There is also a velocity contribution where after 800 calories of carrots I wouldn't feel like immediately eating another meal, but as you wrote 800 calories of

There is also a velocity contribution where after 800 calories of carrots I wouldn't feel like immediately eating another meal, but as you wrote 800 calories of pastries is just an appetizer. The problem with donuts is not necessarily that they're a huge number of empty calories, but that I can eat perhaps two per hour all day long and wash them down with a can of Mt Dew and never feel full and still feel hungry for dinner in an hour. I don't think I ate for about 24 hours after I ate two pounds of grilled steak. Just wasn't hungry. Couldn't eat another bite and didn't feel like more food for a day. Don't think I could have pulled that off with honey biscuits, I'd be ravenous again by the next meal time. This whole topic fits in with the stereotype of "ate Chinese-American style take out, got hungry again in two hours" That stuffs actually pretty good food, other than added corn syrup and the lack of long term satiety resulting in eating more. I mostly eat paleo-type food but I'll socialize and eat junk food occasionally, and it never fails to amaze me that I'll have a piece of cake and feel like I'm starving even though its more calories than my entire salad lunch or a medium sized bag of pecans.