Work graveyard shift how do i maintain eating schedule

anaxilea wrote: »

I work 11pm-7am and sleep from 9am-3pm and nap from 7pm-10pm and at 3am 5 days a week i do cardio. 3 days a week i go to a gym class with an instructor and do circut training (strength and cardio) using a HR monitor to keep me in the zone. I eat the whole time i am awake and i go over my 1200 calorie a day plan. Sometimes i go over by couple cal and other times i go over by couple 100 cal. I pack my lunches for work and i make all meals at home from scratch no pre made foods or microwaveable foods i try and keep everything healthy and right proportions. Sometimes it is hard with having a husband who's a construction worker and has a big appetite and four kids who like to eat junk (good) food on the weekends. Should i up my calorie intake or what am i doing wrong? I am trying to lose weight, tone up and get in shape (cardio breathing).

The easiest thing to do is to set your weight loss goals and then not go over those calories. However, if you're finding yourself hungry all the time, you may be in too much of a deficit. If you're able to continue to lose weight, then bumping up your daily calorie allowance a bit should be alright. If you see the scale going up instead of down, then you know you're consuming more calories than you're burning.

If you are currently maintaining your weight or gaining, then eating more calories daily is only going to either make you start gaining weight or gain even more weight.

anaxilea wrote: »

I work 11pm-7am and sleep from 9am-3pm and nap from 7pm-10pm and at 3am 5 days a week i do cardio. 3 days a week i go to a gym class with an instructor and do circut training (strength and cardio) using a HR monitor to keep me in the zone. I eat the whole time i am awake and i go over my 1200 calorie a day plan. Sometimes i go over by couple cal and other times i go over by couple 100 cal. I pack my lunches for work and i make all meals at home from scratch no pre made foods or microwaveable foods i try and keep everything healthy and right proportions. Sometimes it is hard with having a husband who's a construction worker and has a big appetite and four kids who like to eat junk (good) food on the weekends. Should i up my calorie intake or what am i doing wrong? I am trying to lose weight, tone up and get in shape (cardio breathing).

If you are exercising and sticking to a 1200 cal a day plan, you are without a doubt under eating. You should be aiming to eat back around 50% calories you have burned during exercising.

Working overnights really messed with my eating schedule. I used to work 11pm-7am as a night auditor at a hotel. The major problem with my eating schedule was my sleep schedule was totally messed up. So if you have a regular sleep schedule, it should be easier for you to plan to eat at certain times if you would like to.

I work 7p-7a so i know what u r going through. I found it us easier for me to start my new day of calories at 3 pm. You wouldn't think that starting your calories at a different time would make a difference but it has helped me a ton. I get up at 3pm to start my day and eat dinner with my family. It is generally my biggest meal of the day thus i have all night to burn it off. I eat a snack around 9pm...yogurt, apple, something. Depending on how busy work is, i eat lunch between 1am-2am....usually a big salad or maybe a wrap with some veggies....5am its snack time again. Graham crackers or popcorn maybe more fruit. When i get home i eat something small like an omelet with toast or nutrigrain bar before bed. I have been over on calories 2 times in 5 months....one time when i was on vacation and on my birthday (why cant grey goose make lower calorie vodka..lol).