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 rigors of shift work, but thrive. My goal is to empower shift workers to improve their health and well-being so they have more energy to do the things they love. Enjoy today's joke. Welcome back to a healthy shift. My name is Roger Sutherland. You already knew that. And today is an espresso episode. It's going to be short, it's going to be sharp, it's going to be direct, right to the point. Because I want to talk about something that many shift workers notice but they don't fully understand. And that is, why do we gain body fat, especially around the waist? What is it about us shift workers that this actually happens for and why? Now, if you've been frustrated that your belly just seems to grow, no matter how hard you are working, this one is for you. So strap in, grab yourself a cup of tea, take yourself for a walk, have a listen to this. First of all, I want to get into why this actually happens. Let's explain why it happens, because then you're armed with the knowledge, and you will then know why it is that you can't shift that belly fat. All right, because that's going to be the last place that it goes. It's the first place that it goes on, last place that it comes off. And it is frustrating. The number one reason, circadian rhythm disruption. What's that got to do with fat rods? Well, our bodies are designed to run on a rhythm, both day and night. Regardless of what we're doing shift-wise, that body is running on that day and night, natural diurnal circadian rhythm. So when you're awake at night and exposed to bright light and eating at odd hours, your body clock gets completely confused. Sure, your rational brain knows whether it's day or night, your body doesn't, because your body is responding to that light. And this is something that is really, really important. Because that confusion leads to a change in our hunger hormones, which are ghrelin and leptin. Now, ghrelin tells our body to eat more. Leptin is our natural personal trainer, and it says, hey, stop eating. And shift work completely throws those two hormones out of balance. And the result? You don't need me to tell you, you feel hungrier and you crave the wrong foods. And if you're a non-shift worker and you're listening to this, have a think about how you feel and what type of foods that you crave the day after a really late night. It's always those carbs, sugary carbs, that you feel like because your body is searching for energy. Now, point number two is eating at the wrong biological time. Now, this is a big one because when melatonin is high, and this is what happens at night from about 9 p.m. in most people, your body is basically gone into rest mode. So if you eat during that time, your body doesn't handle the energy well. And instead of burning it, it says, we don't need this right now and stores it. And where does it store it? You guessed it round the waste. It always stores it round the waist. And this is one of the most dangerous places. So even if you're not eating more calories than a day worker, which we tend to find that shift workers don't, it's when you eat them that really matters. And I'm going to talk about the elephant in the room here, and I'm talking to you. I want you to listen very carefully. Alcohol. I'm not going to skip this because alcohol is a massive problem for shift workers in particular. A lot of us, we use it to wind down. And hey, I'm one of the first that used to do this. We use it to wind down, to relax us, to go to sleep. But I want to be clear alcohol does some nasty things. First of all, it's extra calories that your body doesn't need, and the empty calories, they are useless. It literally stops our body burning that energy. It stops fat burning until the alcohol is actually processed. Listen to that very carefully. Whatever you're eating around alcohol, your body parks it while it focuses on getting rid of the toxin, which is alcohol, out of your body. So that is stored energy, is body fat. It's disrupting your sleep quality. So the next day you're more tired, which means, yep, you're more hungrier and you are more likely to overeat. Not to mention, while you're on the gas, what's the foods that you're craving and having? You're certainly not sitting down to a salad sandwich. So have a think about that as well, because they're highly processed carbohydrates and fats, which are very, very calorically dense. And here's the kicker alcohol carries calories are often paired with snack foods. So it's a double whammy. This is a problem. Number four is light at night. I want you to pay particular attention to this one. Blue light from your phones, tablets, computers, and those low voltage LED lights, fluorescent tubes that are over your head at night are sending the wrong message to your brain. Your body literally is thinking that it's daytime. Cortisol stays high, melatonin stays low, and that mix messes with metabolism and increases your hunger signals. Remember, your rational brain can say, oh, we're awake. But the biological function is that it's it's um daytime or we're sleeping or whatever it is. We've got to be it's responding to this light all the time. And when there's blue in the light that's present, not blue as in the color blue, but in the spectrum of white light, when there's blue, the only colour that your eye sees is the blue, and that blue is actually telling your body, uh it's it's daytime, so therefore we suppress everything and we eat. Your brain says, We're awake. Fuel me, even though what your body actually needs is rest. So when you