NIGHT SHIFT

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ndavid28
ndavid28 Posts: 26
in Introduce Yourself
tips on eating and exercising when working 12 hour nights plus when you have off days???
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  • Dreamin_Skinny
    Dreamin_Skinny Posts: 67
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    is it possible for you to workout at work? not like lunges and pushups lol, but maybe walking?
  • AlyssaSoyk
    AlyssaSoyk Posts: 1 Member
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    I have the same problem with working nights. If I get the chance I try to walk the hallways, I also drink plenty of water so I don't get the midnight munchies.
  • juggalotus
    juggalotus Posts: 227
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    I have the same issue. Sometimes I will do an 18 hour shift (2pm-9am) and i have no idea how to log my food after midnight and throughout the night. We do have a treadmill in all the houses...(I work in an ICF) But i would really hate getting all sweaty at work :-/ but Im curious to see what people have to say
  • ndavid28
    ndavid28 Posts: 26
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    yeah i work in a hospital i do alot of walking but the food i think is the bigger part i dont know when to eat if I am eating at the wrong time idk
  • hush7hush
    hush7hush Posts: 2,273 Member
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    Same things you would eat if you worked during the day?
  • ndavid28
    ndavid28 Posts: 26
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    yeah girlie cause do u eat before you go home, what do you eat when u wake up and what about when u r off totally messed up schedule
  • lumberjacks94
    lumberjacks94 Posts: 135 Member
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    What I do for my 8 hour night shift is prepare my meals before I come in and portion them out throughout the night. I try to eat something at least every two hours and drink water throughout the night. Mostly I just lay out fruit on my desk and grab whatever I feel like eating at that moment. I also bring a main "meal" that I eat at various times depending on how hungry I am. I don't eat the bigger meal until I'm most hungry, figuring that makes the most sense. But there is nothing worse than being rushed to work and being unprepared. That means fending in the vending machine and that's just sick and wrong at this point!
  • sharanranran
    sharanranran Posts: 64 Member
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    Bump for later
  • ndavid28
    ndavid28 Posts: 26
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    hush7hush I have asked the people at weight watchers, dieticians, weight loss proffesionals, all those diets are based off a 8 hour work day with 6-8 hours of sleep at night, I am a nurse sometimes I work 14 hour days and swing shift it gets a little confusing, I think I just have to sit down and come up with a plan and just post a meal for that day thank you though!!
  • ejohndrow
    ejohndrow Posts: 1,399 Member
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    I just started nights as well (we switch days to nights every 6 mos.) my schedule is: Sleep at 0800-about 1300, gym 1400-1600, ready for work and then arm up at 1745.
    Days off my time at the gym can go up to 3 hours a day.
    As I've posted before I've gotten into this eating habit of grilled chicke or grilled fish, fruit, veggies and coffee lots and lots of coffee. My nights are a little different though. Right now I'm on the leeward side of base where everything closed at 1800-if you don't bring food over here you're pretty much screwed-or it's like the best diet ever.
  • ndavid28
    ndavid28 Posts: 26
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    thank u everybody
  • peacefrog08109
    peacefrog08109 Posts: 44 Member
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    I'm a night shift RN, work 12 hr shifts 3-4 times a week. I try to work out the first shift I'm on and any day I'm off. The morning after my last shift I try to work out in the morning. It helps trying to get me back on a "real life" schedule.
  • kp2002
    kp2002 Posts: 6 Member
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    Hi: I work 12hr nights at a hospital. This may not work for you but it does me. I eat breakfast when I wake up around 1730, then lunch at work around 2300, healthy snacks and lots of water thru the night, then dinner at 0730 on when I get home from work. I also work out before I go to work so I don't skip it. On my days off I try to eat on a regular schedule... hope this helps
  • ndavid28
    ndavid28 Posts: 26
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    I'm a night shift RN, work 12 hr shifts 3-4 times a week. I try to work out the first shift I'm on and any day I'm off. The morning after my last shift I try to work out in the morning. It helps trying to get me back on a "real life" schedule.
    I likes thanks girl
  • sharanranran
    sharanranran Posts: 64 Member
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    I work a week of 12.5 hour nights every 4 weeks as a midwife. I plan that my first night I spread my cals out eating really low cal stuff and each day starts again when I wake up in the pm. So my first day/night my cals last 24 hours. It's a great idea to do your exercise before work to get extra cals. My work means I can't do exercise and sometimes I dont get a break either but I do take advantage of any walking I might get. Also, this way means when you wake up from your last night, you can have a really good evening meal :)

    Hope this helps
  • snookumss
    snookumss Posts: 1,451 Member
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    I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM!

