewhere between 6 and 8 pm I have my meal. Then about midnight I have a snack. I usually get off work around 6 am. Then I have a breakfast and do the same thing over again. I dont remember having any nausea??
  • Jmsgrl143
    Jmsgrl143 Posts: 2
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    Hey! I work night shift too, from 7p to 7a at a hospital. I sometimes don't eat my food until after midnite so i will include it in the next days diary.....I sleep til about 3 that day and so when I wake up, that's my breakfast I enter. I try to snack on fruits and vegetables to hold me over through out the night....if I am off the next day and I know I have plans or something that night. I will try to eat before midnite and just stay under my calorie intake. Hope this helps :)
  • dave4d
    dave4d Posts: 1,155 Member
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    I rotate 5 to 5. I time my meals midnight to midnight to keep my meals, and calories straight. I also take a nap before my first night shift. Usually from noon to 3, then I get up, eat, and go to work.

    I usually sleep from 6am when I get home until about noon, so I don't sleep enough, but I won't have time to get a workout in if I sleep too much longer.
  • lkyeomans
    lkyeomans Posts: 52 Member
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    I too struggled and worried about the same issue just a few weeks ago. I work 12 hour weekend night shifts. I log as I eat, so if you are eating something right now, log it in for Saturday (I use my app on my blackberry). I bring a bag of baby carrots and spend the extra money for the very small ones. I eat those when ever I am slightly hungry or wanting something crunchy. I also have a box of cereal that I will eat dry, also for the crunch and hunger factor but helps with the nausea as well. I bring a small snack sized ziplock bag as I know how my serving size fits in it. The other thing I do is have a Weight watchers Smartones at work to eat if I am hungry. I only have used it once. I drink plenty of water and one can of Pepsi as I need the caffeine and don't like coffee. Another trick I have is I eat Altoid mints, they are very strong and will wake me up as well as freshen my breath. I hope that helps you.
  • redsoxy
    redsoxy Posts: 73 Member
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    I work 8p to 6a and have found my eating schedule one of the hardest things to regulate with this shift. I have found, with a lot of trial and error - that I eat only one meal while I'm working - but save most of my snacks for the overnight. That way I'm not feeling hungry and snacking on bad-stuff while working...and my dinner holds me over most of the night.

    The key I found is to make sure you prepare ahead of time, and bring your own food. If your workplace is anything like mine, people are always ordering out and/or snacks. If I make sure I have enough options of healthy snacks with me - I'm not *quite* as tempted!
  • syd1980
    syd1980 Posts: 283
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    i work 7p-7a . I get up around 3pm then eat and get ready for work. i pack my meals for the night, and log it for that day. this way i know i have the right amount of food for the calories i need that night. i also dont eat anything after 4am. this way im not laying down on a full stomach , that causes me nausea .

    still having trouble when my 4 days off start. that first day off i usually dont get alot of calories in. still try to get my water intake in, just start drinking from the moment i wake up.
  • WinKitty
    WinKitty Posts: 119
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    My husband is trying to find a way to do this, too. He rotates like 4 days, 4 off, 4 nights, 4 off, repeat (6 to 6 either way). He's found this super-sucky for his meal planning, so if you guys have ideas, we want to know them, too.
  • Crystal817
    Crystal817 Posts: 2,021 Member
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    I work 7pm-7am. I keep my food diary from when I wake up until I go to sleep. So sometime near the end of my "day" I do have to switch back to the previous day on mpf to add new food.

    I keep about the same schedule everyday, and I do in fact actually sleep 6-7 hours per day. So I don't wake up early, or take naps before my shift. It makes things (for me) a lot easier. I know people with children aren't always able to make it so easy.

    So in regards to my food logging, it's the same as any other person, I just eat at different times than most people.
  • dave4d
    dave4d Posts: 1,155 Member
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    My husband is trying to find a way to do this, too. He rotates like 4 days, 4 off, 4 nights, 4 off, repeat (6 to 6 either way). He's found this super-sucky for his meal planning, so if you guys have ideas, we want to know them, too.

