Nightshifters! How do you do your meals for the 24hrs?

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DawnOBRN
DawnOBRN Posts: 290 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Curious how you count your meals in a 24hr period when you work overnight. I have always counted the "day" from when I wake up till I get to go to bed again (ex: wake up at 6am Sat, dont get back to bed until 8am sun), but this usually puts my calories over because I am up for 24+ hrs and obviously eat more.
I am thinking of switching to midnight to midnight as a "day"--the way it is in the "real" world.
Just wondering what the rest of you do....

Replies

  • peacefrog08109
    peacefrog08109 Posts: 44 Member
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    I changed the names of my meals to times (ie 12a-4a, 4a-8a etc). Someone else suggested it on here and it's worked out great. So instead of counting during a day I basically use a 24 hr period.
  • angelah321
    angelah321 Posts: 3 Member
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    I always keep my three meals the same ie I do not eat on my night shift. I have my lunch when I wake from my day sleep and dinner right before I leave for work and then only diet drinks ie diet coke overnight, breakfast when I get home and I count each day as in the three meals in each days.
  • sandi228
    sandi228 Posts: 72 Member
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    I work a rotating swing shift, from days to nights and back to days with 2-3 days off in between. My first night I am usually over calories because of eating in the daytime then eating at night. I sleep the next day and eat around 4pm and then all night and the day I come off of nights I'll sleep until noon or 1 and only eat 1-2 times before I'm off to bed again to get turned around for working days. I usually don't hit the 1200 calories that day unless I eat something very high in calories. I have lost weight twice working this way. I have been stuck at 150lbs since August but that was my personal goal. I can now eat 1850 cal a day to maintain this but I have yet to eat that in a day. I at least get 1200 per day but under the 1850. Good luck.
  • Bigken1
    Bigken1 Posts: 8 Member
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    ditto on peacefrogs comment... i have a set time i wake up, then i eat every 3 hrs from then on untill i get my 5 meals in.. and i dont eat 4-5 hrs before going to bed!
  • sandi228
    sandi228 Posts: 72 Member
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    I try to eat small meals every 3 hours.
  • alaw1119
    alaw1119 Posts: 68 Member
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    I start counting my day when I wake up which is usually about 4pm. But on my last night off I try to only sleep for a couple of hours and wake up around noon or one so I will be tired around ten or eleven. I have a hard time eating all my calories that day. I'm just not hungry and I don't feel like I need all of those calories if I'm not up for a long period of time.
  • Leslietheriot
    Leslietheriot Posts: 303 Member
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    From the time I wake til the time I sleep
  • kjames32
    kjames32 Posts: 1
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    I stick with the midnight to midnight entries. I eat breakfast at 8pm each night, but I keep that with the "previous" day stuff since it was all technically on the same day. By doing that, it's less confusing, and everything is still accounted for. So my entries start with lunch, then circle back up to breakfast on the same day.
  • EliRob
    EliRob Posts: 53 Member
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    I work the overnight shift and it's been an adjustment to find a way to log everything. What I found works best for me is my "day" lasts from when I go into shift (5p-5a) until I leave, even if it goes over into the next day. I just adjust by times (breakfast, lunch dinner) to coincide with that day’s shift (ie breakfast - 6pm, snack -10pm, dinner 1am). This means that if I go in on Wednesday my shift goes until Thursday, but everything until 5a (end of my shift) I count on the previous day. Then I repeat it for the next day. It works for me, because even on my off days I keep the same schedule of being up all night.
  • tkacomet
    tkacomet Posts: 73 Member
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    I like the idea of renaming my meals to timeframes.

    I mostly ignore the meal names and figure "breakfast" is the first time I eat, "lunch" the second, etc. this usually means that on my shift nights what gets entered as "dinner" is an odd array of a-bite-of-this-and-a-bite-of-that. (I'm a bartender, we generally graze while busy)

    my biggest problem is that MFP switches me to a new day when my "day" is halfway over, so I always have to make sure and check the date that I'm entering on and go back to the date before to make a complete "day". ah well.

    I find eating and exercising challenging no matter what when doing night shift. Often I'll get home at 5 am, and have to get my kids up for school at 7, so I just stay up and workout. my older son is not particularly happy about waking up to Kanye or Linkin Park and mom breathing heavy in the living room!
  • robinaddison
    robinaddison Posts: 232 Member
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    I've renamed my meals 1 thru 6 (how original lol); my "day" starts whenever I wake up and ends when I go to bed. So, there are some days I'm over on my calories because I'm awake for so much of it...but I figure it all evens out in the end. And whatever I'm doing, it seems to be working for me!!
  • DawnOBRN
    DawnOBRN Posts: 290 Member
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    Thanks for all of your reply's!
  • FlyFishinX2
    FlyFishinX2 Posts: 127
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    I start my day when I wake up and have breakfast which is usually around 2 pm and my last meal is my dinner at 4am
  • LJV1031
    LJV1031 Posts: 502 Member
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    I have 6 time slots for meals and do it within the "normal" 24 hr period. I eat ALL day when I'm up, but still try to stay within range. Works for me.
    12a-3:59a ; 4a-7:59a, etc....... (I'm SUPER anal, but like I said it works for me).
  • Mirror_Image
    Mirror_Image Posts: 32
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    The first and last nightshift is always the killer for me. But generally - cos I live onsite for the hospital, I generally (try - don't sleep too well when on nights) aim to get up 4-5pm and eat a mahoosive breakfast then, then have 'lunch' around 11pm-12am then don't eat til I wake the following day. If my tummy's digesting itself, then I will have a cheeky bowl of oatbran before sleeping. I tend to load up on my food before work cos it's so busy I can burn it off. Nightshift buggers up my system royally.

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