i need to lose weight!!!?

Question

ok..I am a nurse and should know..but ..i recently started working 3-11, end up eating junk food..no time for a healthy meal..what can I do to avoid starving on my shift?? my blood pressure is going up, i have gained weight. Anyone working this shift that has any ideas? I have no time to sit and eat..have tried apples.(not enough to control hunger )I am craving twinkies and junk food. HELP. Then i go home and eat!!! I justify that as ok..I am eating healthy at home, when I possibly had 5 twinkies at work!!! I hate myself!!! and need to lose 50 lbs!!!

Answer 1

I like the raw veggies,water, and herbal tea suggestions though you won't live on those alone. A good choice of snack would be a balanced protein bar... go with your taste preference on that. I eat some flavors of the MetRx but don't care for their "100" bars. I also like the Naked Protein drinks that are often near the check-out areas in stores. Again, just my personal tastes, not a product endorsement.

Here are some additional thoughts from my 360 Blog of September 10. Take into account the shift in your circadian schedule. My experience with shift work (I'm a physician and have had some stints of this) was that staying on my schedule through the days off kept me feeling better than trying to switch back-and-forth.

Don't target losing more than about 2 lbs per week. If you try to lose faster, your body will go into "starvation mode" and get very stingy about burning calories while at the same time very efficient about storing any calories that you do provide. And it will make you feel awful.

There is no site specific way of losing fat... the old myth about working your abs to burn belly fat isn't true. To get rid of love handles, you need to lose overall fat. That happens with exercise and watching your diet. More on that below.

The most effective way to lose fat is aerobic exercise in the "moderate" fat-burning range, ideally first thing in the morning before you eat. When you wake your body is ready to burn fat and your levels of growth hormone are highest at that time. Later in the day it can take up to 30 minutes just to put your body into a fat-burning mode.

Another overlooked way to burn fat is by lifting weights. Skeletal muscle has very high caloric needs... almost twice that of adipose (fat) tissue. Put on a little muscle and you will burn calories all day even at rest. Be aware that skeletal muscle weighs more, so with this approach you may see your weight increasing while your body fat is melting away. Not realizing this often stresses folks who think they should be losing weight as a measure of fitness. Forget the scale, look in the mirror and you will be happy.

To lose a pound of fat, you need to eliminate about 3500 calories. You can do this by burning more with exercise or by modifying your diet to reduce intake. If you do a Google search on say, "swimming calories" you will quickly find a website with tables of calories burned for a given exercise. You can use such lists to estimate how many calories you are burning up with your routine.

For diet, keep a diary for a couple of weeks counting calories, grams of protein, and grams of fat intake. It is easy with online sources of nutritional information (type the name of the food and calories into the Google search engine) and packaging labels. That will let you quickly figure out where the fat is coming from in your diet.

Fat gives you 9 calories per gram. So take the number of grams of fat, multiply by 9, then calculate what percentage the fat calories are of your total daily calories. Restricting the calories from fat to about 20% of your total intake is ideal for a maintenance diet... that isn't overly restrictive. Of note, you need some fat in your diet. For instance, the body uses fat to produce hormones. Once you have a picture of how to modify your diet, you can drop the diary and just go back to it occasionally if you are wanting to tweek things further.

There is a subset of questions that goes further and asks about "How to get a six-pack?" The answer is the same. Six-packs are 20% abdominal exercise and 80% diet. There is one caveat... abdominal muscles will form in the position that you work them, so be certain to pull them tightly toward your spine while doing crunches, etc. Also, during most lifting, the "core is active" which means that you should be stabilizing with contracted abs then too. Fail to do this and the abs will form, but bulging outward and the result is not attractive.

If you are trying to build muscle as a way to lose fat, then you may need to increase total calories and specifically your protein intake. I target about 0.8 g of protein per pound of body weight each day when actively building. That is far more protein than most people need in their diets.


