Controlling weight is a process that involves healthy eating and regular exercise. It also ensures that you are getting enough nutrients.

Maintaining a healthy weight reduces your risk for health problems such as heart disease and high blood pressure. It can also help you find shapely clothing and feel more confident.

Eat Healthy Fats

Fat is an important nutrient that should make up 25 to 35 percent of your daily calories. Good fats help you feel full, aid in digestion and control appetite hormones. Healthy fats are unsaturated fats, such as those found in nuts and fish, rapeseed oil, olive oil and avocados. Avoid unhealthy fats like processed meats and fried foods, fatty cuts of meat, butter, lard, tallow and suet.

Eating healthy fats may help you maintain a healthy weight, reduce your risk of heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research. However, it’s important to remember that all fats contain 9 calories per gram, so watch your portion sizes. Each serving of nuts, for example, contains about 160 calories. You also need to limit saturated and trans fats, such as those found in red meat, whole butter and lard.

Eat Smaller Portion Sizes

The size of your meals and snacks has a big impact on weight gain. Large portions can lead to overeating, which in turn leads to excess calorie intake that is stored as fat. Eating healthy portion sizes means that you can eat your favorite foods in moderation.

Smaller serving sizes are easy to achieve with a few simple changes in your diet. You can start by using smaller plates and bowls to naturally limit your portions. You can also use food labels to help you understand what a recommended serving size looks like for each type of food. Meal prep at home and taking half of a meal to go when eating out can also give you full control over your portion sizes.

A good rule of thumb is that protein portions should be the size of your palm, carbs should be the size of your clenched fist, and fats the size of your thumb. Drinking a glass of water before each meal can help to trigger your stomach to signal fullness.

Allow Yourself to Indulge

Indulging in certain foods from time to time can actually be helpful for a healthy diet. “Depriving yourself of foods you crave can cause you to overindulge later on or eat too much of those treats,” says Cording, adding that the best approach is to be able to indulge regularly, but in moderation. For example, if you’re craving chocolate or an ice cream cone, she suggests eating one small piece and sitting down to savor it so that you don’t just devour it quickly and end up feeling unsatisfied. Of course, this doesn’t apply to bodybuilders or other athletes who must eat very restrictively for performance reasons. This should not be a regular approach for the rest of us.

This article was originally published in “Fitness & Health” magazine.

Scales of all types, from a skewed spring scale hanging by the produce aisle to massive pit-and-girder monsters that weigh train cars and tractor-trailers, are the backbone of our modern world. No matter what shape or size they are, all scales work through devices called load cells that record the weight being measured.

Weight Measurement

Weight measurements can be made with a wide variety of mechanical and electrical scales. They are commonly referred to as balances and can range from small microbalances to industrial scales with weighing capacities of many tons. Most are calibrated using standard cast iron bar weights and should be tared (reset to read zero) on a regular basis.

The concept of weight measurement is important for children to understand at a young age. Students can learn that an object’s weight depends on gravity and is not affected by the size or shape of the object.

An understanding of weight and mass measurement will help them understand why a lion is heavier than a monkey and why the weight of an apple and the weight of a banana are different. This knowledge will allow them to make sound decisions about the health of themselves and others. It will also help them understand that an estimate of weight requires quality checking similar to other health related variables.

Load Cells

Load cells are the mechanical devices in weighing systems that sense force and transmit it in various forms for readout and recording. They are the cornerstone of most industrial, manufacturing and quality control-based weighing environments.

There are many different load cell types in use today, but they all work on the same basic principle of turning deflection into a change in resistance. Typically, they involve the use of one or multiple strain gauges within a mechanical setup (e.g., a bent helix or bent membrane) to detect the force that is being applied.

Hydraulic and pneumatic load cells have been growing in popularity due to their stability and lack of fluid leakage, but strain gauge technology is still the most commonly used in a wide range of applications, including tank level, truck scales and hoppers. They are also more resistant to overloads and metal fatigue than other load sensor technologies. They also feature a low profile, which makes them suitable for applications with limited space.

Electronics

The most common scales used in medical, industrial and retail settings use devices called load cells to measure weight. They convert mechanical energy (the bending that occurs when an object is placed on the scale) into an electronic signal. The change in the signal is then converted into a digital weight reading.

Although there are many different types of digital scales, all work in similar ways. Most use a series of transducer beams that are engineered to bend in proportion to the amount of force being exerted on the weighing platform.

The change in the electrical signal caused by the bending of the beams is then converted into a weight reading using a microcontroller and a display. Because of this delicate internal design, it is important to handle your scales gently. Dropping, throwing or banging your scale can damage the sensitive sensors and cause inaccurate measurements. Also, temperature changes can affect the accuracy of a digital scale.

Maintenance

Scales are used to make precise measurements, but over time environmental factors may interfere with scale accuracy. Power fluctuations, aging of load cells, and even temperature changes can lead to inaccurate readings and equipment failure. Regular calibration, inspections, cleaning and lubrication are essential for maximizing the life of a scale.

Performing daily inspections and basic truck scale maintenance on a schedule or using a CMMS is the best way to ensure that minor issues do not turn into major problems. Keeping a truck scale log is also a great tool for recording and scheduling preventative maintenance.

Ensure the scale deck and junction boxes are clear of debris like dirt, rocks, and trash. Check for water pooling underneath pit-mounted scales and remove any trapped moisture. Also look for signs of corrosion on the understructure of the scale platform and the j-box board. Use a hose to wash the understructure of the scale to avoid mechanical binding.