work schedules

afbigg
afbigg Posts: 33 Member
edited September 28 in Health and Weight Loss
I work 10hr overnights and want to know if there is anyone else in this situation and how you track your food for this time period?? I am up for a majority of the day because I take a class, have regular household chores that need to be done, and I also keep my kids home with me to save money on daycare, so I usually eat 3 main meals during the day, but sometime at work I will bring something to snack on or bring a small meal to tide me over so as not to go over my calorie count. What I want to know is what day do I track this consumption on and/or under what meal/snack? I will also sometimes workout on my break and am not sure what day to track that on either. I would think it should be tracked on the following day if I eat or exercise after midnight, but I want to know what others do in this situation.

Replies

  • MrsSki
    MrsSki Posts: 196
    I would track by your sleeps, so if you get up and eat and work out and go to work then go to bed, that's one day. This will make the process much easier then trying to decide what you had after midnight, etc. I am up late on the weekends sometimes (usually out dancing) and I track that exercise as being from the day before, rather than in the early morning of the next day. Does that make sense?
  • anacsitham5
    anacsitham5 Posts: 810 Member
    I work two jobs back to back. 8:30-5:00 and 5:15-10:30. It is an hour work for me to and from so I sort of know how you feel. Although I am not working overnight. I have 5 categories.....Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks (all inclusive regardless of the time of day) and beverages (I have a gin and tonic each night....my only indulgence!). You can have an am snack and a pm snack or name the cateogies any way you want.
  • Bootzey
    Bootzey Posts: 274 Member
    There are 24 hours in a day. Track it like that. And I would spread out the meals and snacks
  • rhondaredhead
    rhondaredhead Posts: 135 Member
    You can customize the names of your meals, if that helps—put in "Breakfast," "Lunch," "Dinner," "Work," for example. I think MFP automatically resets to go to the next day after midnight, but you can always use the back arrows and add to the previous day. I would say just pick a 24-hour period that works for you.

    BTW, I don't know how you do it—when do you sleep? :) (That could affect the way you burn calories, so you might want to factor that in somehow. Not quite sure how....)
  • SparksFly460
    SparksFly460 Posts: 258
    I work two over nights a week and two 12 hr shifts during the week plus some volunteer work so my schedule is messed up as well. I solved my food logging problem by renaming my 'meals' to time slots. I have 7am-11am, 11am-3pm, 3pm-7pm, 7pm-11pm, 11pm-3am and 3am-7am.
  • afbigg
    afbigg Posts: 33 Member
    That is kind of what I have been doing, but sometimes I feel like I am cheating because one day it will kick my exercise way up and cut the calories I ate, but I don't really feel like I should be able to take those calories back. Thank you for your input tho, I do find it helpful!!
  • afbigg
    afbigg Posts: 33 Member
    You can customize the names of your meals, if that helps—put in "Breakfast," "Lunch," "Dinner," "Work," for example. I think MFP automatically resets to go to the next day after midnight, but you can always use the back arrows and add to the previous day. I would say just pick a 24-hour period that works for you.

    BTW, I don't know how you do it—when do you sleep? :) (That could affect the way you burn calories, so you might want to factor that in somehow. Not quite sure how....)

    I actually take about an hour and a half to 2 hour nap when my youngest naps, and then after supper my bf is in charge of the kids and I get another 2 and a half to 3 hours of sleep before work. It has been a very hard adjustment to make, but it works for now so I just go with it. I never thought about sleep deprivation affecting my calories burned, I wonder how I could check that out. Thanks for the input:)
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