Diet for shift work

The one that works best for you.

I did shift work for 20 years. I tried lots of different patterns to find what worked for me. For example, I HAD to eat during the night shift, and I found protein worked better than carbs FOR ME. I found not eating and going straight to bed worked FOR ME. You need to just experiment and see.

(Sorry for the novel lol) I work 12hr shifts and try to arrange as follows. (It’s worth noting I sleep poorly, particularly between nights so am usually awake for anything from 18-22 hours of the day)

I carb and calorie cycle for energy for my gymming which makes it marginally more complicated. But what works for me and might give you some ideas to try if it’s in line with what satisfies you for eating/timing:
Exercise day: 1800cal (min: 115P, min: 40F, max:250C)
Non exercise day: 1200cal (Min115P, Min: 65F, Max 70C)

Day shift no exercise 6am-8am starts: eat when it suits, usually starting late-ish (10-11am) and having dinner when I get home. I start late because I find myself less hungry in mornings and starving in afternoons/evenings after a busy day.

Day shift - exercise after work: try and get bulk of food (60-80% calories - but esp carbs) in prior to exercise with an hour or so gap between food and gym. I often get home quite late and make sure I get at least 20+gm protein in after gym.

Link shifts (9-11 am starts)
I HATE these shifts because I end up having to eat all or at least most of my meals at work - these are rarely exercise days so follow the above day shift pattern eating as late as possible to start the day, snacks during the day and assuming meal break falls later in the shift (it almost always does) then my main meal during the break. Occasionally if calories allow it I’ll have a small snack when I get home.

Night shift no exercise (1800-2000 start): I try and eat most if not all of my food before midnight and don’t eat when I get home - I usually have a decent meal before work, a couple of smallish snacks and then we get one 30min meal break where I eat a light-ish dinner (which can be as late as the end of our shift)

Night shift with exercise before work: I eat one to two ‘meals’ before gym and try and get majority of carbs in before gym, I then have a high protein mini-meal after gym/start of shift (something I can eat on the run). Again I try and eat the majority of my food by midnight but sometimes the break runs late and I always eat my last few hundred calories as a meal during my break period.

Between days and nights: I usually eat a little more (200-300cal if it’s a low cal day) as these days I’m often awake in excess of 24hours by the time I wake in morning, can’t sleep during day, then work all night.

Between nights and days: I sleep only til middayish post my last night shift when trying to reacclimate to daytime life and often eat slightly less as I then try and get to bed at a reasonable hour at night - and sometimes I drink the remainder of my calories for that day as wine

So yesterday was a nightshift with exercise: I can’t remember my exact calories and can’t access my diary when posting but a rough spread below
10-11am: chicken nuggets and potato waffles (400cal) (I swear it fit my macros lol). I don’t normally eat this early but was hungry.
Napped a little
15:00 or thereabouts baked beans and cheese on toast followed by berries and cream (450cal)
17:00 chicken noodle soup (250cal)
18:00 gym
19:15 started work and had some quiche and a small chocolate bar (450cal)
02:30 had another piece of quiche (250cal)

Got home and straight to bed at around 8.30am.

Bear in mind this is simply what I’ve found works for me over the last 5 months trying to drop some weight alongside my crappy sleep patterns and long shifts (and cycling calories). Obviously this is all helped along by copious amounts of black coffee like a true shift worker - additionally this may not work for you - I just find that a bigger break from eating before sleeping helps my day sleeps and I use my food for energy as much as I can to get me set up correctly for my shift.

laurabini wrote: »

I found that, when I have to work for 12-15 hours straight, a high protein diet is the only thing that helps.
I try to eat all my daily calories before work (I do night shifts) and if I get hungry at work, I'll have a nakd bar or a banana.
Make sure to drink plenty of water - it really makes a difference if you're well hydrated!

Wa-water?... you mean the stuff you mix with the black stuff to make delicious coffee right?
(But you’re right I drink litres of water on shift)

pismodiver wrote: »

23rochelle23 wrote: »

Wa-water?... you mean the stuff you mix with the black stuff to make delicious coffee right?
(But you’re right I drink litres of water on shift)

WHAAAAAAT!? You can drink that ish plain?

yeah I'd never make it through without 4+ cups of coffee

AnvilHead wrote: »

Just to address the one point in bold above - it doesn't matter which day you count them on, as long as you're consistent with it. Most (non-shift work) people consider a 'day' in their food diary as being from the time they get up until the time they go to bed - that can be difficult for shift workers, so it may be simpler to consider his logging as midnight on one day to 11:59 pm the next day, and just stick with that.

Yep. I changed the names on my food diary "meals" to 12a-7a, 7a-4p, and 4p-12a, and a day started at midnight. It worked well for me.

sarasmiles124 wrote: »

I still struggle with this. I go back and forth with shifts each week - some weeks I work all 8-4s, others I work 8-4s, 4-12s and a 12am-8 all in the same week. It's hard not just on my sleep schedule but to try and get to the gym and have any sort of social life.

I am trying to lose weight and get healthier for my upcoming wedding and for when we start trying for kids but between work and other stressors, I really need to figure something out.

Honestly.. the only thing that works is preplanning

I have the below type of plan through to the end of November (waiting on shift confirmation for Dec) - some days I miss the gym (if I’ve had 2 hours sleep, yesterday because I have a head cold and was scared I might break my neck if I sneezed with 100kg on my shoulders mid squat lol) but this gives me a fighting chance of getting to the gym and social events.