4,500 calories, 500 km apart

Right now, half of what I eat is decided by whoever's running the camp kitchen tonight. I'm 500 km from my own fridge, midway through a 12-hour shift, trying to get to 4,500 calories off a cafeteria tray I didn't plan. The other half of the month I'm home, buying and cooking every one of those calories myself.

Same target. Two completely different kitchens.

First, what this isn't. I lost 125 lbs a few years back, 320 down to about 195. That was cutting. This is the opposite. I'm bulking on purpose now, eating to build, and the scale's back up to 215.7 lb.

I work a 28-day rotation at a camp in northern Alberta. Seven days on, seven off, seven nights, seven off, all 12-hour shifts. So my kitchen changes every week. Camp cafeteria when I'm on, my own place when I'm off.

I ran a marathon in the spring. Once that was done the goal flipped, from lighter and faster to bigger and stronger, at least for a few months before the long-course training takes over next year.

The plan is simple on paper: 4,500 calories a day, six lifts a week. It's a hybrid block, building mass while I lay down the aerobic base for a half Ironman next year. Simple on paper. The paper doesn't cook.

One thing up front: I'm not a dietitian and I'm not a financial advisor. I'm one 215-lb guy eating on purpose and tracking what it does to the numbers.

Here's the part nobody warns you about. Eating a lot is easy advice right up until half your food comes off a line somebody else built.

At camp I eat protein-first and I stack whatever's out.

At 4,500 calories, eating turns into a job you clock into. By mid-afternoon I'm not hungry anymore, I'm just hitting a number. You plan it or you miss it. There's no winging your way to that much food.

Dinner most nights is the same build: two chicken breasts (170 grams), 400 grams of rice, and whatever vegetables are out. Usually cherry tomatoes and cucumber. It's not exciting. It's arithmetic.

I don't eat it in the cafeteria. I fill the tray, move it into a to-go container and eat in my room. Faster, and I'm in bed sooner.

Timing is the other problem. On a 12-hour shift you can't sit down to five meals. So it's front-loaded and back-loaded. A big plate before shift, something in the middle, a real meal after. I'm also training on both ends of the shift. On days that means a ride or a run around 3 in the morning before the bus, and a lift after. On nights it flips: the lift goes in before I leave, the ride or run happens coming off shift. Some days all three. That's a lot of output to feed on a schedule you don't set.

The hard part about hitting 4,500 calories at camp is doing it clean with no control over what they serve.

Off-block I'm home in Red Deer and the whole thing flips. Now I'm the one buying it, prepping it, and paying for it.

The camp half costs me nothing. Food at camp is free and there's no limit on it. That's part of the deal when you live on site. The home half is all me. Groceries are the one bill that quietly doubles when you're feeding a bulk instead of a cut.

My last full week home came to $359.49 in groceries. Call it $360 a week.

That's the strange math of eating as a shift worker. Half your calories are a line item somebody else covers. The other half are the most expensive grocery run of your life.

I don't trust how a bulk feels. I trust the log. Here's the bench, June 10 to July 23:

That's +25 lb in about six weeks. The last one there was five sets of six at 225 lb. Not a one-rep max I squeezed out for a photo. Working weight, for reps, holding.

And it's not only the bar. Four days later I rode 29.4 km at threshold, 204 watts normalized, building the bike base for next season. Strength up. Endurance base up. Scale up four pounds, 213 to 217 lb, July 30 to August 4.

Then it settled. The camp week that followed averaged 215.5 lb, and I'm definitely struggling to put on weight. So the bar keeps going up and the scale doesn't. That's not what the plan said would happen.

What I learned here isn't about food. The number has to survive both kitchens, the tray and the fridge, or it doesn't survive the month.

That's the whole shift-work problem on one plate. It was never really about willpower. It's about building something that doesn't fall apart the second your environment changes on you. My food does that now. Took a while to get there.

Next week: why the lake swim I promised you for June 4 didn't happen until July 30.

Reply and tell me your own trick for eating around a schedule that fights you. I read every one.

— Kiegan