Aloha

Answer 2

Take a deep breath, you're not beyond hope! It's okay, you can undo this damage. You just need to break your additions and enforce a little behavior modification. The Cambridge Diet would be a really good fit for you. It's a nutritional, diet supplement that provides your body with 100% of it's daily vitamins, minerals and trace elements and is FDA approved. It's been around for over 30 years and it's inexpensive. It produces fast and effective results. I lost 17 lbs in the first 3 weeks and my doctor was THRILLED because my high blood pressure and high cholesterol resolved itself. No more pills for me! You'd have a pretty easy time doing this diet with your schedule and since it sounds as if you're a lot like me, your sweet tooth would be satisfied as well. My Before and After photo is the first on the B&A section of the website below.

Answer 3

I will try to keep it simple. Your metabolism is basically the rate at which your body burns calories to create energy. So the faster your metabolism, the faster you burn calories and the easier it is to lose unwanted weight. To boost your metabolism naturally you just need to eat the right foods.

You can sit down and literally eat a 1,000-calorie dinner and yet be absolutely starving just a few hours later and the reason is simple: Because your body didnt get what it needed in those 1,000 calories so it sends signals to your brain telling you to ingest more calories and thus, the late-night cravings. That means that the surest way to end those late-night cravings and keep your weight loss goals on track is to eat a more balanced, nutritious diet that actually gives your body what it needs.

It's VERY EASY to lose weight if you eat the right foods. Check out Dr. Charles Livingston's video here: http://www.sexyjese.com - it will blow your mind.

Answer 4

What works for me is that I snack throughout the day (or in your case, night). Every two or three hours, eat something small, fruit, a sandwich, soup, fruit, granola bar, etc. You will speed up your metabolism and you will feel it right away! Then you can have a normal dinner. Try to cut the fat and sugar and caffeine out as much as possible. Drink LOTS of water. And try walking 30 minutes at least 3 times a week or more (for better results). You will see the pounds slide off in no time. I lost two pounds in just one week after doing this!!!

Answer 5

THIS WORKS !!!! I AM GOING BACK TO IT MY Self. Years ago weight watcher had the same problems with their members. So they came up with a plan that helped members. RAW veggies in a bowel. EVERY time you get hungry go to the bowl and munch. Then i added 2 cups of steamed veggies to that. so i have raw+ steamed more daily. I lost 20 and have maintained. I have stayed a way from chips, bread, donuts, rolls.salt. sugars. I drink more water that has helped me. I go through 2 bottles a shift and ice. HERES another drink that helps me. TWO table spoons of my favorite juice and about 2-3 tablespoons of splenda in my bottle of water. OFTEN times that curves my appetite.

Answer 6

I haven't worked the 3-11 shift in years, but I have worked 4pm - 4am recently. I understand where you are coming from. I work in the petrochemical/refinery industry and I work nights quite frequently.

On July 15, 2006, I started taking Stack Body Tune Up and Advanced Cell Therapy energy drink. I remain alert and have good mental clarity. I have lost 32 pounds since that day.

Please contact me as I believe I may be able to help you.

[e-mail]
http://www.geocities.com/pktull

Answer 7

I really like the South Beach Diet.
I lost 25 lbs in 2 months.. You start off with only meats and veggies, and cheeses. Then after two weeks, you start introducing natural sugars to your system. You trick your pancreas. I increased energy, and lost weight, and upped my self esteem.

Answer 8

you know what you're doing wrong.

so STOP IT ALREADY! nobody is forcing you to eat that crap. every time you pick up a twinkie, you have the option to eat it or not eat it, and you are DECIDING to eat that crap.

if you want to lose weight more than you want to eat crap, YOU WILL.

you act like being hungry for couple hours is going to kill you. there are people in some parts of the world who are happy if they can eat something EVERY OTHER DAY.

you're a NURSE. you should know better than anybody that you need to DECREASE CALORIE INTAKE and BURN MORE CALORIES.

just stop being weak, and you can do it!

Answer 9

I work 3-11 also. The best way is to bring healthy snacks to work and NO pocket change! That will help you stay away from the vending machines. Cut up fruit and veggies, low-fat yogurt, low-fat cheese and crackers etc. Protein will help stave off hunger more than carbs.

Answer 10

Stand up and walk atleast 5 mins after evry 2 hours while working

Answer 11

I would take a little ice chest packed with cut up veggies & fruit to snack on instead of junk food. Also drink a ton of water, and maybe sip on herbal tea. Good luck!