[Fireflyish]

Anyone else having trouble losing weight working the graveyard shift? Im restricting calories (1200-1300), eating low carbs and still Im lucky if I lose 1/2 pound every two weeks. Im nervous to eat when I get home from work but I am usually hungry. Ive been trying to have a spoonful of natural peanutbutter. I work 4 nights a week. I get home around 9:30am, get to sleep by 10:30. I get up at 4pm, eat a snack, usually peanut butter with some dark chocolate chips. Then I play just dance for 30 mins to an hour. Then I chill out, eat dinner at 8pm which is usually ground turkey or beef with tomato sauce. Then I take a nap at 8:30pm until 10:30pm then head off to work.

Advice on how to speed up my weight loss?

[Roo2]

Hi Fireflyish-
I too am a shift worker,I know how difficult it can .
I do Ideal Protein an have an Awesome Coach.
When I'm off I swing to a day schedule which really can be hard.
Do you work your shifts in a row? Cuz I found that helps too.
Have you been to the Doctor and had any blood work done.
I found out my vitamin levels were low and now taking supplements and feeling more energetic!
Once I started IP I have been surprised at the. Results especially with working shift work.
Good Luck ,Roo2

[Fireflyish]

I do work my shifts in a row and then I switch to a sort of normal schedule on my days off. I should start taking a multivitamin. I was and then I ran out and never bought more. Thanks for the advice!

[jklarson]

I once worked in a graveyard shift, it was really difficult because even I sleep in the morning, I still feel sleepy in the shift. I don't remember I gained weight because of that, maybe because while at work, I don't eat a lot, or I only eat biscuits then coffee sometimes. I also take a multivitamin because working at night could really drain our energy, we need energy to work and we need energy to stay awake.

[fatmad]

Firefly, I am gonna assume you are a woman. We women are terrible shift workers. When I was a kid and Dad worked shifts, he totally lived the shift, including days off, unless he was switching shifts the next week. The month he worked nights, he stayed on nights on off days. This is the key. You seem to be getting some exercise, but when do you go outside? Where are the veggies in your diet? what kind of diet plan are you doing?
I used to find that higher carb meals before bed helped me sleep, but not lose weight. However even on atkins, I saved most of my carbs for my last meal before sleep, and that helped.
Its hard for mothers, as we often feel we should shortchange ourselves on sleep and regularity of the schedule in order to parent, but the more you can keep to schedule, the better. I used to clump my shifts as much as possible. So I would work a whole week of 12 hr night shifts, instead of having them broken up over 2 weeks, then I would have a week off, and do my 2 weeks of days, and I tried to clump them too, because I hated getting up at 5 to be at work at 7. even with getting back to a day schedule, it was "off" for me, to be getting up so early.
good luck with your weight loss, but I do feel a better eating plan would help.