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Nutrition Fasting and shift work

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When to eat? My new job is four days on, four days off, four days on, four days off, then four nights on, four nights off, four nights on, four nights off, then back to days again. Seven to seven. I have an hour and a half commute each way. Which means my usual time to eat I'm on commuting or just getting to work or leaving. As I usually eat between 5-530 and 8pm. Any ideas on how to plan this out? My morning coffee hasn't kicked in yet and I'm drawing a blank
 
When to eat? My new job is four days on, four days off, four days on, four days off, then four nights on, four nights off, four nights on, four nights off, then back to days again. Seven to seven. I have an hour and a half commute each way. Which means my usual time to eat I'm on commuting or just getting to work or leaving. As I usually eat between 5-530 and 8pm. Any ideas on how to plan this out? My morning coffee hasn't kicked in yet and I'm drawing a blank

I´ll asume you are 12 hours per day not at home. From 6:00 to 18:00 on day shifts, and from 18:00 to 06:00 on night shifts. I´ll also assume you can have lunch if you do day shift, at noon. You could try 2.5 meals: 2 main meals and a shake, As follows:

Day shift:
  1. 12:00 meal
  2. 15:00 shake
  3. 19:00 meal.

Night shift, you do it mostly fasted. Something like this:

  1. 13:00 meal
  2. 17:00 meal
  3. 20:00 shake at work.
  4. (alternatively: 2 huge meals during the day, 4-5 hours apart, and thats it).

or something like that. Move the shake between or outside the window to suit your needs. I dont know how this would fit your sleep schedule on night shifts though.
 
More like fifteen hours a day not at home (three hours or so driving and twelve hour shift seven in the morning to seven at night or vice a versa)
 
Matt Walker's book Why we sleep.
He has recommendations for night workers on how to synchronise your body effectively during and after having your circadian rhythms disrupted.
You can dip in and out the book. His recommendations are driven by evidence, fully referenced. He's a PhD sleep specialist. Heavy on science if wanted or take some snap shots and guidelines on applying the advice given.
In short....and you should read for an understanding how it relates to you....your stress response will be out of whack. Is fasting a stress for you?
You will be driven to seek high fat and high sugar, so how will you respond to deep evolutionary drives to overcome the urge to eat high calorie... to not eat or to eat?
It's a great read.
He's done a number of podcasts too worthy of a listen.
Highly recommended.
 
I haven't been given all the details yet, but I'm pretty sure I can eat when I want
 
I work 12 hour shifts, 6-6 2 days on days, 2 off, 3 days on nights, 2 off, 2 days on days, 3 off, 2 days on days...and so on. I typically have a roughly 15-30 min commute, but occasionally work at our 2nd base and have a 90 minute commute.

During our shift, we can eat whenever we want, unless we're on a flight. I try to keep the same schedule on day and night shifts, just adjusted by 12 hours. I usually eat 2 meals a day, around 11:30 and 7. I can't be strict on times because we aren't guaranteed a set time for breaks or getting off work on time. For me, adjusting to the meal times was far easier than adjusting to the sleep cycle changes.
 
What about keeping the samish eating time schedule? Should I eat before I go to bed 9pm on day shift and 9am on nightshift or should I try and keep it roughly the same across the board 7pmish when I'm off, 7-9pmish when I'm on days, and 9pmish when I'm on nights. The only downfall to eating at 9pm on nightshift is having to fast for such a long period while awake and working. But I was thinking of mitigating this by going lower carb and higher fat since work days will end up being non training days so there shouldn't be much of a carb crash
 
We're switching to a 2 on 2 off 3 on 2 off 2 on 3 off schedule. Two weeks of days and then two weeks of night.
 
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