Yay for anecdotal evidence! The people I know eat (for the most part) quite healthy, don't drink any soda, don't eat junk food, etc.
As was mentioned by someone else, if the average American ate 3800 calories a day they would continually gain weight until they reached the equilibrium point of maintenance calories.
Given those numbers, and an age of 35 years, with a base metabolic rate, calorie maintenance is 1809kcal/day and 2488kcal/day for exercise 3 times/week (surely more than the "average" American)
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
The equilibrium point for 3800kcal/day and 3 times/week exercise is 400 pounds!
I suppose this comment thread is pretty illustrative of why it's so hard for people to count calories to lose weight - even though we both looked up data it was different enough that it could be significant in someone's diet.
http://www.brueggers.com/documents/nutrition.pdf
Subway value was from the "Cold Cut Combo":
http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/menunutrition/nutrition/pdf...
(Note that Subway's page says the cheesesteak sub you mention is 520 calories, not 360.)
spaghetti and meatballs value was from here http://www.calorieking.com/foods/calories-in-italian-spaghet...
I did inflate the potato chips, I thought the small bag was 3oz, not 1oz. Also I thought the kit kat was per bar.
3800 calories is still only a little bit of work. Most people I know drink 2 lattes, 2 or more beers, and would consider the 6" sub the "diet" option.