Stages of Fullness
Last night, my family went to have a buffet with the extended family to celebrate 中秋節 (mid-autumn festival). Now, depending on ones particular mindset, the goal of a buffet is to either:
- Obtain maximum enjoyment for a fixed price, or
- Try to get as maximum value out of your initial outlay — usually via cramming as much food into the stomach as possible.
Now, the above sounds similar to the Knapsack problem, but this discussion is beyond the scope of this post. All that should be noted is that it is very rare (nigh impossible) to simultaneously satisfy both of the above two points.
What this post is concerned about, is the latter of the points — as I believe many people out there (particularly Asians) adopt the “eat your money’s worth” mentality at a buffet. Even when they’re quite satiated, they’ll keep shoveling food down just so they feel they’re getting their money’s worth.
Of course, most non-professional eaters hit rapidly diminishing returns once they reach a certain level of fullness. Beyond this point, each morsel swallowed no longer brings enjoyment — you’re simply eating for the sake of value (i.e. trying not getting ripped off as much).
Those of you who have been on gastronomic adventures with me, often hear me talking about different stages of fullness. This is simply my own metric for describing the level of fullness in a somewhat consistent manner. That way, if I tell someone that I’m “stage 3″ full, they’ll know how I’m (and more importantly, my stomach is) feeling.
The only problem is, I’ve never formally defined these different stages. And so, without further ado, I present to you — Keith’s Stages of Fullness.
Stage 0
I included this stage because not being full is technically a stage of fullness. Suffice to say, if you’re in this stage, please keep eating.
Characteristics:
- Not feeling satisfied.
- There is still a desire to eat more because you’re still hungry.
Recommended Action(s):
- Keep eating (if possible).
Stage 1
At this point, you’re starting to feel full. You’ve eaten enough to feel content, and so if you stop eating, you won’t feel hungry. A typical meal at home will bring you to Stage 1 of fullness. If the food is good and plentiful, you’ll probably want to continue eating. Otherwise, now would be a good time to stop.
Characteristics:
- Contentment, but not necessarily satisfaction.
- No feeling of hunger, but there is still much potential for more.
Recommended Action(s):
- If you’re watching your weight, you should probably stop here.
- Otherwise, if there’s still more food on the table, and eating more still yields positive returns, keep going.
Stage 2
By now, you’ve most likely eaten a large meal. You’re more than just content — you’re satisfied with the amount of food you’ve consumed. Most people walk away from Yum Cha at Stage 2 of fullness.
Characteristics:
- Satisfaction.
- Slight feeling of bloatiness.
Recommended Action(s):
- Most people should stop eating once they hit this stage of fullness.
- If you happen to be at somebody else’s house, and they offer you some dessert, then it should be ok for you to accept.
Stage 3
This is the time when you’re sitting there feeling quite full, knowing that you’re very near the point where diminishing returns start. Most buffet diners will reach this stage of fullness and call it quits. By now, one is starting to view eating no longer as enjoyment, but rather a mission/challenge.
Characteristics:
- Bloatiness.
- Eating starts to no longer be pleasurable/enjoyable — you’re eating for the sake of eating.
Recommended Action(s):
- You knew you should have stopped eating a while ago, but you decided to push your limits. This is now your second chance at stopping. Take it.
- You will refuse any extra food that your host may offer to you. Trust me, it’s not worth the extra pain…
Stage 4
You’re either masochistic, or you’re a seasoned eater. You’re quite happy to push through the discomfort barrier just to make a point of eating. You may want to seriously consider performing some diaphragm exercises to temporarily give your stomach some reprieve from the self-induced onslaught of food.
Die-hard buffet diners will call it quits at this point, knowing that pushing themselves further will lead to serious repercussions (both physically, and mentally).
Characteristics:
- Mild to extreme discomfort.
- Each morsel of food is harder to swallow than the previous.
- Speech/breathing requires additional labour and/or conscious effort.
- Eating becomes a series of mindless, and repetitive motions — pick up food, put in mouth, chew, swallow, repeat.
- [From Edwin Mak] You need to hold the seatbelt out a couple of centimetres to alleviate the tension in case you end up vomiting.
Recommended Action(s):
- Be considerate to your family/friends — stop eating. They’re the ones who will have to put up with your incapacitated self if you push yourself too hard.
- Did I mention, stop eating?
- [Joyce says:] Seek professional help if you reach this stage at least twice a week, over a period of six months or more. You may be doing this as a maladaptive way of coping with distress.
Stage 5
This is rare. You should only hit this stage of fullness if you currently suffer from some sort of exaggerated binge eating disorder, or you are under duress.
Characteristics:
- Unknown… I’ve never hit this stage of fullness before…
Recommended Action(s):
- Call an ambulance to get them on standby. If you’re unable to speak/move, try to signal a friend or family member.
