Any other teachers find themselves, like me, eating their dinner after 9pm once teaching has finished? I have piled on weight in the last 18 months and i'm sure it's due to eating late. I don't teach from home so i can't quickly boil up some pasta or something like that while waiting for my next student. By the time i get home and cook something, it's often closer to 10pm when i'm eating. If i'm starving when i get in (which i usually am!) then it's a takeaway which is even worse for my waistline! Just wondering what everyone else does? I've tried having a big lunch and just a sandwich for dinner, but i just ended up feeling sleepy before i began teaching then still hungry afterwards! Any advice would be great thanks as i really can't think of an alternative arrangement!

I make sure that there's a half an hour gap sometime between 6:30 and 8pm to stop and have supper. I wouldn't want everyone in the house to be eating at different times and anyway, I think it's unfair on them to wait until I finish (usually after 8:30pm). Eating at 9pm would, for me, be far too late I'm afraid. I'm not really sure what to suggest - I still think a meal at lunchtime would be better, or maybe two similar-sized meals?

Easy for me because I teach from home. My husband has a digestive problem so he can't eat late, and I have medication which has to be taken at night after a minimum of two hours fasting. I have always made sure we eat together - that's something I wouldn't compromise on. So I don't teach between 5.15 and 6.30 ever and that gives me time to feed the dogs, cook and eat.

Have you tried using a slow cooker so you can put something on before you go out, come home and its done or try doing the one thing which has always eluded me and learn how to set the timer on the oven, no matter what I try it never works!!!


My friend also uses a rice cooker alot as it can be timed to come on at a certain time and has a keep warm feature.

I've got quite organised these days and prepare everything in the morning or early afternoon before the teaching begins then my kids are well trained to turn the oven on when such and such a student arrives.

The French answer is the gouter - tea time snack - which used to be because the whole family ate fairly late in the evening, finishing work later than in England having had a longer lunch break. The habit has continued to some extent and I find that I sometimes have to eat something while teaching. As it's piano it isn't a problem. I usually ask the pupil to excuse me if I eat something during the lesson but they don't seem to mind and I keep it to something I can eat easily and quicily- a pre sliced apple or a biscuit or even just a drink of soja milk.

Another answer is to have a little snack prepared and waiting at home (a sort of hors d'oeuvre) to eat while preparing a late meal - say a raw carrot or a piece of celery - or soup. That stays the pangs while you prepare the meal and then you don't vome to the table quite so starving.

Also, if you can prepare the evening meal earlier in the day so that you don't have to spend too much time preparing it on arriving home.

I fit in quite a hefty lunch at midday or thereabouts. Then if possible I have a half hour gap between pupils during the evening and have "high tea" then.

Although you work away from home, could you eat a main meal at lunch time and then have a salad or sandwiches when you've finished teaching?

I don't know if this helps but breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and then probably fruit, sandwiches and other healthy snacks that you can graze on between lessons, so that you are not hungry when you arrive home.

It is not eating late that does it. It is eating meals where a large part is (or is derived from) bread, potatoes, pie crusts, pizza, rice, biscuits or other wheat products (in fact anything starchy or with a high Glycaemic index)

Try cooking a lean piece of meat or a piece of fish instead, and eating it with a leafy salad or some green vegetables (runner beans, peas, brocolli)

Thanks for all the good advice so far folks, much appreciated. I'll actually look further into what VH2 wrote too, as i'm perhaps blaming my ever-increasing waistline on eating late at night and not actually the type of foods i'm eating. I know i'll have to do something now or end up having the piano stool buckle under my weight during a lesson with a student. Thanks again everyone

How about making up a salad in a tupperware and make sure you put in plenty of protein(fills you up more) like cooked ( but cold) bacon..yummy. Or just ham or cooked chicken.With lots of cherry tomatoes and bit of light mayo? You can buy bags of salad quite cheap from supermarkets with bits of carrot etc mixed in.

If you had to snack on something sweet try a couple of snack a jacks..they do choc chip now

This would bridge the gap up to tea, no bread so you wouldn't feel sleepy. Bad carbs make you sleepy.

