Night Shift Eating Schedule?

Diet and Nutrition
1

I work nights as a supervisor, 7pm-7. Sometimes 3, sometimes 4, sometimes 7 days a week. I have a wife and 2 kids, and my schedule is such that the only times I can lift are either early mornings on my days off, or immediately after my shift, which is never optimal since I’ve been on my feet for 12 hours prior to my session. My question is regarding my nutrition and the timing of my consumption on lifting/work days. How does this diet look?

Get off work at 7, take a pre-workout and hit the gym by 8.

Home by 9-930, take a protein shake with 1 scoop ON protein powder, two percent milk, a banana, and peanut butter in it.

10-1030: 2 scrambled eggs, 3 slices turkey bacon, half avocado, spinach, cottage cheese, hot sauce

Then I’ll sleep until about 6 pm, and consume another protein shake identical to my post workout shake within 15 minutes of waking.

Once I get to work, I’ll have an apple or an orange with a scoop of peanut butter.

11pm-midnightish: Half pound ground turkey with chopped green peppers, celery, onion, and brown rice.

2-3am: same turkey/rice dish serving, or a chicken breast with brown rice and broccoli.

6am: either 1 cup cottage cheese and sweet potato or 1 cup plain Greek yogurt with blueberries and strawberries.

Then back home at 730 and to the gym again, if it’s a lifting day. I’m on a 2 on, one off, 2 on, two off upper/lower split, and I’m 27 years old, 6’4, 220 with an estimated 15-18% body fat.

Should I be eating more before going to bed, since I’m asleep within a couple hours of finishing my workout?

Thanks in advance.

2

Man with that busy schedule I would say your doing pretty well with your nutrition. I wouldnt worry about timing as much as just meeting your calorie/ macro goals for each day.

4

looks good -5 feeds a day you’re well a head of the curve. What is your first goal at the moment: leaning out or adding muscle strength?

5

Adding muscle for now. Have a couple herniated discs and bursitis in my shoulder (plus a small chunk of bone that popped off and is in there) from the Marines, so bench, squat, and deads are not in my routine right now, and that makes me sad, but i can still press heavy with dumbbells, front squat to hit my quads, and RDL starting from standing to limit my ROM, strengthen my lumbar and prevent pulling from the floor. Wanna get into the 230 range while maintaining this body fat, and then attempt to get down to the 10-12% range.

As for the other dude- the postman is like 60 but he’s a nice guy, I hope he’s got enough stamina for her, she’s a bit of a freak dude…

6

Ok cool keep doing what you’re doing then.

When hit 230 and want to lean out I would just have carbs in the pre and post workout meals ie drop rice from one of the meals and cut back a little bit on the fruit. Can replace with a little bit of goodfats and/or loads of greens

For the back check out some of this guys vids on his channel, has really effective outside the box tips, no miracle cures but will bring down the discomfort a lot…

1 Like
7

Appreciate the advice and the video, man. I actually have done about 5/10 of these daily for some time now, but usually not all together, and the added exercises (pelvic tilts, bridges, etc) sound like a solid plan, plus everything is explained very well. I’ll check out the guys channel for sure. The sciatic pain is so excruciating sometimes (or just annoying, when my foot goes completely numb after standing), I’ll do anything to avoid surgery. Spinal fusion is such a hit or miss procedure…

I may start a training log on here, I’ll be sure to include these exercises in my daily routine and I’ll give you a holler in a month or so to let you know if there’s any small improvement (I know it’ll take longer than that to make any real recovery, but when I’ve found effective routines in the past, the relief is noticeable fairly quickly). Thanks again.

8

Cool, we always try to help those who’ve served. Let us know how it goes