Midnight Shift

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shilowindy
shilowindy Posts: 26 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone! I'm needing some advice in regards to tracking calories over the course of the day. I work midnights, 8 pm-8am for a week and then I'm off for a week. I mostly sleep through the day. How should I counter calories during my on week since it switches over at midnight to the next day? It's a little confusing and any advice would help!

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  • cbusnightowl
    cbusnightowl Posts: 132 Member
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    Hi OP! I work 6p-6a for four days then I am off four days...well nights. I had the same problem when I first started tracking my calories. I read multiple posts about people's ideas and chose one that made sense to me. Those ideas boil down to:
    * track everything you eat while awake on the calendar date it is when you wake up
    * track everything you eat while awake on the calendar date it is when you go to sleep
    * track everything you eat when you eat it and it will most likely be half each day (if it's confusing to track CICO by days this way, look at the weekly picture and make sure you are in a weekly deficit)

    But it's best to stick with one way so your tracking history will remain consistent.
  • jennb2096
    jennb2096 Posts: 34 Member
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    I work 3 nights 7p to 730a. I count my calories from midnight to midnight. Here's an three day example of when I eat.
    Sunday: had off the night before so I wake up around 730am
    -8am breakfast
    -12pm lunch
    -6pm dinner
    -9pm snack at work
    Monday:
    -1am lunch at work
    -630am breakfast at work
    -sleep
    -1pm snack
    -6pm dinner
    -10pm no work so sleep(if I had to work again Monday night I would sleep most of the day and not have a 1pm snack, I would eat that snack at 9pm at work)
    Hope this helps! It took some thinking and trial and error to come up with this. This way I'm not going for long periods without eating.
  • ogtmama
    ogtmama Posts: 1,403 Member
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    I would start a new "day" when you wake up and keep it on the same "day" until you go to bed, that way you can evaluate it as a chunk that belongs together and not have your breakfast llogged one day and lunch and dinner the next.
  • shilowindy
    shilowindy Posts: 26 Member
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    Thanks everyone! I appreciate the advice!
  • tracytesla
    tracytesla Posts: 7 Member
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    I work 10pm - 6am 3 nights a week, then a double - 10pm - 2pm (16 hours) on the last day. I've found it very hard as well to figure out how best to track what I eat, as it switches hours on my nights off, as it does for you it sounds like. I have chosen to go with midnight to midnight, it seems to be working for me.
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
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    Pick a method, stick with it and you'll be fine. For ease I would just use typical 24 hour days on MFP.

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