How to lose weight with a night work schedule. Menu for mental and physical workers at night

Extra pounds not only spoil a person’s appearance and, as a result, reduce his self-esteem, but also have a detrimental effect on health. Nutritionist advice is intended for people with a normal daily routine. But what should those who work at night and for whom the well-known rule “don’t eat after 6” do is a real absurdity? This is what we will talk about in this article.

Basics of proper nutrition for all work schedules

If you want to keep yourself in shape, then when working at any time of the day you should adhere to the following standards:

Before leaving for work, eating should be mandatory.
The interval between meals should vary from 3 to 5 hours.
Evenly distribute calories between meals.
Drink at least 2 liters of water per day. Tea, coffee, juice and other drinks do not count - only water.
The last meal, not a snack, should be 2 hours before going to bed.

Taking into account all the above standards and strictly following them, you can not only keep yourself in shape, but also lose a little weight.

The harm of eating improperly at night

Regardless of personal biorhythms, the bodies of all people work almost the same. The body is characterized by high activity during the daytime and complex restoration of all internal systems at night. Naturally, a violation of this principle of operation of the entire body can lead to dangerous consequences for health. For this reason, I increasingly hear questions and debates about how to eat healthy during the night shift.

The main consequences of poor nutrition at night:

a significant decrease in the level of the joy hormone in the blood, resulting in apathy, a feeling of depression, a high risk of depressive symptoms and frequent mood swings without good reason;
tendency to overeating, food addictions and excess weight;
increased load on the entire gastrointestinal tract, which experiences great discomfort when it is necessary to digest food at night;
disruption of the natural functioning of the body's excretory system.

Working night shifts in itself creates a lot of stress without having to sleep in a standard way. Harmful and heavy food only enhances the negative effect on the body. If you don’t change anything, in such situations chronic diseases develop faster, and fatigue becomes a constant companion.

How to eat if you work at night?

The idea that most of what you eat late in the evening turns into fat reserves on various parts of the body in the morning is absolutely correct. But those who work at night cannot completely refuse food. After all, being awake is only half the battle. In addition, you need to fulfill your duties, and do it not “carelessly”, but as needed.

The best way out of this situation is a light snack. Fried potatoes or, for example, cake will not work.

To eat or not to eat - that is the question?... And if there is, then what?

Most people who are losing weight believe that eating at night is strictly forbidden. And if you need to work at night, then you should firmly resist the desire to snack, otherwise everything you eat in the morning will turn out to be a fat reserve for some parts of the body.

However, the night schedule still makes its own adjustments. Do not forget that in addition to actually staying awake, which is already difficult for the body at night, you also need to fulfill your duties, and this requires certain energy costs that must be replenished.

After all, if you work all night feeling hungry, you can empty the entire contents of the refrigerator in one sitting in the morning.

It would be wiser to provide small light snacks, maybe one or two during the night. Of course, you shouldn't snack on fried potatoes or a piece of cake in the middle of the night.

The best option for a late-night snack:

Salads from various vegetables, seasoned with a small amount of vegetable oil or low-fat sour cream;
Whole grain bread;
A small amount of nuts or seeds;
Fermented milk products: cottage cheese, kefir, yogurt, preferably with a low fat content.

A few of these snacks will help you get the job done efficiently and not become terribly hungry in the morning.

In detail: what to prepare for a snack at work

Examples of meals for night work schedules

vegetable salads. They can be slightly salted and seasoned with vegetable oil or low-fat sour cream.
whole grain breads.
a handful of nuts or seeds.
cottage cheese, kefir and other fermented milk products.

If you ignore this advice, then in the morning you can completely empty the refrigerator.

One important point cannot be overlooked. Lack of sleep is one of the most common causes of obesity. Therefore, you need to sleep at least 6 hours a day. At the same time, the quality of rest should be maximized. For this:

going to bed at the same time - this normalizes metabolism;
use only a comfortable bed, fresh and pleasant-to-touch bed linen; turn off the TV, radio and everything else that makes even the slightest sounds;
after a night shift, darken the room;
don’t try to get enough sleep on the weekend without throwing off your internal clock - if you really want to sleep, you can rest for a couple of hours during the day.

Peculiarities

The night diet is considered healthy and is suitable for both those who are overweight and those who simply want to develop the right eating habits and normalize their rest regime. The kilograms will go away slowly, but will not come back. Based on what diet you choose, strict or not, you can lose 2-6 extra kg in a month of diet. The advantage is that there are no food restrictions or hunger strikes . Psychologically, dieting is easy.

