Calories Don't Count...

... During the second and third rounds at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

 Beware, plate one contains calories.

There's no denying that dining at an all-you-can-eat buffet is not the healthiest of mealtime options, mostly because it's physically impossible for a normal person to have any willpower when surrounded by a dessert bar and/or pizza station. But it might help frequenters of buffet establishments to know that their lunch and dinner decisions are not completely disastrous for their health. Only the calories from your first go-round in the buffet line actually count towards your day's calorie total. 

Here's why: First, being forced to get up and walk around the buffet to get your own meal uses up both brain and physical calories. The physical calories are obvious. Walking, carrying your tray, and lifting spoonfuls of mac n'cheese onto your plate all take a ton of muscle. Then there's the brain calories you use, as you are forced to do mental gymnastics deciding how much of your plate to allot to each of the foods you will inevitably eat. Should you risk using up half your plate with mashed potatoes, even though the pasta bar still lies ahead? Should you skip the fruit tray altogether and go straight to the soup station? These decisions are hard, and important, and they definitely use up massive amounts of brain calories. Therefore, many of the calories you would consume on your second and third trips around the buffet are already used up by the time you get back to your seat.

In addition, and even more importantly, the caloric definition of "dinner" extends only as far as your original plate of food. That mean's that the only dinner calories that count are the ones from your first plate. Second, third, and fourth plates are not designated dinner plates, and therefore don't contain dinner calories. Since there's no accurate way to describe these calories, they can't count. Science!

Enjoy! The calories from plates two, three, and four don't count!