Overnight Calorie Counting (Night Shift)

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bnicoleman5021
bnicoleman5021 Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So, I work a night shift (5:30 p.m. to 2, sometimes 3 a.m.) and am getting lost on how I should count my calories. Should I go from midnight to midnight, or from when I wake up to when I go to bed? Because I'm also starting the 5:2 diet so I need to know when I'm technically starting my fasting days.
Thanks!

Replies

  • MikePTY
    MikePTY Posts: 3,814 Member
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    It's really preference, but for most I think it's easier to manage from when you get up to when you go to sleep.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
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    Since you can change the labels of your meals I have seen some people suggest that instead of "Breakfast" you assign it a time. So if you get back up at 10:30 and eat by 11:00 you would call it the 11AM MEAL and lunch might be 3PM meal.

    As @MikePTY suggests it is whatever your preference and whatever makes it easiest on you.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
    edited June 2019
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    I started the next day after I slept, whenever that was.

    It doesn't matter, as long as you are accurately tracking.
  • grimendale
    grimendale Posts: 2,153 Member
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    Consistency is key. For me, I kept food on the day I ate, but the meals were out of order. On a typical day, I would eat lunch at 12:30 am, which would be the first meal I would log on a given date. I'd eat dinner around 7am and go to bed. I'd wake up around 5pm and eat breakfast, which would be the last thing I would log on that date. It made it easier for me when I transitioned back off of night shift or spent time on swing shift.
  • gottswald
    gottswald Posts: 122 Member
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    I do it by meal. I eat 3 meals and 3 'snacks', roughly 3 hours apart. I start with waking up to protein and food, I go to bed with protein (casein). I adjust my meal's 'calorie' goals to fit within my overall calorie goal.
  • MadDogManor
    MadDogManor Posts: 1,452 Member
    edited June 2019
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    I changed my “meals” to times, in 4 hour increments: 0001-0400, 0401-0800, 0801-1200, and so on. It really doesn’t matter to me what I call it, I just want to try to log accurately, and logging by time just seems to work best for me.
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
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    Either way works just fine, it's only a matter of personal preference.

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