Speaker 1: 1:42

Shift work can be brutal, but it doesn't have to be. Welcome to a healthy shift. My name is Roger Sutherland, certified nutritionist, veteran law enforcement officer and 24-7 shift worker for almost four decades. Through this podcast, I aim to educate shift workers using evidence-based methods to not only survive the rigours of shift work, but thrive. My goal is to empower shift workers to improve their health and wellbeing so they have more energy to do the things they love. Enjoy today's show and hello everybody and welcome back to a Healthy Shift podcast. Me. I'm your host, roger Sutherland, and I'm here to bring you evidence-based strategies in your shift working life.

Speaker 1: 2:31

And today this is a beauty, and I want you to listen very carefully to today's episode because it is super important that people understand this. As a shift worker, it's kind of funny because we're almost at 300 episodes and I just cannot believe that I have not covered this in detail before, and what I want to do is I want to talk about two terms that actually really create confusion, because people label one or the other as the other. All right, and what I'm talking about today is time-restricted eating, which is TRE, and intermittent fasting, which is written as IF. Now, if you're a shift worker. This difference is not only just important, but it's actually critical for you to understand for your own health. So this is why I'm really keen for you to understand this one today. So here's the thing.

Speaker 1: 3:29

Intermittent fasting, which everybody says, oh I do, intermittent fasting and I lose weight is just about when you do or you don't eat. Technically it's skipping breakfast, the way most people do it. It's just called skipping breakfast. You're only skipping a meal, and is it any wonder that you actually lose weight while you're doing what people call intermittent fasting? You're actually cutting a whole meal out, so no wonder you're actually losing weight and, in all honesty, that's generally all it is. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not demonizing it. If this works for you, then that is absolutely fantastic, because some people don't feel like eating and what they do is they actually don't eat from 8pm at night until midday the next day, and it's intermittent fasting is what they're calling it. But technically it's actually time-restricted eating, because you are doing the same thing every single day.

Speaker 1: 4:27

Now people are often focusing on the fasting window itself. Now some people do 16-8, which is what I've talked about before 16 hours of fasting, 8 hours of eating. So what they do 16 hours of fasting, eight hours of eating. So what they do is they get up at like seven, eight o'clock in the morning and they don't eat anything until midday. You skip breakfast. That's what you've done. And then what you do is you eat from 12 o'clock until eight, so you might have your lunch, a snack and dinner. And then what you do is you then go back into a fasting state dinner, and then what you do is you then go back into a fasting state, and this is good. There's nothing wrong with it at all.

Speaker 1: 5:04

Some people do a 5-2. What they'll do is they'll have five days of eating, two days of fasting, or two days of eating, one day of fasting, three days of eating, one day of fasting, which is a five-day, or they'll just do alternate day fasting, eating one day at maximum or their normal calories the next day, bare minimum. Now, this is just intermittent fasting. This is what they call it. But time restricted eating has an additional layer that makes it much more relevant for our shift working community, and this is the one that I highly support shift workers to do, and, in fact, with my book, the Circadian Fast, it is basically discussing this time-restricted eating without giving it a label.

Speaker 1: 5:48

Now, time-restricted eating is about eating within the biological day. This is your active circadian phase. Now what this means is that you're eating your calories during a period when your body is biologically prepared to digest, metabolize and use that food, and usually for the majority of us, that is from sunrise to sunset because this is literally light is the trigger to switch our body from that day mode to that night mode. So it's important that we follow this biological day and biological night when it comes to actually eating. What's biological day and biological night? Let's talk about what actually happens in your body between your biological day and biological night, because during the biological day, your body is absolutely primed to handle glucose very efficiently. You are also a lot more insulin sensitive and we digest and metabolize nutrients for energy and repair really well. This is because your internal clocks, which are your circadian rhythm, are all aligned with food intake and your metabolism is switched on and actually ready to go.

Speaker 1: 7:05

And I would actually add an additional layer to this as well. That I think is super important as a shift worker. If you just did this, you not only will lose weight, but you will also actually digest and metabolize food really efficiently and you will feel really good. And that is don't eat after the sun has set and don't only start eating again when the sun has risen and eat at the normal day walker breakfast, lunch and dinner times, and on those times not any other time. Not, oh, I didn't get up until nine o'clock, so I'll have breakfast at 10, then I'll have lunch at two o'clock in the afternoon and then I'll have dinner at about eight o'clock at night and I'll keep eating and snacking until 10. This is why you are gaining weight.