    I try to eat 6 meals a day. Every three hours. I try to get as close as possible to this schedule.
    nights- midnight, 3am, sleep, noon, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm.
    days-3:30am, 6am, 9am, noon, 3pm, 7pm.
    days off 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 10pm.
  • CommittohealthCHANGED
    CommittohealthCHANGED Posts: 436 Member
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    I to work nights 10p-6a. I eat around my schedule but not posts 2a, because it takes your stomach 4.hours to digest foods. I try to eat filling snacks only from 10p-2 a., and lot of water
  • britt_fit
    britt_fit Posts: 169
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    I've had some later shifts at work and it sounds silly, but yellow squash is amazing. Low calorie and crunchy, so I can eat a bunch of it. Also, if you get just the popcorn kernels and pop them on the stove it's only 15 calories for a cup!!! This has saved me so many times when I've been studying super late for school.
  • xraychick77
    xraychick77 Posts: 1,775 Member
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    my stomach doesnt get upset.

    i go midnight to midnight. i usually eat around 2am, and have a snack around 4 am. then i eat breakfast when i get home around 7am, go to the gym. i sleep then i get up around 5-6pm and eat dinner. i then eat a snack around 11pm.
  • north35
    north35 Posts: 70
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    bump :)
  • Izzy62
    Izzy62 Posts: 62 Member
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    I work a rotating shift pattern - 2 earlies starting at 7am, 2 lates starting at 3pm and 2 nights starting at 11pm. This is followed by 3 days off and then rinse and repeat.

    I don't eat much on nights, usually just a yoghurt with blueberries at around 2am, I feel really ill if I try and eat anything more than this. I just run with one day having more than usual calories, and that being balanced by my first day off, where I sleep til noon-ish and therefore miss out on either lunch or dinner.

    I lose regularly each week and therefore I stick with it. I can't say I've ever felt hungry on a night shift, I usually have to "make" myself eat something.

    Take care xx
  • Valtishia
    Valtishia Posts: 811 Member
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    not sure about the nausea thing.. but up until recently I was working all sorts of shifts including severla overnights. I eventually split my diary into 4 hour increments. mdnight - 4am, 4am to 8am, 8am to noon, noon to 4pm, 4pm to 8pm then 8pm to midnight. I don't work overnights anymore as of 2 weeks ago however I have lef tmy diary that way as some days I am up earlier than others, or up later than other days. Perhaps this would help.
  • stacimusmax
    stacimusmax Posts: 172 Member
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    I work 7p-7a also. I have changed my meals from "breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks" to 4hr time frames (0000-0400, 0400-0800, etc). I log whatever I eat as I eat it, no matter the time. So, when I look at my food (calorie) diet occassionally I have days that have almost no calories (usually my first day back). However, I still try to always meet my calorie goal/net goal.
    My diary is open if you want to look.
    I also get up about 3pm and go straight to the gym, then eat, then work. That usually hold me till about midnight.
    Oh, and I always bring my own food (even though the cafeteria is open at my hospital). It is easier to control calories, portions, carbs, protein, etc. if I pack it and plan ahead. That way, I don't give in when I am starving and the best thing on the menu is a greesy cheesburger.
  • MegJo
    MegJo Posts: 398 Member
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    I always get excited when I see a post titled "night shift" - nice to see there's a bunch of us!

    I do things I bit different then the majority. I "pretend" I'm a dayshifter. For example: when I got up up around 1500 I logged breakfast, I ate lunch right before I came into work at 1930, I'll have a snack around 2200 and another snack around 0000, dinner at 0200 and if needed a small snack around 0400. I will log it all under today (Saturday). When I go in to edit my diary after 0000 I just click back to the previous day.

    This helps me feel more "normal" and it allows me to see what I'm eating in a day while my body is up and functioning.

    Tips:

    --Plan your day out when you first wake up. After breakfast I log what I'm going to eat for the rest of the day. By doing this I hardly EVER go over my calories. I can say enough how much this one action has helped me.

    --Get into a eating routine and try to stick with it. If you have to flipflop night shift and day shift (thankfully I do not) have a dayshift eating schedule and a night shift eating schedule. Try to schedule when you're going to eat your major meals and then have some snacks around those times.

    --Pack snacks. String cheese, fruit, shrimp with cocktail sauce, snap peas, vitatops, pickles, nuts, turkey pepperoni, popsicles, popcorn, yogurt

    --Exercise. Just because we work nights doesn't mean we don't have to exercise - get it in when you can!

    Hope that helped! My dairy is open if you want to take a look - and I love being friends with other nightshifters if any of you want to request! :) I read all the posts so far and there is some GREAT advice in there! :smile:

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