    I have a food cart and I work Wednesday-Saturday (sometimes others as well). Those days I don't get to work until 5pm and I usually don't get home till 4am. Weekend nights I work even later (for the bar crowd) and don't get home until between 5-6am! This makes my sleep schedule even crazier... and it rolls over into the rest of the week!

    I am super lazy when it comes to getting up in the morning (afternoon) so its really hard to go before work :D I've done that as well as dragging my butt to the gym after work (working out at 4:30-5:30am). I changed my settings and relabeled my meals to be time ranges instead, so it starts "before 3, 3-6,6-9,9-12 and so on... but the last one says "After".

    This helps with my food logging, but its still really hard to balance my body. To keep a regular schedule, to keep my body balanced and keep myself healthy, seems like its balancing on a fine line.
  • biddybid
    biddybid Posts: 3
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    Hi there im looking for people to be friends with and communicate with while im losing weight. Moral support :)
  • lumberjacks94
    lumberjacks94 Posts: 135 Member
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    I have no idea where to log my stuff on which day because of the night shift thing. I want it to somewhat correlate to my food to that day's exercise but I always get confused how to log it and end up logging nothing :-( At least i'm thinking about it!
  • JaneDoughSanAntonio
    JaneDoughSanAntonio Posts: 65 Member
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    Yah!!! More night shift people! (I thought I was the only one who was having confusion with logging!) I get to work between 5:30 and 7 p.m., and go home from 2:30 to 5:30 a.m. (When I get in kinda depends on how late I was here the night before since I don't get OT.)

    I've been logging all my meals on the same day ... you can keep going back to the previous day after midnight. So I'm still up and eating, and posting meals on Tuesday. I guess basically, I'm pretending it's Tuesday until I sleep and get up tomorrow, which will then be Wednesday.

    For exercise, I have been logging that the next day, since I'm doing it after I eat, but before I go to bed.

    I was lucky enough to find a gym that's open 24 hours during the week, but maybe if you don't have that option, you could take a set of dumb bells to work, do some lifts and crunches and push-ups here and there ... if you stick with 10 reps at a time, you could probably avoid sweatiness :wink:
  • skinytinktobe
    skinytinktobe Posts: 1
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    I work nights, which is the reason why I put lots of weight on. Biscuit there and then, few pieces of cheeses and anything else I could find.
    How I work it out now is this:
    I don't ever sleep before going on to my first night shift so I have my three meals during the day and have the last meal at around 7 pm so I don't get hungry before midnight. After midnight, I count it as a new day so I have breakfast at around 2.30 am or even later if I can manage it. When I get home I will not eat as I do not want to go to bed with full tummy.
    Depending when I wake up I have lunch and then tea. As I don't start my night shift until 9pm I try to eat my main meals at home because I do not stop for a break until after 1-ish in the morning when I think of having a breakfast. I do usually have a sandwich for my breakfast (with lots of salad) as that seems to fill me up quite well and I do not feel hungry and tempted to have a snack of some kind. If I get really desperate around 5 am and feel hungry I make myself a hot chocolate and that does the trick. I managed to lose some weight. I lost 14 lb in 6 weeks with some emotional binge eating days in between when I ate everything and anything I got my hands on. But that is just me, I need these off days sometimes. Otherwise I would go crazy as I love my food and sweets. One good thing is that as the time goes on you really start to think about what you eat and how much and your off days are not as sinful as before.
    I only started to lose weight when I joined MFP and although it is totally addictive the support you get is brilliant.
    Good luck to you all.
    You are welcome to add me if you like.

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