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.

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. >:|

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.

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;

*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

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.

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)

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

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.