On today’s WJON show I had spoken about–shift workers and weight-loss. Some of the problem I see with some of my new clients that are nurses, doctors, bartenders, servers, work in radio, or work at a warehouse is that their body get so out of whack. They may have a hard finding a balance with their nutrition, sleep and workouts and not taking care of themselves. So I’m giving my advice that I give my clients that work shift hour jobs that help them deal with their busiest of days that helps to guide them in the right direction.
You may feel out of control but you do have control over your sleep and your nutrition.
First thing is SLEEP.
Getting adequate rest should be a major priority for you because insufficient zzz’s — particularly the level of sleep debt that can accrue with shift work — is a major metabolic problem.
Research is consistently showing that poor sleep habits create a hormonal environment that conditions your fat cells to be resistant to shrinking through changes in insulin sensitivity and the hormone leptin, which is a major regulator of appetite and metabolism.
The key here is napping.
Twenty- to 30-minute naps can be used during the week to recharge yourself mentally, and 90-minute naps should be used on your off days to help minimize your sleep debt.
By taking 90 minutes to doze, you will go through all the stages of sleep, and some research shows that the benefits of this length nap are equivalent to that of getting eight hours of sleep during the night.
The second must-do for shift workers is meal planning.
If you are coming off a late night shift, the last thing you are going to want to do is sit down and think about what to eat and if you have those foods on hand, let alone cook the meal before you can eat.
You need to set yourself up for success by having your meals pre-planned and ideally pre-made, especially the ones you’d eat coming off a night shift. This will help drastically with your adherence to your healthy eating plan and thus your weight loss.
A mantra I have with clients is “Control the things you can control.”
Sleep and nutrition while you are on your days to work are the easy ones to control.
Work out on the days you don’t work and maybe break up the workouts on the days you do so you can start your morning with a 15 minute workout and 15 minutes at night.
Put into action the tips I have included with those two areas and you should see your weight loss — and overall wellbeing — improve pretty quickly.
Nutrition Tips for Shift Workers:
Whichever, you need to be able to bring your own food.
Be prepared, make one day as your meal planning day. Go grocery shopping, cute and clean your fruits and veggies, make a few meals that you can use as your meals to bring with so you are not tempted to pick up the unhealthy foods.
Bring lots of raw veggies and greek yogurt, cottage cheese, fresh fruit, yogurt cups with your to work and store there so you always have something at work.
Don’t be tempted to get takeout or snack all night long, bring your own, stay away from the co-workers goodies J
Some of the biggest issue I see with clients is tracking what they eat.
Trying to keep a balance is key—so your metabolism keeps active the entire time, Metabolism active=more calorie burn.
Just another reason to keep prepared and TRY hard to eat every 3-4 hours.
If you are working a night shift, this is what your schedule could look like:
If you work a night shirt –eat like you would if you work a normal shift.
If you would eat around 4am that way you have about 4 hours before you go to bed.
Your breakfast when you wake up (12pm-2pm)– greek yogurt/fruit, hard boiled eggs & protein from the night before, breakfast protein bars from the site could be helpful, oatmeal, fruit and added protein powder.
Try to keep your meals 3-4 hours spaced apart—that way you can keep your metabolism still burning and your blood sugar won’t dip leaving yourself extremely hungry.
When snacking during your shift—make sure to grab healthy snacks (almonds, apples, cheese sticks), or protein shake.
Make sure to keep your “dinner” protein and veggies.
Get in the habit of saying no when people ask you if you want anything that may not be on your plan.
Nutrition and Sleep on your night shift:
Sleep in on your first night back.
Then, get up, eat breakfast.
Have your lunch at supper time, before leaving for work.
Then eating supper around 3am—best bet, a light dinner with protein and veggies.
If you eat around the 3am you won’t be as hungry and you won’t be super full either so you can jump right into bed.
Just make sure to go right to bed, if you don’t you will get the munchies for some carby or sugar foods.