How to eat for heavy physical labor workers

Physical labor uses up much more energy than mental labor. It is not forbidden to eat lard with bread during the day, but at night it is forbidden under any circumstances. The fact is that in the dark the amount of digestive enzymes in the human body decreases. For this reason, you should avoid fatty foods.

Before you start: porridge (buckwheat, rice, oatmeal) or durum wheat pasta + meat or fish + vegetable salad.
At night: sandwich with cheese, omelet, cottage cheese or kefir (1 - 2 times).
Before bed: any porridge + a couple of fruits.

Mode for early risers

For such people, in order to understand how to eat properly if you work at night, you need to accept the fact that the peak operation of all systems will occur in the first half of the day. It is usually extremely difficult for them to work night shifts, because by the evening they begin to feel sleepy and feel a little tired. Here is a sample menu for such an organism. First meal (16-18 hours): broth or meat/fish with side dishes, vegetables, coffee/tea. Nothing fatty or difficult to digest, take pity on your stomach. Second meal (20-22 hours): salad or dairy products (milk, cottage cheese with yogurt, cheese sandwich). After this, until 6 am (usually 6-7 am is the end of the shift, which in this case is very convenient) you can only have tea or yogurt/kefir. Do not overuse coffee, even if you want to sleep, otherwise heart problems will be added to stomach problems. Third meal (7-8 hours): here the “lark” is overcome by a brutal appetite. Enjoy eating porridge, protein (meat and fish), legumes, you can even indulge yourself a little with unhealthy foods (for example, cottage cheese dessert or grapes)

Ways to increase performance at night during mental work

Despite the fact that mental work is not as exhausting as physical work, it also requires energy, and quite a lot. But the main thing here is concentration and the ability to think. When working for a long time, there is no need for heavy snacks at all. If you want to eat, you can drink a glass of low-fat kefir or, say, eat some vegetables.

A great way to maintain good spirits and clarity of thought is a piece of dark chocolate. Combining this product with coffee gives 100% results. But you shouldn’t drink this “cocktail” often.

What to take with you?

Some people can easily do without snacks during the night shift. A hearty and satisfying dinner does the trick. However, the expert does not recommend enduring a persistent feeling of hunger. You need to take food with you, consisting mainly of vegetable salads. It is better to take seasonal vegetables: in summer - cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet peppers, herbs; and in the fall - cabbage, carrots and beets. You can diversify the menu with Jerusalem artichoke, cauliflower and broccoli. In winter, potatoes and sauerkraut can be the basis for salads.

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Nuts and seeds are also great as healthy snacks, but not more than 20 grams due to their high calorie content. A small piece of 70% dark chocolate will help you cope with stress without compromising your health.

Another good snack is a glass of kefir with the addition of dill, cardamom and ground ginger (cinnamon).

There are a lot of options offered by nutritionist Vaida Kurpene. If you wish, you can take cottage cheese with herbs or tofu cheese with spices with you at night. Chickpeas or beans are also welcome. But it’s better to cook these vegetables not in a frying pan, but in the oven, generously seasoning them with spices.

You can also bring a sandwich with whole grain bread, a slice of cheese and one piece of fruit. The nutritionist does not recommend eating fruits earlier than 4 hours after dinner, and also advises avoiding bananas. The exception is work that involves heavy physical labor.

Another good tip: it is important not to overeat once, but to distribute food in small portions, consuming them after 2.5-4 hours. This will help cope with drowsiness.

What to eat during the day after working at night?

Most people who work at night don't know at the end of their shift whether they want to sleep or eat more. Experts recommend eating in any case, no matter how tired you are. But you should avoid heavy foods, as they will be the most difficult for the body to cope with.

porridge - for example, oatmeal;
100 grams of low-fat cottage cheese;
vegetables or fruits.

If hunger is more noticeable, then you can eat something more serious - meat or fish. The only requirement is that they must be boiled or steamed. And after you get enough sleep, cottage cheese or fruit dessert is allowed.

Nutrition Basics for Night Shift Workers

The most important rule on how to eat properly if you work at night is not to load your stomach in the period from 23:00 to 6:00. At this time, it, as well as the pancreas and liver, slow down and recover, so food will not be digested normally (with all the ensuing consequences). At night, if you want to eat, you can drink kefir, yogurt, eat fruit or a couple of breads. The daily routine should contain 3 full meals and snacks. The first dose is during the day, after waking up from sleep, then before work (but a couple of hours before 11 pm), and morning lunch after work. As mentioned above, during work and during the day you can have a couple of dietary snacks with yogurt, fruit or tea (coffee) with bread. What exactly to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner should be chosen depending on your own biorhythms.