Does anyone work the night shift? I work 7p-7a and want to lose weight. How do you schedule your meals? Exercise? Any suggestions would be great!

Greetings from another night owl ~ am about to head out to work right now. I work the 7pm-7am shift also. It has it's own unique difficulties ~ different from 11pm-7am. Mainly because on this shift, about all you have time to do is go to work, come home sleep and do it all over again ~ not much time left over for exercise on work days.

On work days, I eat a meal at about 3:30 or 4 pm before going to work ~ that has to last me until about 2-2:30 in the morning. I might get a snack at about 11:30pm or so depending on how busy we are. Those are my only two meals on work days, and I tend to be under the 1500 calories I aim for. It kind of works out good, because on off days, if I go over the 1500 calories ~ in a weeks time, it kind of averages out ok.

For exercise, I am way out of shape so am starting slowly. I am trying to walk for 20 minutes before my shower/getting ready for work on work days. I want to try to increase that on my days off, hoping to make progress a little faster.

The drinking water is a challenge. I can not drink it at work very much, because I don't have time to run to the bathroom. I can't drink it at certain times, becaue I have had sleep troubles, and am doing better with that and at this time, sleep has to come first before the water. I do better with the water on my days off.

Hope this helps ~ I guess you kind of have to experiment around ~ keep tweaking your plan until you find what works for you.

Take care

bumping for more responses!

I worked nights for a few years. I don't do many any more ... praise the Lord! But you really have to plan.
I work in a very small hospital with no food sales for staff after 6 pm. So I could only eat what I took with me. I soon learned how to take a pretty bag of stuff for 7 or 800 cals. I nibbled all night long. I had a low fat protein when I got home. A lean meat and salad when I got up.
I did 7 8 hr nights in a row so exercise was lethargic at best. Walking if I woke up earlier in the afternoon. Weights in the evening if I had any energy.

I worked third shift for a while. I timed my meals just like I would when working first shift ... first meal about an hour after waking up, etc. My schedule kind of went like this:

• 3:00pm - wake up
• 4:00pm - "breakfast" or light meal
• 9:00pm - "lunch"
• 11:00pm - start work
• 2:00am - "dinner"
• 7:30am - done working
• 8:00am - "snack" (often a bowl of cereal)

I tried to work my meals around others' schedules so I wasn't eating alone all the time. Like, I'd eat my 4:00pm meal at 5:00 with my family, or I'd eat a light 2:00am meal and meet someone for breakfast after work. I found it interesting that when I woke up at 3pm, I wasn't hungry for "breakfast" but would eat "dinner" foods instead. And then I enjoyed breakfast foods right before bed in the morning.

My big challenge was having healthy snacks available, because I worked alone with an evil honor-system candy box. I often spread my lunches out and "snacked" throughout my shift at work in order to avoid the candy.

I've worked nights for 15 years. I've been doing WW for about 2 1/2 years. I count point from midnight to midnight no matter if I'm working or it's a day off. On my days off it's pretty much just a "normal" person's schedule but on my work nights I start working at midnight and I'll usually eat like this:

2 am-meal
4 am-meal
6:30 am-meal
9:30 am-meal
SLEEP!
3:30 pm-meal
5:30 pm-meal
SLEEP more!

That looks messed up now that I write it down!!! But it works for me and of course, I try to eat only if I'm hungry so if I'm not hungry I don't eat just according to this schedule but I eat lots of small meals so usually I'm ready to eat And of course you see I have split sleep on my work days so I'm sure that doesn't help anything. I usually sleep from 11:30 am-3 pm and then go back to sleep from 6 pm-10 pm.

Good luck