How to Get in Shape on the Night Shift (Workouts & Meal Plans)

If you work a 12-hour or night shift, this guide is going to be a game-changer.

Working weird hours provides a challenge for those looking to get in shape, so I’ll provide a step-by-plan to help you reach your fitness goals.

Because I’m nice like that. And I like you.

This is 100% doable.

After all, Batman is super ripped and he works nights too.

Today we’ll cover:

• How to lose weight working a 12-hour or night shift? Diet is still the most important thing.
• How to not gain weight while working 12-hour and night shifts: Avoid these things!
• What liquid calories will help your 12-hour or night shift.
• What foods to avoid on a 12-hour or night shift.
• Workout routines for a 12-hour or night shift.
• Prioritizing fitness 24/7.

Weird hours be damned, I’m gonna help you build up momentum to get in shape.

These are the exact strategies we work with our night-shift clients in our 1-on-1 Coaching Program! Although each situation is unique, we have certain principles that are universal and can help you start making progress even when your work life is crazy.

Want to see if we are a good fit for each other? Click on the button below to schedule a free call. We’d love to talk to you, no matter what!

Our coaches design plans for all sorts of challenging scenarios. Learn more here.

How to Lose Weight Working a 12-Hour or Night Shift?

Now, whether you work weird hours or normal hours, diet is still responsible for 80-90% of your success or failure when it comes to getting in shape.

80-90 PERCENT.

This is both a blessing and a curse. It means you don’t need to freak out if you miss a workout after a long night shift, but it also means you gotta take care of yourself while you are working.

Simply put, if you’re not losing weight, it’s because you’re eating too many calories. So if you’re trying to lose weight while working a night shift or working 12-hour shifts, you need to find ways to eat fewer calories without driving yourself crazy.

I’m a fan of any diet that gets you to accomplish this goal, but you know yourself better than others. So any “diet” may help you, as long as you have access to food for that particular way of eating. 

This isn’t a problem, as we have a plan for that!

This just means you need to become the master of meal preparation.

“But Steve I don’t have time to prepare food!” you say.

Yeah, I hear you.

What you’re REALLY saying is, “But Steve, preparing food ahead of time isn’t a priority for me.”

If you are working overnight shifts, bringing in your own food might help A LOT. There aren’t a lot of nutritious food options available at 4am.

Want to know how easy it is?

Here are 3 easy steps to meal prep on a graveyard shift:

1. Purchase a bunch of chicken breast on Sunday Night (or whatever night you actually have off). Cook them on a tray in the oven, ALL of them. Put them in separate containers or bags in your fridge.
2. Purchase a bunch of $1 steam fresh bags of frozen veggies. Stick them in the fridge at your workplace.
3. Need more calories/carbs in your diet? Buy some sweet potatoes. Microwave one and put it on your plate.

This is my personal strategy for prepping food for the week.

You can watch me make this recipe of Super Simple Chicken for Lazy People right here:

In about 3 minutes and minimal effort, you know have a well-balanced meal.

“But that’s boring!” Sheesh, I have to do EVERYTHING, huh? Welp, get creative, sucka!

1. Chop up the chicken and put it in a big salad with whatever you prefer (and keep it in your fridge).
2. Make stir fry, put some in containers in your fridge, and then heat it up on your break.
3. Google “chicken paleo marinade” and mix up how you prepare chicken. Or steak. Or pork. Or salmon.

YES, this does require effort. YES, this does require preparation. YES, it does work. YES, you will find your rhythm with it.

Again, it comes down to two things: priorities and excuses.

Do you REALLY not have time? Or are you using “I don’t have time” as an excuse to visit the vending machine?

Is your job REALLY stopping you from getting in shape? Or does it just provide some challenges that have to be worked around?

It may seem harsh, but overcoming the “this won’t work for me” mindset will be the first battle we need to win.

You can do this. Just don’t let “perfect’ be the enemy of the “good.”

How to not gain weight while working 12-hour and night shifts: Avoid these things!

Let’s talk about things to eat and avoid while on shift work: the good, the bad, the ugly.

Whether you’re at a desk or up stocking shelves or making your rounds, you probably deal with one of four points:

1. Exhaustion: Let’s be honest, when you work a night shift or early shift, you never get as much sleep as if you were sleeping during the night with normal hours.
2. Lack of “time.” If you’re working long days/nights and trying to raise a family/have a social life, food preparation probably doesn’t figure into your schedule. You need convenience, even if you have to pay a bit more for it.
3. Hunger: If you forgot to pack your “meal” or “meals,” your only option is to eat what you can find, which is unlikely to be nutritious at that time of day.
4. Boredom: If you are making rounds or stuck at a desk during the middle of the night, there may be more periods of downtime than if you were working during the day.

