[maxxxxx]

"When faced with equivalently unhealthy meals, dining out has the advantage of automatic portion control."

Portions in restaurants are way too big. After a while this totally skews your perception of appropriate amounts of food.

[flyinghamster]

No kidding there, and more than once it has bitten me. Spend enough time eating restaurant meals, and a sane portion size soon seems way too small, unless you're disciplined enough to chop your portions in half and bring the rest home.

Pay-by-the-weight buffets (as opposed to all-you-can-eat) seem to offer me the best way to control portions and get a variety of healthy things to eat without the prep hassle, but it still costs a good deal more than it does for me to make my own meals.

[nicolashahn]

That depends on your activity level. When I was working out 5x a week, I'd want two of the most calorie-packed things on the menu.

[maxxxxx]

Sure. I'd venture a guess that maybe 1% of restaurant users have the problem of needing as many calories as possible. Everybody else needs much less.

[ip26]

From my broke college student mentality, they are too small for what you pay. You want twenty bucks for three hundred calories?