[bluemonday]

Due to a sudden schedule shift I am going to have to stay up for about 20-21 hours today. Been up since midnight, it's almost noon now, & only have like 500 calories left to get me to 8 or 9 tonight. Not gonna happen. Might try to ride the exercise bike to buy a few more, and help me stay awake, but I am doomed. I suck at napping so that's not an option as I just won't get back up.

Anyone else have this issue occasionally? What do you do?

[CIELOARGE]

I wouldn't worry about it if it is only for today. You do need the extra calories for energy.
I used to work doubles all the time 2:30pm-7am (waking up at 9am the day before) and I just ate normal, If I was hungry during the night I would eat something light...

One day won't make you gain a pound Eat and try to stay awake! Good luck!

[FrecklesTX]

Oh man - this happens to me allllll the time. I work nights and for example, on Monday I slept exactly 45 minutes in a 24 hour period. My 1800 calories do not cut it when I'm awake for that long.

I wish I had advice for you. I want advice too. I know I need more calories because I'm awake and moving around, but how to figure that number out? I have no idea.

What seems to help me, but doesn't derail my weight loss is when I eat a small snack (60-150 calories) every 3 hours or so. My go-tos are a cup of coffee with a couple of graham crackers, string cheese, or a piece of fruit. Just enough to calm the hunger pangs. If I don't do that I end up overeating once I get off work and that leads to the rest of the day being hard calorie-wise. And that is when my weight loss is affected.

The point is I am not strict with my calories on these days. If I end up eating 2200 calories, but I know I ate reasonably when I was truly hungry - it's okay.

[ValRock]

I'm routinely awake for that long. Up at 5am with the kids and up until after midnight doing school work. IF works awesome for this!! I can easily hold off eating until 5pm, then I keep an eating window open until 10pm and I'm golden. You might want to look into it if scheduling issues like this come up a lot.

[bluemonday]

What is IF?

[ValRock]

Originally Posted by bluemonday

What is IF?

Intermittent Fasting

[philana]

You could also budget your calories per week and not per day. In the end it doesn't matter when you eat the calories, aslong as you are not eating more than you need to drop the weight over time. Since people need food for their daily activity we budget cals per day. But in "theory" you could eat all your weekly calories in 3 days and the not eat for 4. Wouldn't recommend it, but you get my point.

Goodluck figuring it out. Also, if this isn't a regular thing, then just don't worry about it? Eat what you think you need!

[bluemonday]

I made it only 300 over which could be a high cycle day if I was cycling so maybe I'll start that.

[roxmysox]

Originally Posted by philana

You could also budget your calories per week and not per day. In the end it doesn't matter when you eat the calories, aslong as you are not eating more than you need to drop the weight over time.

This would be my suggestion as well. If you know that you will have a few "longer days", split your calories more unevenly between your days. Shorter days= less calories and vice versa. It may also end up doing you good with a calorie cycling type situation.