Did anyone lose weight AFTER becoming a nurse?

seizetheday · Oct 15, 2011

If everyone was as busy and running constantly with no breaks as is implied or stated in many threads we should be a slim / fit bunch!

Fast walking - net calorie burn of .30 x weight (lbs) per mile. So if you weigh 150lbs then you will burn 45 calories per mile. Considering a hurried or fast walking pace is about 4 mph you will burn about 180 net calories an hour x 12 hours = 2160 calories burnt per shift if you are constantly on the move. Average healthy diet intake for a woman is between 1500-1800 calories/day leaving you with a net calorie burn of 360-600 calories a day. One pound weight loss = 3600 calories so if you are really on the go for 12 hours a day and eating healthy then you should be losing a pound every 10 shifts or so. Night shift would obviously throw a wrench in this as our bodies as others have said work differently at night.

The reality though is nurses don't walk nearly that much. Studies show that the average a nurse on a 12 hour day shift walks is 4.2 miles and on a night shift 3.95 miles. So about a 1/3 mile an hour. So the walking done on a 12 shift is the equivalent of 1 hour of fast walking At that average a 150lb woman is only burning 180 net calories per 12 hr shift. We eat that back in the granola bar we pop in hence minimal weight loss.

Net calories burned are total calories burned minus metabolic calories burned.

nola1202 · Oct 15, 2011

everyone told me I'd lose the 15 pounds I gained over the 4 years of school. once I started to work on the floor. Study n stress= entitlement to snack in my world!

I gained 15 more pounds on the 3-11 shift. (different kind of stress and bacon double cheese burgers, large fries diet coke and a dozen doughnuts eaten in the car on the way home.) My roomate was a compulsive eater of truly impressive proportions. We rationalized our eating on a regular basis.

One day I tried on a button up shirt and the buttons gaped. I saw a photo of myself in my shorts...I had two skinny legs with thighs like chicken drumsticks, stick arms, and these huge boobs, and belly, my face was even rounder if that was possible and I had a double chin. I cried.

Long story short, got serious, lost the weight.

Learn from me, don't believe the "it'll all come off when you hit the floor."

(or "it's just baby fat, you'll outgrow it."

CLUVRN, MSN, RN · Oct 15, 2011

I was over 200lbs during nursing school. Tried everything to lose weight, but I was stressed and with everything going on I just couldn't pull it off. Fast foward a year and a half post-nursing school: Lost over 100lbs, following a very calorie-restricted diet (not the best way to lose weight, I know--but hey, I was desperate--I was prehypertensive at the age of 25) and sheer willpower. Now I feel like the nurse I was meant to be and have managed to keep the weight off for over six months now!

anotherone, BSN, RN · Oct 15, 2011

i gained about 20lbs in nursing school. lost about 15 when i first started as a nurse since i never ate because of stress and never getting breaks. then i started to gain that back. and still have the 20lbs to lose.

gr9153 · Oct 18, 2011

So u weight less than 100lbs nows??? Whoa, thats beyond major!

joanna73, BSN, RN · Oct 18, 2011

I work permanent nights. I lost about 9 pounds into my 4th month of nursing, and I've kept it off a year later. The weight loss wasn't on purpose, but I'm very busy at work looking after 30 people.

joanna73, BSN, RN · Oct 18, 2011

:roll
LMAO, I feel the same way. When my coworkers tell me they are going to gym after work, I say YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME! Repositioning your 300+ lb plus patients Q2hr hasn't been enough lifting for one day? The 5 miles of very fast walking you have done in the last 13 hours hasn't burned enough calories for you? The last thing I need after work is to go to the gym!

Absolutely LOL. Working for 12.5 hrs is enough of a gym. I might do Pilates or yoga one day a week, but that's it. Who has the energy to go to the gym? All I want to do is sleep.

Lovely_RN, MSN · Oct 18, 2011

I work nights and I've lost weight. I usually eat between 12am-1am , I don't snack at work, and when I go home in the morning I will eat a piece of fruit or something very light before I go to sleep. I think snacking when you work nights or eating a big meal before you go to sleep in the morning is what makes a lot of nurses gain weight working night shift.

MN-Nurse, ASN, RN · Oct 18, 2011

I am in my last semester of school and, overall, I have gained 15lbs since I started nursing school. I keep waiting till school is over so I can lose this weight, but judging by what I read and hear, the outlook is not good! I am wondering if anyone actually lost weight from being too:monkeydance: busy!

I lost 65 pounds in nursing school, most of it in the last semester.

But it wasn't because of nursing school, it was because I radically changed my diet and exercise habits. Nursing school certainly helped make me painfully aware of the consequences of my poor health. Not only the book education but from things like taking a fasting blood glucose in lab: 147 or getting my bp taken in skills and it's 150/89. Everyone tends to look at you a little funny and instructors tend to say, "Go get that checked" when those numbers come up. (Being around a lot of healthy 20-something gorgeous women wasn't bad motivation either!)

I want to lose 35 more pounds but I am having a hard time losing weight after getting out of my nursing school routine! I love my job, but it's taking a bit out of me and I have shifted my focus from my health to my job and fallen back into some bad habits. I am active enough to not gain weight but I'm bouncing on the same plateau for a while now.

Good luck!

joanna73, BSN, RN · Oct 18, 2011

I drink a fruit smoothie when I come home in the morning. Another smoothie for dinner. Usually pasta or chicken and veg at 10 pm and soup and a granola bar around 3am.

It is the junk foods that hurts many nurses who work nights. But if I want a chocolate bar, I eat it :)