A large baked potato and baked beans for tea(no butter) would fill you up and be quick. 6mins in microwave for the potato.

I'm trying to lose a bit at the mo and cutting down on bread ( 1 slice max a day) and cakes & bikkies . It is working.

My friend is doing really well with slimming world ( got some tips from her) and it seems to be processed and sugary stuff which does the damage. Hence careful with bread. e.g.Home made spag bol ( no processed sauces thrown in)...are all as much as you want!

You can go on their website for a few free meal ideas.

Good luck!

It is not the butter that makes you fat. It is the potato!!!!! [or bread, pasta, etc. ]

Potatoes are fine. Seriously.

I used to be like you and think like that. Butter does not make you fat in moderation. Fizzy drinks are the worst...sugar and processed.

Surely that depends on how much you're eating of those things; I've lost weight not by cutting anything out but by adjusting portion sizes.

Yup i think the size of my portions are a problem. Plus the fact that i'll always go back to the pan on the stove for second helpings. I eat healthily, been vegetarian for more years than i remember and really don't eat fried food at all. No sugar in my coffee, but plenty of biscuits/chocolate. I think i really need to make a note of all the good things and bad things, then work out a plan and stick to it! I'll also have to pass on to someone else the home-baking i receive on a regular basis from some of my pensioners each week!

Can I send you my address?

Proper meal at lunchtime and snack in the evening works for me.

Mine is not some random opinion based on a few anecdotes. I have done a lot of research into this!!

Me too on those sweet things! That's my problem...sugary snacks. That's why I've been (trying to) cut back lately.

I lost 5 lbs in 5 days following the advise given on my previous post. No snacks for a week. It was hard. I snacked on grapes and bananas and Muller light low fat yogurts also. Also no alcohol. Treat at weekend though.

Some good suggestions on here...like Seer Green, I will also start watching proportion size. Oh why is chocolate so nice!

This was my biggest problem when I started teaching! I had no organisation to the meals or any idea when to eat. I find now that the slow cooker is great as is the rice cooker. I prepare meals early in the day whilst the kids are in school and then we eat early as a family once my husband gets home from his school. If I'm hungry when I finish then I tend to just have a snack.

Will see how it works when we go back for the new term as I'm starting earlier on a couple of occasions and the OH will have to venture into the kitchen! Will definitely be snacking during lessons this term.

Agree with others about thinking about portion sizes and what you're eating. Takeaway is fine as long as it's just one meal not every evening! I had to cut out wheat and all other gluten products not long after I started teaching when I was finally diagnosed as a coeliac after a long struggle with illness and I'm rarely tired even when I do four hours straight.

I hope you find a good balance!

Agreed people get so caught up with don't eat this it makes you fat, don't do this it makes you fat, don't eat after 6pm it makes you fat, etc. Everything has degrees of 'science' and 'proof' behind them but it's still really a load of rubbish. Basically... don't eat too much and you won't be fat. I eat potatoes and carbs galore but i'm only 8 stone, because I don't overeat on the whole. Infact, I literally practically live off bread, pasta and potatoes (not that im saying thats a healthy way to live...) Calories in calories out and all that... eat less calories that you use and you'll be fine.

But back to the OP - it seems a shame that you can't eat your dinner at a time that is suitable for you. Perhaps swap it round so you eat a filling dinner at lunch time then at night you eat a lunch sized thing, so you're not feeling too full up at night? Hope you find a solution!

I agree with this. I have dropped an unbelievable amount of weight simply by dropping bread and wheat products completely and watching how much rice and potatoes I eat.

You could make a salad earlier in the day and pop it in the fridge, then cook the meat or fish which won't take long at all. I often have to eat late at night because of teaching and I tend to just rustle up a salad quickly or sometimes I eat boiled eggs.
I also have portions of soup in the freezer and I can microwave these in a few minutes and have something warm and filling when it is cold outside. If you eat bread you could have some wholegrain bread with the soup.

For me, somewhere between 9pm and 9:30pm is the usual time for my combined dinner/supper. I rarely get time to eat earlier but if I do manage to eat an early dinner, then I'm hungry again before I go to bed. So by eating a lateish dinner I don't need to have supper and am cutting one meal of the day.

