If you worked 3rd shift how would you track your daily nutrition?

[Toothpick]

A simple question but perhaps not a simple answer....

I been working out a bit more and need to intake a lot more protein. I also been using My Fitness Pal app to track my calories. The way it records the day is 0000-2359. Midnight to midnight.

But my thinking is...since I work over night hours....2100-0700 mostly (9pm-7am) is this somehow messing up my daily intake of protein and nutrition tracking? Because whatever I eat for 3hrs is recording on one day, then 7hrs on a new day...then I sleep all day.

It's that sleeping part that is maybe throwing me off. Example:....if I'm eating most of my protein between the hours of Midnight to 7 o'clock am then I sleep from 7:30am to 4pm, then get my workout in around 5pm-6pm and not eating anymore protein or real nutrition until after midnight. I wonder how this is screwing me up? or if it is.

I'm asking myself....should I just start tracking my nutrition on my own from the time I wake up until the time I go to sleep. Forget about the 24hr day and just do Wake Up to Bedtime. Adjust my "day".

This is all confusing me

 

[NorthernSoul]

You can just offset the time in your tracking app. Shift the starting hour to fit any regular 24 hour schedule.

Treat your 1st meal as breakfast, 2nd meal as lunch, 3rd meal as supper for a given day in the app. It will calculate and work the same as far as your nutrition summary goes. IOW, your actual meal times may be -12 hours from what is logged. So long as the logging time is consistent, the nutrition tracking info should be correct.

 

[Toothpick]

I think I might just start tracking them myself with a notebook. So I have a consistent waking hours day. Instead of 7 hours this morning I ate XXX then slept for 8 hours then 3 hours this evening ate XXX.

 

[Doc4]

My Fitness Pal app to track my calories. The way it records the day is 0000-2359. Midnight to midnight.

But my thinking is...since I work over night hours....2100-0700 mostly (9pm-7am) is this somehow messing up my daily intake of protein and nutrition tracking?

Do you keep your night owl sleep pattern when not working, or do you drift back to a more "normal" sleep time? If the sleep pattern stays the same, no matter what during a calendar day you will have a breakfast, lunch and dinner ... just not in the right order/timing. But still the three meals.

Or hey ... maybe focus on weekly tracking rather than daily.

 

[Toothpick]

Do you keep your night owl sleep pattern when not working, or do you drift back to a more "normal" sleep time? If the sleep pattern stays the same, no matter what during a calendar day you will have a breakfast, lunch and dinner ... just not in the right order/timing. But still the three meals.

Or hey ... maybe focus on weekly tracking rather than daily.

Dang, I didn't even think about non-working days I pretty much go back to a "normal" sleep time.

Now I'm even more confused and need to think

 

[deafficianado]

Working the grave yard shift destroys the normal sleep cycle. Your sleep will be erratic and some people can never get used to it. I have heard that people who work overnight have shorter lifespans. Make sure to get a minimum of 5 hours of sleep daily. You might want to invest on sleep ear plugs and a sleeping eye mask. And make sure to eat healthy and take your vitamins. Small frequent meals are better than just 3 meals.

 

[Toothpick]

Working the grave yard shift destroys the normal sleep cycle. Your sleep will be erratic and some people can never get used to it. I have heard that people who work overnight have shorter lifespans. Make sure to get a minimum of 5 hours of sleep daily. You might want to invest on sleep ear plugs and a sleeping eye mask. And make sure to eat healthy and take your vitamins. Small frequent meals are better than just 3 meals.

Thanks. I been working 3rds for going on 8 years now.

 

[ColtRevolver]

I worked midnight shift over 25 years. I ate a little bit when I got up. I had a meal mid shift. I ate a meal when I got home. I did not go to bed until after I had been home 4 to 6 hours. I did not try to flip my sleep cycle on days off. I had my bedroom blacked out. I slept 6 to 8 hours a day. I had no trouble maintaining my weight. I did gain a little weight as I aged, which many people do. My retirement weight at age 50 was about 10% more than my starting weight was at age 23.

 

[DesertIguana]

I worked 10:30P - 7.00A in Hospitals for many years. Do not think my life, social life or sleep pattern were ever the same a people who work Day's or PM's. Recall getting home in early am, and doing thing like cutting lawn or other work. sure the kids walk past my home on way to school though I was an alcoholic, as I was having a beer before 5PM traditional Happy hour.

Positive of work the Gravy Yard was we did not have much supervision, many night were slow, so I could do things to kill time on slow night the other shift could never gat away with. Use to bring my Trout Fly Tying Kit to help kill time, or work on a good book, or play Chess with the X-Ray Tech on duty.