So you’re tired, hungry, bored, and struggle with time management.

Where do you turn? Caffeine!

Now, I have no problem with Caffeine. I wake up every morning and drink a few cups of green tea while sitting at my desk to write. We’ve even covered caffeine extensively on this site already. The short version? Don’t get caught in bad liquid calorie trap:

• Empty liquid calories are the devil. If you are drinking soda, energy drinks, or lattes for the caffeine, understand that you are also probably consuming hundreds of calories and 50+ grams of sugar. And these extra calories are contributing to your waistline. So read the labels or do the research before you drink six Monster drinks, a case of coke, or a Coffee Coolata. 
• If you’re going to get caffeine, try to drink Black coffee or green tea, which will have some nutrients. But you can even go with a no-calorie or low-calorie energy drink (Monster Zero Carb, for example). Just try to wean yourself off the GALLONS of caffeine (there’s a limit on what’s good for you). Hopefully, once you start exercising, you’ll have more energy and need less caffeine to survive your shifts.
  

Avoid the drinks that don’t give you any nutritional value and are full of sugar and calories. See if you can get your caffeine from better sources. Speaking of better sources of calories…

What Liquid Calories Will Help Your 12 Hour or Night Shift

Low on time? Need a meal? Make yourself a smoothie!  

Depending on what you put into it or where it comes from, a smoothie can be an incredibly healthy option for meals during the night or as you’re running out the door to your shift.

A few tips on making smoothies: Buy yourself a cheap blender (or, a ridiculously nice one). Have one at home, or in the break room at work.

Give this recipe a shot for a smoothie that will get you through your shift:

1. Frozen fruit (I usually go with the strawberries or berry medley from Trader Joe’s).  
2. A cup of unsweetened almond milk, unsweetened coconut milk, or cold water.
3. A scoop of protein (I use Optimum Nutrition Vanilla, but I hear the Chocolate is delicious).
4. A few ice cubes if you want to ‘thicken it up’ a bit
5. (Optional) Organic frozen spinach. Doesn’t change the taste, but gets you a serving of veggies.

I drink a smoothie similar to the one above for a meal almost on a daily basis (though I add in extra carbs and calories because I’m attempting to pack on extra weight). It looks like so:

Can’t bring a blender to work? Stick a scoop of protein in a shaker bottle, and BAM – there’s 25 g of protein prepared in 60 seconds. Add a bag of mixed veggies from the microwave and you’ve got yourself a really weird meal that is pretty damn easy to prepare and pretty damn good for you.

A word of caution: Smoothies from Smoothie King don’t count, as they have more sugar than two cans of Coke and HUNDREDS of calories. Naked Juices are also full of sugar, as we point out here:

They might look healthy, but they’re not. LOOK AT THE LABEL AND PAY ATTENTION TO THE CALORIE SUGAR CONTENT!  

Foods to Avoid on a 12-Hour or Night Shift

Now, along with empty liquid calories, let’s talk about empty food calories.

When you are at your desk, are you eating snacks while answering the phone or while on your rounds through the hospital?  

Personally, I’m a big fan of No Snacking, as I find I tend to eat more calories than I need during the day, simply because I’m not paying attention (check out the research in that snacking article for more).

Bring some nutritious snacks with you if you’re going to be snacking. My personal favorite would be apple slices with almond butter, but don’t forget almond butter can be very high in calories and easily over-consumed too

If you struggle with overeating, look at your snacking at your night job. Are you eating because you are bored? Are you eating because you’re not paying attention? Are you eating because you’ve trained your body to expect food every 5 seconds?

If it’s any of these things, try the “No eating AND _________” strategy:

• No eating and surfing the internet.
• No eating and watching TV shows.
• No eating AND _____.

If you’re going to eat, that’s the only thing you’re going to do. This can help you not accidentally, absentmindedly over calories.

It’s something we bring up in our Guide to Stress Eating. 

Workout Routines for a 12-Hour or Night Shift

Let’s move on to the other 10-20% of the equation: exercise!

It’s no surprise around these parts that I’m a HUGE proponent of strength training. Guys like Joe (above) travel two weeks a month and yet still manage to have tremendous transformation because they are smart with their time.

From an efficiency standpoint, no other type of exercise gives you as much bang for your buck (aka: the most results with the least amount of time spent exercising).

