Controlling your weight is a lifelong process. Getting to a healthy weight is about eating well and making healthy choices.

Restricting foods is counterproductive and leads to binging. Eating nutrient-rich foods, such as fruits and vegetables, is essential. And limiting empty calories like sugary soda and cookies. Managing stress can also help.

Exercise

Exercise is any healthful movement that raises your heart rate and uses more muscles than you typically use while sitting, sleeping or performing daily chores. Regular exercise can help you control your weight by using excess calories that would otherwise be stored as fat, and it also promotes good health, prevents diseases, improves strength and endurance, helps to manage stress and aids in longevity. For best results, exercise should be a regular part of your daily routine.

Stress Management

Stress is part of life, but too much can lead to weight gain. A healthy diet, regular physical exercise and good sleep habits can help reduce stress levels.

Chronically high levels of stress can cause the body to store fat in the abdomen as a protective mechanism. This “toxic” belly fat can increase your risk of heart disease and other health conditions.

Studies have shown that practicing relaxation techniques can improve your mood and promote a healthier lifestyle. Meditation and yoga are common stress-reducing activities, but find what works for you and incorporate it into your daily routine.

A small randomized clinical trial showed that overweight and obese patients who received a stress management program had greater weight loss than age and BMI-matched control patients who followed standard lifestyle instructions. The stress management group also had lower levels of perceived stress and depression, a better internal and external health locus of control (HLC) and improved eating patterns.

Scales are used to measure things, like height or distance. They are also used in music, such as the scale of Claude Debussy’s L’Isle Joyeuse.

Despite the numerous advances in scale development, there is still room for improvement. The present article highlights five of these advances and outlines recommendations for future practice.

Definition

Scale is a ratio of the dimensions of a model to those of the real object. It’s used to reduce large objects to a smaller size so they can be more easily handled and analyzed. This is the process by which we create blueprints for building projects that are drawn to a specific scale.

To find the dimensions of a small geometric figure, you simply multiply it by a number. If you want to enlarge the size of the drawing, you multiply by a larger number.

In music, the word “scale” refers to a series of musical notes or sounds that ascend and descend in a particular pattern. It’s one of the most important concepts to understand when learning musical theory and instrumental technique. For example, a C major scale begins with middle C (C4) and ascends an octave to C7. Musicians often practice scales with different intervals to build their proficiency and mastery of a particular scale.

Origin

A scale is the ratio between the dimensions of a model or a scaled figure and the corresponding dimensions of an actual figure or object. The term also refers to the relationship between a number of objects of different sizes, such as the scale factor.

When preparing plots by hand or using computer programs for data analysis, it is important to select a reasonable scale. A typical scale will have a set of major ticks along the plotting axis with finer subdivisions (minor tick labels) indicated between them.

The term scale may also refer to a sequence of musical intervals or a particular arrangement of tones of a chord. This type of scale is often used in improvisational music. Explicit instruction in scales has been part of compositional training for centuries. A famous example is the opening of Claude Debussy’s L’Isle Joyeuse. The piece begins with an ascending major scale followed by a descending minor scale.

Meaning

A system of ordered marks at determinate intervals, used as a standard for measurement: a ruler with a scale; a map with a scale.

A ratio indicating the proportion that a representation bears to the object that it represents: a map with a 1:1,000,000 scale.

One of the scales in a musical composition, such as a major scale: do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do. Also called modulation.

To adjust or vary in proportionate amounts: to scale up or down a plan; to scale a mountain. Also: to move up or down a ladder, pecking order, or seniority system.

To shrink a real-world object’s dimensions on a model, blueprint, or diagram: scale drawing. Scaling is common in preparing maps and to help designers, architects, and machinists work with models that would be too large to hold if they were at their actual size. See also scale factor.

Usage

In music, the term scale can refer to a particular set of melodic notes or the corresponding intervals on a musical instrument. In some contexts, it can also refer to a series of scalelike exercises practiced for technical proficiency. In the context of fretted string instruments, it can also refer to the number and positioning of the corresponding frets on a guitar or bass.

Scale is often used as a ratio to represent a real-world object on a blueprint or map with comparatively smaller dimensions. For example, the dimensions of a house on a blueprint are drawn to a scale of 1:100. Scrutulous geographic information specialists avoid enlarging source maps to preserve this scale factor.

Ordinary mechanical balance-beam scales and electronic digital scales measure mass by comparing the force of gravity (which varies with location) against an object’s weight. This distinction is important because the gravitational constant varies significantly, so scales must be calibrated at each location to accurately measure weight.