Lastly, my advice is to make sure you get enough sleep. Don’t force yourself to stay awake for the entire day after your last overnight so you can get onto a normal schedule for your “weekend”. It isn’t worth it.
Extra ideas
Bring a few healthy yummy things too like dark chocolate for if I get the midnight munchies. And lots of tea to sip on.
People that work 3pm-12pm.
The key is to go to the grocery store and plan ahead, I cook during the day and bring my dinner and snacks. Again, be really careful, because people will end up bringing food that might sabotage your nutrition.
Try to work out before you go to work.
If you work out after you get off work, it’s hard to go to sleep, the next thing you know you are back at work tired.
Some things that can happen if you are not taking care of yourself while working your shifts:
Lack of sleep
- There are two issues at work with sleep and weight gain. The first is intuitive: If you’re up late, the odds are greater that you’ll eat some late night snacks that will increase your calorie intake. The other reason involves what’s going on biochemically when you’re sleep deprived. Changes in hormone levels increase hunger and appetite and also make you feel less full after eating.
- Long-term sleep loss has been associated with obesity and diabetes. The thought that sleep modulates hormone secretions, which may impact glucose utilization, insulin sensitivity, appetite regulation, and resting energy expenditure.
- Sleep may also impact circulating leptin, ghrelin, thyroid-stimulating hormone, and cortisol levels, which will create more of the hunger pang for carb or fatty rich foods.
- Most adults require at least 6.5 hours but not more than 9 hours of sleep per day to avoid carbohydrate craving, stimulated overeating, and/or increased appetite. If it isn’t possible to acquire the needed hours of sleep, focus on choosing foods with high dietary fiber and lower carbohydrate content.
Here are some tips to get some shut eye:
- Wear wraparound dark glasses on your way home from work to keep the daylight from triggering your internal “daytime” clock.
- Go directly to sleep after work. Resist turning on the TV, reading a thriller or anything else that might start your mind racing.
- To push your body temperature in the sleeping zone, keep the bedroom cool, between 65 and 70 degrees. Experiment until you get the optimal temperature for your body.
- Trick your internal clock by blocking out excess light and sound with eye masks, ear plugs, white noise machines, “blackout” shades and sound-absorbing curtains or carpeting.
- Disconnect yourself from your digital life. No cell phones, remote controls, answering machines or pagers (unless you’re on call).
- Make your local delivery people aware of your sleep schedule and arrange for a neighbor to accept packages that are delivered before you awake. Ask family members to respect your sleep schedule.
- Sleep medication isn’t recommended without a consultation with your physician, and then should only be used as a short-term fix.
Stress
When life’s demands get too intense, our body goes into survival mode: Cortisol, the ‘stress hormone,’ is secreted, which causes an increase in appetite. We may also reach for high-calorie comfort foods in times of stress. This combination is a perfect breeding ground for weight gain.
How to cope with the night shift:
As a coping strategy for night shifts, some researchers suggest that aerobic or strength training exercises soon after you awaken will raise your body temperature, improve your mood and make you feel more alert for the rest of the day. Others suggest that aerobic/strength exercise one or two hours before commencing your shift will keep you more alert whilst on duty.
Don’t, however, sacrifice sleep to fit in exercise because sleep is tied to performance and safety.
If your job allows it, try to fit in activity while at work to keep yourself alert, even if it’s only a quick walk. Like sleep, exercise adds up throughout the day. The best thing to do is experiment—and find what works best for you.
Working out while on your shift:
Do stair runs your breaks. It will help you wake up when you hit that 4am wall.
If you work at 6:45 you will have to get to the gym at 4:45, work out for an hour, shower and get to work.
Break up your workouts by doing something in the morning and something at night.
HIIT workouts (which is a HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING workout) on the days you work and the days you don’t, do your strength training workouts—so you have more time.
You need to focus on not having the all of nothing mentality, you have to do what you can and with the time that your schedule allows.