Working night shift

jonesemary1995
jonesemary1995 Posts: 18 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I just recently started to work night shift 3 days a week from 8pm to 8am. I don't know how I should play my diet into this. I eat dinner before I go to work. And when I get off and go to bed I don't eat anything before. When I wake up, I eat my "breakfast" and then dinner, and then back to work. Should I eat during my shift?

Replies

  • caileag26
    caileag26 Posts: 29 Member
    I work 7p-7a. I count my days from wake-up to sleep-time since three days a week I'm nocturnal and I am diurnal the rest. For example, today is a transition day because I had the weekend off. I got up at 9a. I had coffee but I don't like to eat when I first get up, so I had my breakfast at around 1300 when my kid was eating her lunch. I then take a short nap, and have dinner with the family, logging it as my lunch. I pack for work because snacking keeps me awake. I brought salad, no dressing just some balsamic, sliced apples, and a Starkist tuna and crackers kit. I log the tuna and salad as dinner and the apples as snack. I like to have a full belly when I go to bed so I will have Special K and Greek yogurt when I get home and log it as snacks. Tomorrow, I will be nocturnal so I eat dinner before work, logging it as my breakfast and will pack two meals and a snack to eat at work. I will again have my yogurt and cereal in the morning before bed. I have tried to not eat on my shift but end up raiding the unit kitchen for Lorna Doone's and peanut butter! I've always been a grazer so this works best for me. If you can go all night without eating then it really doesn't matter if you eat during your shift or not, as long as you are getting your minimum 1000cal.
  • IndianaGolfer
    IndianaGolfer Posts: 16,220 Member
    I work nites as well, I log whenever I eat. It doesn't matter if it's a breakfast food for dinner lunch or breakfast. What counts is just logging it. Doing it differently isn't better or advantageous, it's simply different. Put food in mouth, put food in your logging. As simple as that. I sometimes eat leftovers in the morning, sometimes breakfast, sometimes I make a new meal. It's being consumed in the morning so I call it breakfast. Same as dinner, no matter what your eating, it's dinner.
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
    One thing I did that was helpful was change the settings on my food diary so that it's not broken up into meals, snacks, etc. After that, I just log midnight-to-midnight, for simplicity's sake.
  • cljucovic
    cljucovic Posts: 15 Member
    I work the same. Haven't thought about the issue of documenting night shift as I've been off of work since I started this app. I think as long as it's documented you're fine.
  • cljucovic
    cljucovic Posts: 15 Member
    jennifer_417 wrote: »
    One thing I did that was helpful was change the settings on my food diary so that it's not broken up into meals, snacks, etc. After that, I just log midnight-to-midnight, for simplicity's sake.

    How do you do that?
  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
    Do you normally eat during your shift? Timing doesn't really matter, as long as you get the nutrition you need.
  • hekla90
    hekla90 Posts: 595 Member
    I just log what I eat when I eat it.
  • marylmartin22
    marylmartin22 Posts: 5 Member
    I basically log 12a-12p. I pack all my food for work and usually log it all before I go into work. I usually eat two meals. One larger before midnight and a somewhat breakfast (sometimes it's oatmeal, sometimes it's a turkey sandwich). This helps as sometimes I don't get the chance to eat my main meal before 12a; regardless of what time I get dinner it counts for the first calendar days dinner. I'll log a breakfast for the next day.

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