Work affecting weight loss

[Evergirl]

I am a flight attendant and I do what we call standups. I fly the last flight out at night get leads than eight hours of sleep on the ground and the fly one leg home in the morning and sleep all day til it's time to go to work again. I do this 3 days a week. My question is could my messed up sleep patterns be affecting my weight loss? If I go to days would my weight come off faster. BTW I HAAAAAAATE DAYS!

[diamonds]

I think as long as your getting enough sleep it doesn't matter if its during the day or nite but you have to make sure you're well rested. Without a good nites sleep you're already going to feel run down and less likely to exercise and eat right. When your tired its much easier to grab a quick pick me up to eat than to actually plan and cook.

[JulieB]

I agree - as long as you are eating on plan and exercising, your schedule shouldn't affect your progress. We've seen long-distance truck drivers (eating fast food & at truck stops!) be successful on this WOE as well as shift-workers, night-shift people...lots of unconventional schedules. As long as the scale generally goes down more than it goes up, you are doing fine.

[Jenileigh]

Well, I don't know anything for sure but I would say that the flying could cause false weigh ins because of jet lag. I know when my daughter flew she swelled really bad. So couldn't this type of thing make you retain water?

As far as the sleeping patterns, I'm not sure about that either, I suppose if your body is adjusted to it it may not affect weight loss/gain but a change -in my opinion- would.

I know I lose more when I sleep well, actually sometimes I notice I lose more if I sleep longer. Not sure if the weight loss is truly related to the sleep or not. Like I said-just thinking out loud.

[chinadoll]

I know I always retain water for days and days when I fly. So that, more than the sleep, is probably playing havoc with the scale. Some studies also say that poor sleep patterns can also lower metabolism, but minimally. Do you drink at least 64 ounces of water daily? If you fly it should be more. More water will mean less water retention.
Also do you get a chance to exercise? Cardio will help with the water retention and exercise is non-negotiable on Atkins. I never fail to drop weight when I am doing cardio regularly (2-3 times a week).