Surviving third shift

ColorMe_Beautiful24
ColorMe_Beautiful24 Posts: 67 Member
edited November 27 in Motivation and Support
I work third shift😩😩😩I am having a hard time reaching my protein goal. I am a pescatarian and before I started night shift I was meeting my goal pretty well. Due to scheduled work hours I sometimes skip whole meals. I don’t like eating after 6:30p.m because I nap at 8 until my shift start. Please I need some suggestions or any tips are appreciated 😊 Foods to eat to meet my protein goal when I have skipped a meal🤔🤔

Replies

  • HealthyGinny
    HealthyGinny Posts: 821 Member
    I'm going to be pretty basic here but then you need foods pretty calorie-dense, ideally with protein and/or healthy fats. Nuts, avocados, cheese, greek yoghurts, bananas, nut butter, smoothies, oatmeal, etc.
  • ColorMe_Beautiful24
    ColorMe_Beautiful24 Posts: 67 Member
    HealthyGinny wrote: »
    I'm going to be pretty basic here but then you need foods pretty calorie-dense, ideally with protein and/or healthy fats. Nuts, avocados, cheese, greek yoghurts, bananas, nut butter, smoothies, oatmeal, etc.

    Thank you I will definitely incorporate these more into my eating ☺️
  • nickssweetheart
    nickssweetheart Posts: 874 Member
    Can you eat during your shift? Do you get a lunch break of some kind? When I worked 11 pm to 7 am, I switched my eating around some and ended up eating 4 smaller meals instead of 3 larger ones. I'd have a very small meal at 5 pm or so when I woke up, then another small meal at around 9:30, work until 2, ate my largest meal of the day on my lunch break, and then got off at 7 and had an apple in the car on the way home, and then microwaved a bowl of soup at home before going to bed. It worked pretty well for me.

    Keep in mind unless it disturbs your sleep, there's no reason (weightloss wise) to avoid eating shortly before sleeping, if that fits your schedule better.
  • ColorMe_Beautiful24
    ColorMe_Beautiful24 Posts: 67 Member
    edited July 2018
    nickssweetheart I take a lunch at 3:30-4pm every night but I use it to walk around so I don’t get tired and be ready to duck off to the bathroom for a quick nap. I think adding an additional meal time could be very beneficial thank you for that suggestion😊
  • VUA21
    VUA21 Posts: 2,072 Member
    Eating before naps has nothing to do with weight loss. So unless you have sleeping issues with eating before a nap, don't worry about it. Iused to work rotating shifts, so I am all too familiar with jacked up schedules.

    What I would do is divide me day into three 8-hour sections, section 1 = breakfast, section 2= lunch....., even if section 1 was my "dinner" and so forth. That keeps my daily logging consistent for each 24 hour period even though I was not on a typical 24 hour schedule.

    Also, I would pack 2-3 small meals for myself, things that could be eaten relatively quickly. Burritos were my go-to meal as they are small self contained meals that can be readily microwaved or eated cold(anything wrapped in a flour tortilla is a burrito - that includes tuna salad, peanut butter & jelly, or anything else you like). I would also pack a few pre-measured snacks, fruit, bags of veggies, a serving of almonds, and so forth.
  • Mads5715
    Mads5715 Posts: 17 Member
    I have the same exact problem. For me, adding chick peas to almost any meal has been helpful. I usually eat 2 meals a day due to not wanting to eat at 3-4am but even keeping a baggie of roasted nuts or chickpeas on days where I know I didn't eat enough has been helpful for myself.
  • ColorMe_Beautiful24
    ColorMe_Beautiful24 Posts: 67 Member
    VUA21 wrote: »
    Eating before naps has nothing to do with weight loss. So unless you have sleeping issues with eating before a nap, don't worry about it. Iused to work rotating shifts, so I am all too familiar with jacked up schedules.

    What I would do is divide me day into three 8-hour sections, section 1 = breakfast, section 2= lunch....., even if section 1 was my "dinner" and so forth. That keeps my daily logging consistent for each 24 hour period even though I was not on a typical 24 hour schedule.