pull all this together, that disrupted circadian rhythm and eating when melatonin is high, combining this with the use of alcohol and light exposure at the wrong time. Now, do you understand where you get the recipe for fat gain around your waste? Now the good news is you can push right back on this. Because you don't just have to accept weight gain as part of the job. You know you have colleagues out there, people that you work with that don't carry that at all. And this is the simple strategies that a lot of them are putting in place. It's not just that they're genetically blessed, they work hard at it, but they do the simple things. And here are some of the simple things that they do. They get early light. Expose your eyes and skin to the natural light as soon as you wake. Sky before screen. You've heard me say this over and over again. Don't roll over in the darkness, grab your phone and look at your phone. That blue light is not bright enough during the day to reset your circadian rhythm. It's too bright at night, not bright enough during the day. This then helps to anchor your body clock. It tells it where it's at in time and space, and it will help to regulate your hormones. Do you know how many clients I've had come to me that say to me, Oh, my hormones are screwed? And then once we start getting the light, they then start to rebalance the hormones in their body, and this is what actually happens. Makes such a big difference to them. It makes such a big difference to how they feel, and it makes such a big difference in their energy levels, how they move, and of course, when you change that energy balance, what actually happens? We lose body fat. Get early movement. Even light movement after you wake, short walk, some stretching. It helps your metabolism to fire up. It tells your body again, it's another Zekeber. It tells it it's daytime. We are moving. The other thing that I say all the time is one simple rule that you should always apply as a shift worker is to eat at daywalker times. Whenever possible, keep your main meals in line with what a normal day walker would actually eat at breakfast, lunch, and dinner time. That normal times of eating, not 10:30 and 4:30 in the afternoon and then 9.30 at night. That's not a rhythm. We need to be in a ri regular, normal day walker rhythm all the time. If you're on night shift, you've got to aim to eat your bigger meals before your shift starts and avoid anything heavy at all in the middle of the night. On my website, a healthyshift.com, you can go to there and scroll down, and you will see that I actually have a book called The Circan Fast. And you can actually go and download that book. It is free. It teaches you why we need to fast, it teaches you how to structure the overnight fast. It's even got a couple of cheeky little night shift recipes in there for you that will make such a difference. It helps. We can't be eating overnight. We need to cut back on alcohol. We can't use alcohol to get to sleep. It doesn't work. It's actually causing more problems. It's really worth rethinking this strategy because better strategies strategies exist for winding down that don't sabotage your body composition. The other thing, dim those lights at night. Especially use filters and those dim that blue light from the screens. Wear blue light blocking glasses makes a huge difference to your melatonin levels at night. This helps your melatonin to rise naturally so that your body knows that it's actually time for rest. It helps to line up those hormones again. Now, these, every one of those that I've actually just listed will make an enormous difference in your life. And they're not massive lifestyle overhauls. This is not about going in a calorie deficit and you've got to exercise at the gym six days a week. Let me just revisit them. Get early light, move early, eat at normal day walk at times, cut back on alcohol and dim the lights at night or wear blue light blocking glasses. How hard is that? It is so simple. They're very, very small adjustments, but over time, they're going to make a huge difference on how your body handles food, fat, and energy. Keep that in mind. So if you are a shift worker and you are struggling with weight gain and you can't arrest it, especially around the waist, because this is where we get it. You're not broken. Your body is literally just responding to the environment that you are creating for it and it's living in. But the good news, with the right strategies, you can actually prevent this from happening and you can even and you will actually reverse it. And I can help you with exactly that because I will look at your situation on a personal level, not generic um information that goes out. I will look at your home life, your social life, and your working life, and I will come up with a strategy that works for you. So if you would like to explore this with personal support, go down to the link in the show notes and follow the one-to-one coaching link. You'll get a free 15-minute coaching assessment call with me personally. One-to-one, where we will see if we are a good fit. And I will help you start taking steps to stop that weight gain before it gets completely out of hand. Because it will. It'll take control and then you will really, really become overwhelmed with it. So thanks for listening to this espresso episode of A Healthy Shit. Please take care of yourself. Keep those tips in mind, please. I beg you, and I'll catch you on the next one. 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 ahealthyshift.com. I'll catch you on the next one.