- Seek immediate medical/psychological help.
So there you have it. Next time someone asks you how full you are, you’ll be able to quantitatively describe which stage you’re at. That way, they’ll fully understand why you’re refusing their dessert…
OH keith.. you’re funny…
Hi Keith,
In most circumstances I would rather not eat, than eat something I don’t like, so I am not qualified to comment.
I can, however, pass on that there were a group of CCC guys (including PPK) quite a while ago who used to like going to buffets. I heard that one key performance indicator of the really really full variety, was when you get so full you need to hold the seatbelt out a couple of centimetres to alleviate the tension in case you end up vomiting.
Hope this helps you in your quantifying the stages.
Regards,
Edwin.
Hi Edwin,
That’s quite hilarious. I must admit that I’ve never eaten so much that I’d have to adjust the seatbelt so as to deter bringing back up the meal.
I think I should add that as a characteristic for Stage 4. Thanks for the heads up
This is also a classic problem in economics, whereby people incorrectly take into account sunk costs when making decisions.
The price you have paid to get into the buffet is a sunk cost. That is, regardless of how much you eat, you have to pay (and have already) paid that price before you get to the multiple islands of food.
As a result, this cost is irrelevant to the question whether you should eat more. “Eating your money’s worth” is a completely irrational mentality to buffet.
The correct approach is to maximise one’s utility (or satisfaction). For most people, utility increases as food eaten increases until it reaches a certain point, then it decreases. Thus if we represent the utility function U(x) where x represents the amount of food eaten, then the rational amount of food to eat is such so that U’(x) = 0 and U”(x)
Yes, maximising utility is what I referred to as one of the goals. I should also note that maximising one’s utility is also somewhat dependent on the total value of food consumed.
For example, in the extreme case, a person with limited stomach capacity decides (for some arbitrary reason) to go to a buffet. After eating a single item, they are full (say, stage 3). Unfortunately for this person, the total value of food consumed is substantially less than the cost of the buffet.
I think that by consuming a bit more food (and thus pushing it to stage 4) may be of higher utility (through reduced feelings of being ripped-off) than just calling it quits at stage 3.
In a sense, this is sort of “eating your money’s worth” mentality is actually just an example of loss aversion.
so here’s my two cents-
BEGIN;
function twoCents(){
*disclaimer: always always eat what you can, life is more than all you can eat seafood. - even if a whole new tray of prawns and soft shell crab just came out.*
well you see there is still one more option.
pete i’m sure you’d love this since it involves both buffet AND the toilet.
you actually eat lunch before you go to the buffet - now the trick is you need REALLY know your bowel movements.
so your preparation is that with adequate liquid and fibre diet, you fill yourself up HALFWAY before you visit the buffet and giving yourself AT LEAST 1 HOUR (should the queue to get food be too long) to start filling up your stomach.
that way, when you hit stage 2 - you’re in prime time to
bah it somehow got cut:
part 2-
that way, when you hit stage 2 - you’re in prime time to “lighten your load”
so you can take time and dump not only the pre buffet contents, but also a partial amount of the initial buffet contents, which have been passing through the intestines over your initial buffet course.
So your stomach size hasn’t shrunk - but you’ve got a clear digestive system for some serious foodage.
which gives additional room for more food
so you could possibly be hitting the equivalent amount of stage 5, while still only being in stage 2 or 3
further more, if you stock up on pricey foods that have a reasonable high water content you can be making regular “smaller” dumps to lighten the load.
}
END;
Josh,
I think even if you managed to master your bowel movements in such a way that you can “vacate on demand”, it would have negligible results in how much food you can actually eat.
I say this because the gastrointestinal transit times are such that your idea (about passing through a portion of the initial buffet contents) is not feasible. It takes, on average, 4-5 hours for stomach contents to empty, and then it’s got many more hours of journey through the rest of your bowels before meeting Mr. Porcelain.
That said, don’t let this stop the creative (and gastric) juices flowing. Think of how much extra value (we’ve pretty much given up on utility here) you can get out of a buffet if you can get the technique down to hold off the stages creep.
hey keith,
well the idea was not so much emptying what you’ve consumed during the buffet, but giving yourself a good clean slate before the buffet without stomach shrinkage.
perhaps laxatives would require less planning
hahahaha
oh yeah go the laxatives.
but yeah. vomiting is not cool. at all. >:|
Hahahaha laxatives would work except you’d be in considerable pain just from the laxatives itself let alone from stuffing yourself up with food..
hahahaha okay okay good point
i guess it would also worry other buffet customers and your companions if you were eating halfway and then suddenly rush off in pain to the toilets - which could be even worse if there is only one dodgey out the back toilet.