There's a little bit of tricky psychology going on here. We've only got so much room in our stomachs, and buffets count on filling that space quickly. They can do it, too, with low-cost, high-carb foods. Think back to most of the buffets you go to. When you hit the Chinese buffet, what's first on the table? Probably the white rice, fried rice, and noodles. Not a coincidence. A massive scoop of one of these on your plate goes a long way to filling you up without costing the restaurant a whole lot. The same is true for things like fries and mashed potatoes. Some places even give you bigger spoons for foods like this.

Plate size is a huge factor in buffets, too. Most buffets will offer small, half-sized plates, ramekins for soup instead of bowls, and tiny dishes for desserts. That limits how much you can pile on your plate and carry, and once you're back at your table you might rethink whether or not you really need that extra trip up to the line for another go. One thing that's probably huge, though, is the water glass. It's essentially free for the restaurant, and it takes up space in your stomach.

The arrangement of food on a buffet table isn't usually as haphazard as it looks. More expensive food items will typically be surrounded by cheaper ones, and some places might even go as far as to keep the expensive items only partially full, in order to encourage you to take less. That's made even more effective by dividing expensive foods into smaller portion sizes. And some buffets make it difficult to get clean silverware, and if you're at a Chinese buffet you'll probably find chopsticks — which slow down the eating process — are plentiful.

Some buffets are careful not to call themselves "all-you-can-eat," even though they're more than happy to let you go up as many times as you want. Sizzler, for example, calls their buffet "all-you-care-to-eat," which they say is a reminder that gorging yourself just because it's available is bad for your diet and will make you feel worse when you leave. Clearly, they don't want that.