You can get an incredible workout that exhausts all of your muscles and burns a crazy number of calories (not just during the workout, but in the hours afterward as your body tries to rebuild all of the muscle). Just reference any Nerd Fitness success story, all built with strength training and healthy eating.

So, if your time is limited, and your focus is staying healthy/losing weight, you need to be strength training and walking.

When’s the best time to work out? When you will actually do it! If you find yourself too exhausted after your 12-hour shift (and I don’t blame you), then get your workout done before you go to work, even if you only have twenty minutes! Heck, even if you only have 10 minutes!

As far as the workout itself...

You don’t need to be going to a gym (though if you do, big lifts like squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, and pull-ups are going to get you the best results – ask Staci), you can work out at home before your shift starts with a simple workout like the Beginner Bodyweight Circuit.  

I know you don’t need a gym to grow strong because we see it daily here in the Rebellion. We work with coaching clients and design custom programs that take into account each person’s work environment, home environment, and equipment they have available. It works.

We also have the Nerd Fitness Journey which gives you more bodyweight routines and gym routines if you’re looking for specific instruction and exercise demonstrations.

You can try it out right here: 

If you are somebody that works a few days on (for long shifts) and a few days off, try this: a really intense strength building routine on your first day off from work and again on your last day. Two strength training days combined with walks and proper eating (on your workdays) is more than enough to get you quality results.

Spreading out the Workout Throughout Your Long Shift

Don’t be afraid of simply exercising here and there, when you can.

Check out the Angry Birds Workout and split up your workout throughout your shift:

• Do squats in the supply closet. Weirdo? YUP. Who cares?
• Push-ups and planks in your cubicle.
• Pull-ups on the bus stop overhang waiting to go to work? I’ve been there.
• Dumbbell rows with your desk and briefcase/backpack.
• Walking up the stairs on your break. Why not?

It all adds up, and every little bit is better than nothing. The strength training benefits are key, but there’s one other key benefit to exercising throughout the day.

Coach Matt provides more tips on how to sneak in your training throughout the day right here: 

And trust me, as a father of five who works from home, Matt knows how to sneak in his training.

Staying Active During Your 12-Hour or Night Shift

Along with strength training, just staying active will help.  

I actually have a timer (FocusBooster) on my laptop that goes off every 15 minutes to remind me to get up, walk around, stretch, do some push-ups, etc. Your phone can do the same thing! Technology, amazing.

Stand up at your desk if you can – mix up standing and sitting.

Go for a walk around the office. If you are a nurse or doctor you are probably already doing a considerable amount of walking to make your rounds, so keep it up.

The reason for staying active is so important is three-fold:

1. Every little bit counts. That push-up, those squats, that extra mile walked…they all add up!
2. Your brain keeps thinking “I am active.” Because it has to work more when you move! Remember, diet is 80% of your success or failure. When you exercise and constantly stay active, you are consistently reminding yourself that you are making healthier decisions, and these should carry over to your eating decisions too. Exercising and eating poorly is kind of like paddling a row-boat with one oar – you’re just spinning in circles. Work both together and dominate!
3. Exercising can make you smarter and more alert at work. Detailed incredibly well in the book Spark, studies have shown that exercising can increase brain activity and performance. Healthier on the outside, smarter on the inside = NERD FITNESS WIN.

Here are 40 ways to help you stay active during the day (without actually working out).

Prioritizing FITNESS 24/7

Remember, it comes down to one thing: taking an active role in your health.

1) Don’t use the job as an excuse, and instead remind yourself that you are in control. You don’t need anybody’s permission to get in shape.

2) It adds up. Every little change. Every meal you switch up. Every minute of exercise.

3) Plan out your day. Spending 5 minutes identifying what you’ll eat and when you’ll work out makes you WAY more likely to actually follow through with it.

Leave a comment and share your story and struggles with the Rebellion. I’d love to hear from you:

Do you work a night shift or have funny hours?

Have you had success and want to share your tips and tricks?

Have a REALLY funky job and need more help (Deathstar operator, daytime student/nighttime superhero)? Post below and I’ll see what I can do.

Let’s get weird with it.

-Steve

PS: Still reading? Want more help?

I’ll again remind you of our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program.

Here’s how it works: we get to learn your goals, lifestyle, challenges, and situation: Kids? An old injury? Graveyard shift?

No problem!

We’ll then pair you with a coach from Team Nerd Fitness that fits your personality and situation. Click below to find out if we are a good fit for each other.

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Photo source: cross-eyed owl, Torch lighting experiment, red bull, smoothies, chips, catdog