I'm finally under 160 after nine months of working night shifts

2026-10-05 16:34

I work nights. 7p-7a. Three on, four off. My old move was a gas station sandwich at 3am and a soda around 5am. Cut that first, not everything.

Kept protein boring: eggs, tuna, Greek yogurt. Ate at 10pm and 4am, not all shift. Scale said 159.8 this morning. Not dramatic.

Down 1.3 lbs over three weeks. I do not feel transformed. I feel less puffy, sleep better, and my 4am brain is not screaming for sugar. The number is just a receipt.

Anyone else do better when you stop eating in the last two hours of shift?

2026-10-07 15:24

The 10pm/4am two-anchor thing is smart. When I did overnights, grazing the whole shift was my downfall—every vending machine was a personality.

What helped me was packing a “shift box” with set stuff: two boiled eggs, tuna packet, baby carrots, and a weird amount of sugar-free jello. Ate it at 2am, nothing after 4 besides water/coffee.

Also, cheap dorm protein: cottage cheese + salsa + hot sauce, or microwave egg whites in a mug. Tastes like a sad soufflé but costs like 80 cents.

Are you finding the 4am meal helps you sleep after, or does it just sit there?

2026-10-11 01:29

Curious: do you flip back to a day schedule on your four off? That was the hidden variable for me.

I stayed mostly nocturnal even off-days, and my 4am appetite got way less chaotic; when I flipped, I was basically jet-lagged and wanted carbs at dumb times. In the trials, circadian misalignment does worsen glucose/insulin, but that’s population-level—not proof for your 1.3 lb.

Also, was 159.8 after a shift or after a rest-day sleep? I only trust my weights at the same point in the rotation.

2026-10-11 15:58

the 4am meal is my danger zone too. i started logging my “day” as 6pm–10am instead of midnight–midnight, so the 10pm eggs and 4am yogurt land on the same day.

sounds stupid but my weekly averages finally made sense. also swapped the 5am soda for cold sparkling water + lime, mostly for the can-cracking ritual.

do you log by calendar day or by shift? that messed me up for months, especially on the 3-on/4-off flip.

2026-10-12 01:13

Contrarian spreadsheet take: 1.3 lbs over three weeks might be noise unless you’re weighing under the same conditions. I work 1900–0700 too, and my scale swings 2.5 lbs between post-shift (dehydrated, fake low) and after real sleep.