Scrambled eggs (or other eggs...) on toast is a quick meal

Oh, I really sympathise with this problem..I suffer from a mild case of low blood sugar and when I'm past mealtimes and haven't eaten I start to scoff everything in sight!

In my 20's when I just started out in teaching and took any pupil anywhere I ate at strange times and put on 8 kilos.. 10 years on I'm strict on myself and don't teach after 7.30 and have only one student I teach from 7.30-8.30. Even for this one lesson I make sure I'm free from 6-7.30 to cook dinner and eat it. No students during this time, no matter what! I do home visits too but make sure I get home by 8.30 latest and prepare meals in advance, the kind you just need to heat up, not make from scratch. Also eating later makes you crave junk food rather than nutritious meals, that's how I put on 8 kilos!

Good luck, it requires bit of organisation but if you feel your health is important I'm sure it will be worth it.

Oh me too, i'm glad i'm not the only one! If I don't eat every 2 or 3 hours (even after a large meal) i'll be shaking and dizzy and lightheaded/headachey, and also extremely weak, then when i finally can eat i absolutely scoff a ton out of relief and trying to get rid of the horrible symptoms etc.

Not a teacher, but I do have my lesson late - 7 or 8pm depending on teacher's schedule (I think she eats something in between lessons because sometimes she takes a 10 minute break between me and the previous student), and I have had to deal with this too. The hypoglycaemia is much more controllable if I eat at strange times, lots of small meals does me well. It is noticeably improved if I do not eat too much stuff with simple carbohydrates (so bananas or oatmeal is OK - biscuits and chocolates are not).

I suspect everybody's body is different - I think there is something wonky about my insulin as I have a family history of type 2 diabetes without obesity, so I have to be careful about having too much sugar / starchy stuff.

I would actually subscribe to what some others said:

It's really mainly how much you eat, not when. The fuel you put in has to be below what you burn off to lose weight, as simple as that. If you put in more than you burn, you put on weight, and for that, it ultimately doesn't matter when you eat.
Of course it's not nutritionally sane and unhealthy to just get your fuel from sweets and refined sugars, but if you wanted to, you could even eat biscuits and chocolates galore at night and still lose weight.

When I still worked at the theatre, I would very often eat a massive Pizza at one in the morning, and I was VERY slim back then. I eat far less now, but I'm also less active, so we really need to adjust how much we actually eat. We discussed this in another thread: A lot of people simply have no concept of how many calories the stuff they eat contains. They think they eat healthily because they eat hummus and nuts and fail to see that these things have so many calories that a pot/bag contains half your daily calorie allowance Or they drink tons of fizzy pop or alcohol and don't include these in their daily calorie allowance. That's why I suggested back then to use something like My Fitness Pal to actually get a feeling for how much you are allowed, and what you actually eat/burn. It really helps some people to be more aware.

What is undoubtedly true though is that some foods are more "nutritionally dense" than others, or that they make your blood sugar crash, and also that starving all day sets you up for a massive binge at night: It's not so much that you eat late, it's more the fact that you probably overeat at night because you're starving. Some people also get acid reflux or disturbed sleep if they eat too late - all valid reasons not to eat late.

I usually eat dinner well after 8 every day and try to go for chicken or fish and veg/salad these days, but it doesn't always work out (and the ODD late night binge doesn't really present a problem). I really found though that it's not so much WHEN I eat at night, but more that I don't allow myself to get hungry during the day. Which means: Decent breakfast/lunch with lots of protein and wholemeal or pulses so my bloodsugar doesn't crash, and then a few light snacks when I teach - that's why it's imho so important to schedule small breaks here and there.

And above all: Staying active! I actually feel less hungry when I do regular exercise...

I start my day with a big bowl of porridge and fruit. I have my main meal at lunch time, between 1 and 2(homemade soup with noodles is my favourite) then a light snack in the evening ( I avoid dairy and bread) I find it hard to digest a big meal later in the evening. I usually eat bananas or homemade oatmeal bars between lessons. I weigh 11 stone and I am 6" ands 40 years old.( My wife is vegetarian and I only eat meat maybe once a week).