How to eat on night shift

Ashrnicu16 · May 27, 2015

1200 calories a day is not enough. Especially if you are working out. If you strength training you need to eat more calories and your body burns more calories even when you are not working out.

nursemel326 · May 27, 2015

Night shift is so hard on the body in so many ways!! I recently joined the "land of the living" after working night shift for 10 years, so I definitely understand your pain!

2 things that worked for me:

1) I kept a "normal" person's eating schedule regardless of whether I was working that night or not. I would eat a good-sized dinner with my family around 6 pm before going to work and then a light breakfast (oatmeal, eggs, or greek yogurt) in the am before going to bed (this usually helped me sleep better as well). I usually took cereal or a light sandwich to eat around 1 am when I was starting to feel my blood sugar plummet and then maybe a piece of fruit and string cheese for later in the shift. Did my coworkers tease me that "all you ever eat is cereal"? Yes. Was I constantly complaining about weight gain like most of them were? No.

2) I made myself do something "active" on my days off. It didn't have to be a hard workout, but maybe just a 30 min walk around the neighborhood.

I think the name of the game is that no matter what kind of schedule you decide to eat on, it needs to be consistent whether you're working that day or not. Night-shifters already have such "messed-up' cortisol levels that whatever you can do to keep your body on a rhythm is going to be a good thing. Additionally, if you do eat dinner before going to work, don't eat another high-calorie "dinner" while you're at work, ie fast food, pizza, donuts. It's hard to say no, but those excess calories really add up.

Good luck! I hope you find a routine that works for you.

calivianya, BSN, RN · May 27, 2015

i am a male, and i do not run. i am muscular, and that increases the rate at which my body burns calories. BMR goes up basically. i can eat between 1800 and 2200 and still lose weight.
if your an athletic female, or just semi in shape. you could lose weight on 1500/day. 1200 a day is starvation.

1200 is very difficult to stick to, which is why I asked. You pretty much can't eat anything but something you fix, ever. I can do it just fine without feeling starved if I eat often enough, but seeing coworkers eat a giant slice of pizza that I know is at least 300 calories while I'm eating a rehydrated 1-cup serving of loaded mashed potatoes under 200 calories is just so difficult. It definitely tests my willpower on a regular basis.

Natkat, BSN, MSN, RN · May 28, 2015

I have a long commute so I eat two meals in the car. On the way in I have banana and a protein drink. Lunch is leftovers from home - meatloaf, baked chicken, spaghetti, something like that, with a small salad or vegetable. I cook on my days off and use leftovers from those meals for my lunch. Snack is Greek yogurt and a piece of fruit. The ride home is veggie sticks, a cheese stick, an apple and half a sandwich, usually PBJ but sometimes hummus with lettuce and tomato. Another thing that works great is the Perfect Potato. It really makes an awesome baked potato in 4 minutes. Pop that in the microwave. When it comes out top it with some shredded cheddar cheese, leftover broccoli or chili. Very nutritious and satisfying. As for exercise, I use my days off as workout days. On the days I work is just do a routine with Dumbbells that I found on Pinterest.

Williams75 · May 28, 2015

My hospital has 21 floors. I climb the stairs at least once if i have down time. Chairs dips or push ups you can do at nurses long if you have one. :-)

mintyfreshgal · May 29, 2015

If you really are an adovocate of wanting to lose weight, then realize that its going to take some time to adjust to the night shift and find a routine that isn't super hard. Truthfully it sounds like your pressed for time with having kids and I know this is a common occurence with most of the nurses I work with. They are in a rush to give their report, leave to see their kid and get home in time to kiss them goodbye before they go to school.

But know that proper rest is important fuel for your body, its kind of hard to skip around this as it controls your appetite, mood and hormones. A deficient in sleep can affect you in a lot more ways than you think than just simply being "tired" all the time. Maybe impliment some vitamin b-12s or other supplements you are lacking.

The only thing you can control is to start carring around more healthy snacks, bags of fruit and veggies are always a plus as they keep your metabolism up. Snacking on the job every two hours is a plus, on the night shift we shouldn't carry food to the floor but sometimes we can keep a few things in our pocket and munch on that + drink as much water as you can.

Typically the only thing that will help you lose weight on the nights without working out is to gain control of what you are eating, if your hospital has a health program you can join that and it might motivate you to walk or take the stairs going up, but not going down ( I hear this is bad on your joints)

hope this helps!!

hattrick7 · May 30, 2015

yes, i bought my GF some resistance bands. and she works out in her office with them when she has down time.

Good luck on what ever you do. i know diets are a hard thing to stick to. but just take care of your self. because no one else will.

windsurfer8, BSN, RN · May 31, 2015

When I was on nights I would bring healthy fats and easy to digest foods. I didn't eat anything after 3am. The biggest problem I had on nights was my digestion. Just didn't feel right. When I would get home I would eat a couple eggs with avocado and spinach. Not much. Then get up and eat eggs at 3 pm. Then workout at 430-530. Then eat something and head to work at 615. It was rough, but you can make it. Hang in there and a day shift will open at some point. We all had to pay our dues.

icuRNmaggie, BSN, RN · Jun 27, 2015

I keep boiled eggs, fruit, peanut butter, oatmeal, soup, and almonds in my lunchbag. Cottage cheese and apple butter is a good snack. So is peanut butter on apple slices. Wash and slice the apple at home then put it in a baggie and put a rubber band around the sliced apple so it stays fresh.

Toast spread with mashed avocado mixed with cumin, chili powder, lemon juice and sea salt is a good quick meal.