    Also, I would pack 2-3 small meals for myself, things that could be eaten relatively quickly. Burritos were my go-to meal as they are small self contained meals that can be readily microwaved or eated cold(anything wrapped in a flour tortilla is a burrito - that includes tuna salad, peanut butter & jelly, or anything else you like). I would also pack a few pre-measured snacks, fruit, bags of veggies, a serving of almonds, and so forth.

    thank you very much i will definitely look into adding more meal times
  • ColorMe_Beautiful24
    ColorMe_Beautiful24 Posts: 67 Member
    Mads5715 wrote: »
    I have the same exact problem. For me, adding chick peas to almost any meal has been helpful. I usually eat 2 meals a day due to not wanting to eat at 3-4am but even keeping a baggie of roasted nuts or chickpeas on days where I know I didn't eat enough has been helpful for myself.

    thank you very much i have been wanting to try chick peas but can not muster up enough oompf. Ill go get some today :)
  • VUA21
    VUA21 Posts: 2,072 Member
    Poetic_Justice24 wrote: »
    VUA21 wrote: »
    Eating before naps has nothing to do with weight loss. So unless you have sleeping issues with eating before a nap, don't worry about it. Iused to work rotating shifts, so I am all too familiar with jacked up schedules.

    What I would do is divide me day into three 8-hour sections, section 1 = breakfast, section 2= lunch....., even if section 1 was my "dinner" and so forth. That keeps my daily logging consistent for each 24 hour period even though I was not on a typical 24 hour schedule.

    Also, I would pack 2-3 small meals for myself, things that could be eaten relatively quickly. Burritos were my go-to meal as they are small self contained meals that can be readily microwaved or eated cold(anything wrapped in a flour tortilla is a burrito - that includes tuna salad, peanut butter & jelly, or anything else you like). I would also pack a few pre-measured snacks, fruit, bags of veggies, a serving of almonds, and so forth.

    thank you very much i will definitely look into adding more meal times

    Sure thing. Having more small meals when on nights helped me out. Losing weight is about how much you eat in total, doesn't matter when or how many means. If you need to eat less than 1600 calories a day, eating 1 meal or 50 meals a day is fine, just so long as your total calories are less than 1600 (or whatever your happen to be).
  • oboeing
    oboeing Posts: 1,816 Member
    edited July 2018
    when i worked third shift, i literally flopped my life by 12 hours. i ate breakfast when i woke up at 4 pm. i ate lunch at 9 pm, and i had dinner at 4 am. i had my fruit (higher sugar content) around 6, to get me through the last of the hours before i drove home. i also (still) perpetually snack between meals. and drink LOTS of water. keeps you getting up and moving every 20-30 minutes, which helps with the nap feelings.
  • ColorMe_Beautiful24
    ColorMe_Beautiful24 Posts: 67 Member
    VUA21 wrote: »
    Poetic_Justice24 wrote: »
    VUA21 wrote: »
    Eating before naps has nothing to do with weight loss. So unless you have sleeping issues with eating before a nap, don't worry about it. Iused to work rotating shifts, so I am all too familiar with jacked up schedules.

    What I would do is divide me day into three 8-hour sections, section 1 = breakfast, section 2= lunch....., even if section 1 was my "dinner" and so forth. That keeps my daily logging consistent for each 24 hour period even though I was not on a typical 24 hour schedule.

    Also, I would pack 2-3 small meals for myself, things that could be eaten relatively quickly. Burritos were my go-to meal as they are small self contained meals that can be readily microwaved or eated cold(anything wrapped in a flour tortilla is a burrito - that includes tuna salad, peanut butter & jelly, or anything else you like). I would also pack a few pre-measured snacks, fruit, bags of veggies, a serving of almonds, and so forth.

    thank you very much i will definitely look into adding more meal times

    Sure thing. Having more small meals when on nights helped me out. Losing weight is about how much you eat in total, doesn't matter when or how many means. If you need to eat less than 1600 calories a day, eating 1 meal or 50 meals a day is fine, just so long as your total calories are less than 1600 (or whatever your happen to be).[/quote

