Fasting and shifts

[tentative3]

I started 16:8 over lockdown and felt good on it, found it fairly easy to stick to when the earliest I started work was 0500. However, since July I am back to working normal shifts, the earliest of which can start just before 0300. I do permanent early shifts but it is not a set shift pattern, the range is between 0300 and 1100 start times, roughly, and will be different times each day, although the start times are loosely grouped so as not to be too far apart each week. I work a 4 day week.

When I'm up at 0200 or really anything before about 0430 I find it impossible to stick to my previous eating window of 10-6. I realise it is probably precisely this reason which means I should stick with it but I work in a safety critical job and have to balance wanting IF to work with not wanting to zone out and have an incident at work (which could, at worst, end my career or mean a prison sentence).

Does anyone have any tips for making this work? I'm wondering about doing 16:8 5 days out of 7 and on 2 of my work days allowing myself to have a longer window. Would that still lead to weight loss provided I am reducing my calorie intake overall?

If you are active and eating less than your body needs, you will lose weight.
Shift work is tough, and eating at times that balance out is tougher.
To some extent, thinking about WHAT you eat - small amounts of protein rich food - might work best when the shift patterns and your tummy do not line up.

I work shifts and do intermittent fasting, and find shift work actually helps! Mixing your hours up actually helps avoid your metabolism slowing down.

The key is to understand that you don't have to stick to the same eating window, at all.

I just make sure I never, ever have an eating window longer than six hours and very rarely a fasting window shorter than 16 hours nor longer than 20. Just work around your shifts, keep adjusting on the hoof.

Very occassionally I only fast 14 hours in ordwr to fit around shifts, but equally I occassionally fast for 22 hours for the same reason.

I most often eat two meals and some fruit and unsalted nuts between 13:00 and 19:00, but sometimes I don't eat til 17:00 and have a four or five hour eating window until 21:00 or 22:00, sometimes I break my fast at 11:00 and stop eating at 16:00 or 17:00, I do OMAD and only eat dinner, or eat a couple of pieces of fruit and a handfull of unsalted nuts before or after dinner, making it a 2 hour eating window including dinner.

I've been doing it this way since July and lost four stone.

I work all the shifts except waking nights, sometimes all in the same week. I do lates from 12:00-22:00, or shorter lates 14:00-21:00, or lates followed by nights on call on site and then waking up at 5am to go straight into a short early 6-10am, so up too 22 hours at work, or earlies 6am to 14:00, or day shifts 10-18:30. I never have to get up earlier than 4:30am though (45 minutes drive to work, earliest shift starts at 6am).

Mix it up, it's a good thing!

If you start your eating window early then just close it early too. It doesn't need to be strict start times but you can be strict with keeping your fasting/eating window the same length.