5 Simple Ways to Not Gain Weight (while working nights)
After you leave a long shift, oftentimes nothing sounds better than swinging through a drive-through for some hot fries, a juicy burger, or a cheesy burrito.
When you’re struggling to keep your eyes open during your shift, it might seem like nothing will boost your mood and your energy like a bag of candy or an energy drink from the vending machine.
However, if you aren’t careful with these eating habits, you might notice that your spirits aren’t the only thing getting a boost.
Working the night shift can lead to weight gain, especially if you are a fan of fast food stops on your way home from work or mid-shift vending machine snacks. According to a study led by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder, people who work the night shift are more likely to gain weight and burn less energy than those who work more typical hours. Couple this with unhealthy eating and drinking habits and people who work the night shift can find themselves gaining quite a few extra pounds.
Fortunately, you can avoid this weight gain while working the night shift by keeping a few strategies in mind:
1. Drink plenty of water
Staying hydrated will help you stay awake and alert while you’re working, improve your sleeping habits, clear your skin, and go a long way toward helping you feel healthy and energetic throughout your day. In addition to these great benefits, drinking water will also help combat weight gain.
Water fills you up, reducing your desire to eat snacks throughout your shift and allowing you to still feel full when you eat smaller portions. While you can always try an appetite suppressant like caffeine, you will have to be careful not to drink too much too late or you will have a hard time getting to sleep. Water doesn’t carry this risk, making it a better option.
Bring a reusable water bottle to your work and make sure that you are drinking and refilling it regularly during your shift.
2. Wait 15 minutes before eating
While this might not seem like a huge step, it can make a significant difference when it comes to fighting weight gain. Your hunger hormone, ghrelin, spikes before meal times in order to stimulate appetite and increase your food intake. While you cannot prevent your body from releasing ghrelin, you can control it naturally by eating foods high in protein, regulating your sleep schedule, and waiting before you eat.
Ghrelin is a fast-acting hormone, which means that even though it spikes quickly, it also has the potential to subside quickly. If you tell yourself that you will wait 15 minutes after you get the urge to grab a snack, you will often find that your ghrelin levels have decreased, and you weren’t quite as hungry as you originally thought.
Set a timer for about 15 minutes whenever you feel hungry at work, and you might realize that you don’t need to visit the vending machine after all.
3. Meal prep
When night shift workers get hungry in the middle of their shifts, running to a fast food restaurant on your break or popping by the vending machine is often their number one solution because it is the most convenient way to get a snack quickly.
You can avoid this by using meal prep to make healthier options even more convenient. Prepare healthy snacks and meals that you can use to eat before, after, or during your shifts throughout the week. This way, when you feel hungry during your shift, you can grab one of the healthy snacks or meals you prepped instead of eating something high in fat or sugar.
Working the night shift is exhausting, and it can mess with your sleep schedule. After a long, tiring shift, you might be tempted to grab a quick bite to eat so you don’t have to cook or find something to eat at home. When your meals are already prepared and ready to go, you don’t have to worry about not having the time and energy to cook something healthy to eat.\
4. Exercise regularly
When you have a non-traditional schedule, it can be a struggle to find the time and the energy to exercise daily. However, if you aren’t getting exercise several days of the week, you will have a hard time keeping off extra weight.
Create a schedule for yourself to follow each day and make sure to carve out time for exercise. Even if you do something small, it can make a huge difference. Depending on your weight, you can burn as many as 159 calories each day just from taking a leisurely walk.
While exercising daily might seem like a challenge, it can be a bit easier if you try the following:
- Choose an activity you enjoy. If running is a slog, try going for a bike ride or playing basketball instead. You will be far more likely to exercise if you choose an activity that is fun for you.
- Get outside. Whenever possible, try to exercise outside in the sun. The fresh air and sunlight will lift your mood and give you more energy.
- Find an exercise partner. Find someone you enjoy exercising with who will give you the positive energy, accountability, and motivation you need to exercise each day.
5. Practice good sleep hygiene
Sleep deprivation can lead to increased levels of ghrelin (the hunger hormone). Although as a night shift worker, you might struggle to get the same amount of high-quality sleep as those who work traditional hours, there are still steps that you can take to prevent sleep deprivation and practice good sleep hygiene:
- Create and maintain a regular sleep routine if possible
- Don’t watch television, use your phone, or look at any bright lights while in bed
- Avoid drinking caffeinated beverages for at least 5–6 hours before bedtime
- Use blackout curtains or wear a sleep mask to block out daylight when you sleep
- Avoid taking frequent naps throughout the day
With good sleep hygiene, you can improve the amount and quality of your sleep, which will help you avoid weight gain.
6. Set goals and tie it to a larger purpose
Create a specific goal to lose weight, prep your meals, or get daily exercise, and find an accountability partner to help you meet your goal by your set end date. When you set the goal take some time and think about why you have that goal. It’s almost always more than just losing weight. Do you want to watch your grandchildren graduate? Do you want to simply live a better, happier, more fulfilling life?
Whether you want to lose 5 pounds or engage in high-intensity interval training for 30 minutes each day, setting a goal and tying it to a larger purpose can give you the push you need to follow through and combat weight gain.
While working the night shift typically makes people more susceptible to weight gain, it doesn’t have to be this way for you. Keep these tips in mind, and you will be well on your way to avoiding weight gain and maintaining a healthier lifestyle.
Night Shift Nutrition is a community focused on living your best life, while working nights. We do this by sharing our experiences and science based educations. The point is to not only survive working nights but to thrive! If this sounds like something you’d like to be a part of you can apply to join our facebook group or subscribe to our email list.