    Thank you as of today i will be breaking my meal times down and eating smaller meals versus starving until its time for a large meal
  • ColorMe_Beautiful24
    ColorMe_Beautiful24 Posts: 67 Member
    oboeing wrote: »
    when i worked third shift, i literally flopped my life by 12 hours. i ate breakfast when i woke up at 4 pm. i ate lunch at 9 pm, and i had dinner at 4 am. i had my fruit (higher sugar content) around 6, to get me through the last of the hours before i drove home. i also (still) perpetually snack between meals. and drink LOTS of water. keeps you getting up and moving every 20-30 minutes, which helps with the nap feelings.

    so you ate dinner the next day? i usually try to stop eating well before 12 a.m just because it begins a new day. But i guess my body doesn't even know hey its a new day. Can this be doing more harm then good????
  • VUA21
    VUA21 Posts: 2,072 Member
    Poetic_Justice24 wrote: »
    oboeing wrote: »
    when i worked third shift, i literally flopped my life by 12 hours. i ate breakfast when i woke up at 4 pm. i ate lunch at 9 pm, and i had dinner at 4 am. i had my fruit (higher sugar content) around 6, to get me through the last of the hours before i drove home. i also (still) perpetually snack between meals. and drink LOTS of water. keeps you getting up and moving every 20-30 minutes, which helps with the nap feelings.

    so you ate dinner the next day? i usually try to stop eating well before 12 a.m just because it begins a new day. But i guess my body doesn't even know hey its a new day. Can this be doing more harm then good????

    No. So long as your average calories for every 24 hour period (or weekly) stay in your budget, you're fine. Simply log your dinner as breakfast as it's the normal breakfast time for day walkers (day shift rotation). Night shifts throw everything off a bit as your schedule and 99% of the world are two different schedules
  • oboeing
    oboeing Posts: 1,816 Member
    i logged everything based on my timeline. my 4 pm meal went on my breakfast. because i had to bring all my food with me (there was literally nothing near where i worked that was open overnight) i would log all my food for MY day when i ate breakfast. the midnight deadline meant nothing to me, because i was still going to be up for 9 hours after that. For a normal person, that would mean you stop eating at around 2pm for the day! Do you. On third shift, there isn't really a "normal" when it comes to a timeline.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,454 Member
    I worked third shift for years, it's tough.

    I wouldn't stop eating at a certain time just because of the clock. I agree that eating like you normally would i.e. breakfast, lunch and supper is what I did. I had an active job so I had to keep myself well-fueled.

    Weight control is all about calories in < calories out, so however you can eat to feel good, that's what you do. :)
  • ColorMe_Beautiful24
    ColorMe_Beautiful24 Posts: 67 Member
    oboeing wrote: »
    i logged everything based on my timeline. my 4 pm meal went on my breakfast. because i had to bring all my food with me (there was literally nothing near where i worked that was open overnight) i would log all my food for MY day when i ate breakfast. the midnight deadline meant nothing to me, because i was still going to be up for 9 hours after that. For a normal person, that would mean you stop eating at around 2pm for the day! Do you. On third shift, there isn't really a "normal" when it comes to a timeline.

    thank you i stopped eating today at 2:30p and it was rough by shift start my stomach was burning! I definitely will take this advice and run with it
  • ColorMe_Beautiful24
    ColorMe_Beautiful24 Posts: 67 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    I worked third shift for years, it's tough.

    I wouldn't stop eating at a certain time just because of the clock. I agree that eating like you normally would i.e. breakfast, lunch and supper is what I did. I had an active job so I had to keep myself well-fueled.

    Weight control is all about calories in < calories out, so however you can eat to feel good, that's what you do. :)

    thank you very much for your insight i am also a student and my son is a lot older since the last time i worked third shifts. Will i find a healthy sleeping and eating balance or is it a day by day journey?
  • oboeing
    oboeing Posts: 1,816 Member
    the sleep was the worst part of third shift for me, since i work 2 jobs. i got home at 930-10 am, and got up at 430 pm. blackout curtains were helpful, but i still struggled with daytime sleeping. i don't think i ever found any kind of a groove, and just did the best i could every day. i wish you luck and i'm crossing my fingers for you!
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