third shift/logging food?

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sm0113
sm0113 Posts: 89 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello!
I work third shift 5 days a week and i leave work around 7 am usually. I go to sleep between 8am and noon and wake up between 3pm and 8pm (depending on the day and if i have class or not...)
I've been logging my food from when i wake up until when i go to sleep and counting that as my "day". so if i ate right now, i would log it under Friday still. My diary categories are "2-5pm", "5-10pm" "10pm-7am(at work)", "after 7am(after work)".
This really gets messed up on the weekends because i sort-of get back on a 1st shift schedule..

So my question to the rest of you third shfiters (or anyone who has an opinion..), would it be more beneficial to change my technique and log from midnight to midnight? I eat before work(7pm), at work(3am), and after work(8am) with snacks in between sometimes. Right now i log those three meals as "one day." but if i switched, i would log at work(3am), after work(8am), and before work(7pm) together.
this would probably make my friday's and saturday's easier.
Make sense?

sorry if this is confusing, but if you have some advice or if you feel that it wouldn't really matter, let me know!

Replies

  • SparksFly460
    SparksFly460 Posts: 258
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    I work third shift & day shifts as well so I hear you on the annoyance of logging. My third shift runs from midnight-8am....so I use to have my diary set up from 8am to 8am in intervals; 8am-noon, noon-4pm, 4pm-8pm, 8pm-midnight, midnight-4am & 4am-8am. MFP allows you to have 6 costumized sections. I would log my nightshift on the day before. For example...I'd log my Monday and when I went to work at midnight, I'd continue to log in Monday. I'd go home Tuesday morning, sleep and my official Tuesday would start when I woke up.

    It worked for me.

    I just recently changed (like two days ago) it from midnight to midnight since i got a Fitbit monitor and it's connected with MFP. I still have my 6 slots of midnight-4am, 4am-8am, 8am-noon, noon-4pm, 4pm-8pm & 8pm-midnight....I'll be logging according. I go to wrk at midnight and start counting as the new day. I havent done a third shift with this schedule yet....I'm not due for a night shift until Monday....I'll have to see how it works! :happy:

    Bottom line, play around with your times, see what works for you best!
  • sm0113
    sm0113 Posts: 89 Member
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    thanks for the input!
  • MissDana1105
    MissDana1105 Posts: 40 Member
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    I work 12 hour shifts, 6pm to 6am. I log from when I wake up until when I go to bed. I will be doing my workout when I get off technically Sunday morning, but will log it on Saturday. Now on my days off I keep the same hours, no kids or anything I really have to get up for so I don't mess with it. There was a time when my schedule was all messed up and I would wake up at different times, when that was going on I think Midnight-midnight worked better for me. Otherwise some days would have 30 hours and other days would have 18 hours, I would be way over on the 30 hour days.

    I also list my meals as breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack (which I should change to post workout snack). But "breakfast" can sometimes be a chicken breast. I think it just matters what works for you. I like having everything separated by meals though rather than times.
  • aimielee
    aimielee Posts: 6 Member
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    3 days a week I work 12hr overnights (7:30pm - 7:40am) and then the rest of the week my schedule is flipped and I'm up at 6 or 7am with my daughters. I wasn't sure how to log food with hours like this but decided just to stick with the midnight - mightnight 'a day is a day' counting plan. I figure some Fridays I might be higher on calories if I'm awake all day and all night but then on Mondays, when I get off my shift, my calories might be less as I sleep during the day and at night to catch up.

    My meals just look weird for part of each week. ;) Supper for breakfast. Coffee at dinner, etc. :)
  • NurseNiffa
    NurseNiffa Posts: 25 Member
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    When I work night shift I count whatever I eat during the night as my breakfast for that day. Then when I wake up I count it as lunch and I usually eat before I go to work since I may or may not get a break depending on how the night goes...I'm still saying in my calories for that day and have actually lost more weight on weeks where I have worked nights!
  • pincherbug
    pincherbug Posts: 4
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    i do similar as above..... i usually log what ever i eat after midnight as breakfast for the next day since when i get home at 8am i go to sleep and sleep through breakfast. when i wake up its lunch and dinner is before work etc. plus i fel like when i wake up my food is all settled and i feel thinner even though i already had breakfast , it causes me to not have a huge unhealthy breakfast since im about to go to sleep :) like smoothies etc
  • sm0113
    sm0113 Posts: 89 Member
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    thanks everyone! i'm going to try out a few different things this week and try to figure out what works best.
  • bex0178
    bex0178 Posts: 25 Member
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    I've found that the least confusing way for me to log is to log from the time I wake up until I go to bed. During the weekend, I just put a note in if the times are different, as in "shifted all meal times 3 hours earlier" to keep myself mentally adjusted.

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