How often to eat.

[lilsky]

Hiya everybody!

First let me say I am brand new and have not even started my whole30 yet.  (October 1st is going to be my start date. Really excited but I have a lot of planning yet to do!) That said I'm kind of concerned about how my schedule is going to affect my meal times.

I work 3rd shift (11pm to 7am) and also 2nd shift (3pm to 11pm), usually both within the same week, sometimes both within the same 24 hr period and pulling a 2nd and 3rd shift then coming back for second the next day isn't unheard of either. To top it off my body's natural cycle is that of wake up by 8am at the latest and turn into a pumpkin at 11pm at the latest. So my schedule gets kind of crazy and my "day" is not always a 24 hr period. 

Also I already know I wont be able to trust my own hunger signals for probably a very long time since I can't remember a period in my life where they ever made sense. Usually in the eat once a day and only because I know I should kind of direction but once in a while it goes full tilt the other way where I want to eat every 2 minutes. 

I know according to the plan you should be eating 3 meals a day with mini meals if needed between, but my days aren't really "normal" and I want to make sure I'm eating enough but not to much. Is there any rule of thumb for eating every ____ hours?

Would it be safe/compliant to eat within 1 hour of waking then every 5 hours after or something of that nature instead of "3 meals a day" ?

Thanks in advance for all your help!

[ShannonM816]

51 minutes ago, lilsky said:

 

Would it be safe/compliant to eat within 1 hour of waking then every 5 hours after or something of that nature instead of "3 meals a day" ?

Thanks in advance for all your help!

Yes, definitely try to eat within an hour of waking up, whenever that is, and then every 4-5 hours after that. Set a timer to remind yourself if you need to.