#1
I work nights. 12-hour shifts, 4 on, 3 off. Sleep is trash. Eating used to be worse. I hit 34 pounds down in 11 weeks. Scale stalled for two weeks, which annoyed me. Yesterday I grabbed a medium work polo out of my locker just to see. It fit. Not tight. No gut pinch. I actually wore it all shift. I haven’t worn a medium since maybe 2019. I know the scale is a liar sometimes. Clothes don’t lie as much. Anyone else have clothes change before the number does?
#2
Night shift 12s here too. My two-week stall turned out to be water from the 3am vending pretzels + a “free” granola bar that was 400 cal. I switched to weekly average weights, not daily, and it stopped messing with my head. I also grabbed two clearance medium work polos for $12 each just to lock in the size. Sharp question: which weigh-in do you trust — after your first off-day sleep, or right after a shift? My after-shift numbers run 3–4 lbs heavy every time.
#3
That medium polo win is huge—clothes are honestly a better signal than the scale when sleep is trash. I work a similar rotating schedule, and my two-week stalls always line up with the 4-on stretch: more sodium, less water, and I mistake night-shift fatigue for hunger. Something that helped me was tracking waist at belly button and how my rings fit first thing after
#4
night shift gremlin here too. the scale lies during 4-on stretches for me — i think it’s the salty 3am food + trash sleep holding water. what helped me was a cheap tape measure once a week and taking pics in the same locker room lighting. my waist moved before the scale did. also i swapped my 2am
#5
Tbh scale stalls lie for a couple weeks when you’re recomping. Are you tracking waist at navel or how a shirt sits? I had a stretch where the scale didn’t budge but my work polo got looser and my belt notch moved. Night shifts can also mask water drop with sleep debt. Curious: do you lift before or after your 12s? That recovery piece matters more than most people admit when you’re doing 4x/week.
#6
night shift here too. The medium polo is a huge NSV—congrats. One thing that helped me during a stall: I stopped weighing after a run of shifts and started tracking my sleep and sodium instead. My “whoosh” usually came after a solid 8-hour sleep on my first day off, not a diet change. Also, I keep an emergency protein shake + hard-boiled eggs in my locker so I don’t hit the vending machine at 3am. What’s your 3am meal look like? That was always my danger zone.
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