logging food for night shift

ineednapkin
ineednapkin Posts: 151
edited September 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I want to keep from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed as my 'day'.... but which day do I start on? Also I have never worked nights before, any tips?

Replies

  • rakelros
    rakelros Posts: 67
    I would start the day at midnight. Tonight at midnight, I would start logging the food as if it were tomorrow.
  • hroush
    hroush Posts: 2,073 Member
    I would start the day at midnight. Tonight at midnight, I would start logging the food as if it were tomorrow.

    This makes no sense. The OP is working the night shift, which probably means this is the middle of their day.

    I would say set it up so that use the day that you wake up on and your first meal goes into breakfast, and continue until you go to sleep. When you wake up, start the next day.
  • cmpettey
    cmpettey Posts: 221 Member
    I've worked a lot of nights and ended up just logging from midnight to midnight because it worked better for me. If you want to do it from when you wake up to when you go to sleep, I would log it in the date of the day end.
  • frenchprairiegirl
    frenchprairiegirl Posts: 173 Member
    Feel free to friend me. My food diary is open to my friends. I work 2 days, 2 nights then off for 4 (12 hr shifts). I don't agree with what the others have suggested but it doesn't mean it doesn't work for them. I'll let you know when I'm on a night shift and you can take a look at my diary for that day.
    Renée
  • its_betty
    its_betty Posts: 104 Member
    As long as you are consistent in your tracking, it doesn't really matter. Your body doesn't care which day you ate, so do whatever is easiest for you.

    This is what I would do: Say you wake up at 2pm Monday: start logging for Monday. Log everything until you go to sleep for your 'night' as Monday even though some of it might actually be Tuesday morning.

    If you sleep more regular hours on days off, just log those days normally, with a day being between the time you wake up and the time you go to sleep.
  • Losingitin2011
    Losingitin2011 Posts: 572 Member
    I essentially log everything from the time I wake up, until the time I go to bed.

    For example, I woke up around 3pm, the first meal I log is "breakfast" then whenever I eat lunch, i log it, so on and so forth. I do have to switch the day back after midnight, which is kind of annoying, but as long as I remember to do it I'm good ;-)
  • ZanneB
    ZanneB Posts: 6
    When I worked night shift I always flipped everything right around. It meant having Breakfast (cereal) at 4pm when I woke up and having a steak and potato (for example) at 7am. I also tracked it as such.

    My best advice for working night-shift is to make sure that your sleeping area is as dark as you can make it. I put black garbage bags over my windows in addition to the blinds I already had. Your body is going to be confused. I found that having a dark bedroom helped minimize my problems.

    Hope that helps.
  • ineednapkin
    ineednapkin Posts: 151
    Thanks for all the responses! I am fortunately living in a dorm on base that has blacked out windows. I am only working this schedule for three weeks... so it should be interesting. :)
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