Speaker 1: 7:57

This is the problem that people have, and in fact you can go even further with this now, that if you stack your calories in the beginning of the day, when your body is optimized and primed to actually metabolize and process nutrients properly actually metabolize and process nutrients properly while we are highly insulin sensitive and we are also handling glucose very well, if you ate like a king in the morning and like a prince at lunchtime and then like a pauper late in the afternoon, and you actually did your fasting period from 3 pm in the afternoon until 7 o'clock in the morning, not only would you lose weight, but biologically your body would be running much more efficiently, because we are actually designed to do that, but we as humans have really butchered this, because what we do is a lot of people are intermittent fasting from they wake up in the morning and they don't eat until 12, and then they eat from 12 o'clock until 8 pm at night, and then they go into this fasting window. And I'm here to tell you you are doing it wrong, even though it might work for you. It would work so much better if you were to eat from 7 o'clock in the morning until 3 pm in the afternoon and then not eat from 3 pm in the afternoon. This is important and you might think no way, I couldn't go from 3 pm in the afternoon until I went to bed. I'd be starving. But that's because that's what you've conditioned yourself to do, and you can actually condition yourself around the other way, so that you don't eat after 3 pm and you feel really good, like really good, and you sleep really well and biologically, your blood pressure is reduced and everything runs really really well in your body. So keep that in mind calorie stack early in the day and then taper them off as the day goes and watch how much better you feel, and your doctors will be very impressed with your blood results as well, I can tell you. So that's one way to look at eating in the biological day, and this is where it's really important.

Speaker 1: 10:09

So now let's have a look at the biological night. Now, most of us, this is when the sun sets until sunrise, which makes sense, doesn't it? Biological night Now. Your body at this stage is in recovery mode and this is when our hormones are shifting to promote rest, repair and they conserve energy. And if you eat heavily or you eat substantially during this time, your glucose tolerance is not there, your insulin sensitivity decreases and you become quite insulin resistant and you're more likely to store those calories as fat rather than burn them, because our glucose tolerance is poor. Digestion also really slows down, which can impact on IBS and gas and bloating, particularly in you, ladies, which can impact on your sleep quality as well.

Speaker 1: 11:00

And here's the big kicker for you, shift workers If you're eating the bulk of your calories during your work shifts, which often fall in your biological night, being afternoon shifts or night shifts you are continually working against your body's natural rhythm and over time, this is going to increase the risks of metabolic issues, weight gain and your cardiovascular health severely suffers. This is one of the main reasons why our shift workers really suffer with metabolic syndrome, which is a combination of all of those types of illnesses as well and disease in our body because we are working against our biological clock, keeping in mind that nutrient timing is a cue for our circadian clock as well. Keep this in mind that your circadian clock overrules your roster clock every single day, always. It doesn't matter what shift you're on. If you eat at normal day walker times, you watch what happens. It will make an enormous difference to your life.

Speaker 1: 12:10

So why does time-restricted eating actually work? Because time-restricted eating is incredibly powerful, even without changing what you eat, but by simply shifting when you eat to match the biological day and to match the biological daytime mealtimes. This will improve your energy, it will improve your sleep and it will even reduce the symptoms that you may very well be battling there, like fatigue, cravings and poor digestion, and research is now showing that it can also improve long-term metabolic and cardiovascular health. Who doesn't want a piece of that? Don't live with regret, guys. Honestly, this is life-changing to stop eating after dark.

Speaker 1: 12:58

I know some people have got busy jobs and they need some sort of fuel, but what I'm saying is lighten it up. The vending machine is not the fuel that you need. We need to really avoid those highly palatable carbohydrates and fats, those chips, those chocolates, those lollies and, damn, jenny, and that cake. Stop it, jenny, leave the cake at home. And for you nurses that are listening, I see you, those nurses stations and that drawer that all the secret chocolate's hidden in. You need to avoid it. I'm onto you. I know that that's there, all right, and it's unfortunate, but if you are someone who's going to take a gift in for a nurse on night shift or you're going to take a gift in to say thank you to a nurse for looking after your mum, take a protein shake, for God's sake, don't take. Or a Yopro yogurt. Don't take chocolates and chips and lollies. You're actually damaging their health. They're already under that artificial light and then you're feeding them carbohydrates and fats and once they start, it makes it very difficult to stop.

Speaker 1: 14:06

Okay, so if you're listening to this and you're a shift worker and you're thinking, yeah, good one Rog, how do I actually apply this to my lifestyle? Well, that's exactly what I help people with. I look at your life, your home life, your social life and your work life, and we work together to build strategies to help you to actually find a way that you can actually work this into your life so that you are regularly eating, and I have strategies around this that you can actually put into place that will make an enormous difference to your life. I have coaching spots open and all you got to do is go down into the show notes and follow the link there and fill out a simple form and book a 15-minute assessment, coaching assessment call and let me help you, because I can assure you that the way to lose weight as a shift worker, or to prevent that weight gain, to give you more energy, to get you sleeping better, is to be eating the right things at the right time, and if there's one thing I specialize in, it's that. So what you got to do is just follow the link in the show notes and you can book that free call with me and I will tailor something for you to help you with this, all right, so there you have it.

Speaker 1: 15:35

Please, can you do me a favor? It's been forever since anyone's done this, but can you go to Spotify and hit the five stars and give us a review? I'd really appreciate it. And on Apple, five stars. If you scroll down to the bottom, you can hit a review as well. Thanks for listening today and remember even small shifts in when you eat can make a massive difference. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you get notified whenever a new episode is released. It would also be ever so helpful if you could leave a rating and review on the app you're currently listening on. If you want to know more about me or work with me, you can go to ahealthyshiftcom. I'll catch you on the next one.