Tanita BC554 Ironman Glass InnerScan Body Composition Monitor Elite Series
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 List Price: $129.99 Sale Price: $109.95 Availability: unspecified 
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Product Description
easy-to-read 2.25 Lcd Displayhighly Accurate Body Composition Monitors Weight Healthy Range Muscle Mass Total Percentage Body Water Tone Mass Metabolic Age Physique Rating Visceral Fat Body Fat Percentage & Bmr Weight Body Fat Body Water & Muscle Mass Recalls 330-lb Weight Capacity10-year Warranty Glass/chrome
Details
- Highly accurate body composition monitor
- Easy to read 2.25" LCD display
- 4 person memory
- Weight, body fat recall, body water and muscle mass recall
- Physique rating
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
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I have owned many of the Tanita scales over the years and they just get better and better. With all the functions built into this machine it should be hundreds more. If you are serious about losing weight, maintaining weight, or just want to know all the real factors on a daily basis this is the ultimate machine. Everything from muscle mass, water weight changes, and more this is great for the novice exercise enthusiast to the serious athlete. You can get a side by side comparison of this versus the other ones at http://www.tanita.com and you’ll see how feature packed this is. It’s also very reliable, easy to use. Go get yours today!
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This scale makes a difference. It offers accurate results and is a great tool in monitoring the strengths and weaknesses of your body. Anyone who is interested in knowing their body fat percentage, bone density, muscle mass etc can not go without this product. It helped me to become more motivated so I could achieve the fitness goals I always wanted. Buy this product and with a little work and determination you too can meet your own fitness goals!
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A question of accuracy! This scale is the very first I have ever used to actually agree with the measurements taken when I visit the doctor. Even my doctor was impressed with everything this baby could do.
Use. You must weigh yourself in your bare feet, otherwise the internal scanner will not work properly. Once it does, look out! Perhaps one of the most important items it tells you is how many calories it takes to maintain your body “AS IS”. This then becomes the figure to beat to lose weight. There’s one more thing I get a real kick out of… and that is when it tells me I have a metabolism of a person less than my age.
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this scale is GREAT, was sent FAST and UNDAMAGED for the BEST PRICE around. it does all the things it professes to do and is VERY easy to use. i recommend it to BOTH fitness enthusiasts and regular people alike. thank you very much. http://www.employyourequity.com
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Very good product for ongoing fitness monitoring. Easy to use. A feature for weekly and monthly averages of the parameters would be useful. The scale’s price is inexpensive for the level of information it provides.
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I love this scale. How can it figure out all those neat statistics? It gives a very thourough overall picture of your health and condition. Much more useful than a traditonal or even a body fat only scale to help manage ones weight and health. Read all the instructions before using to minimize confusion. Keep the read out reference book handy for interpreting data. Only saves last set of numbers, so record them somewhere else if you want to track progress.
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OK… This scale is expensive. In this case, you get what you pay for. Why did I buy a scale that is so expensive? Because I did the research and this scale gives the most details and is super easy to use. You simply pick what button you want to be. (1-4) and you enter your weight, height, and age. Also you can select if you are an athlete…this makes the measurements accurate for people who work out 10+ hours a week. This scale is a must for athletic people because the other scales out there will say that you are fat and out of shape…even though you are looking in the mirror at your finely sculpted six pack abs and rock hard biceps.
So how do you use it? You push the number you set up for yourself and stand on it. It gives you your weight and then does the other test. It is absolutely painless, in case you are wondering. Also, it takes between 5-10 seconds to do the measurements. I haven’t timed it with a stop watch but it is quick.
Then it gives you all this info. Weight, Body Fat%, Body Water%, Muscle Mass (nice), Physical Rating, BMR (This is the calories you need to survive through a day.), Metabolic Age (sweet), Bone Mass, and Visceral Fat (This is the fat you have around your stomach and organs.)
Also when you don’t need all this info and you just want your weight. There is a quick weigh option that just measures your weight. Very simple, quick and easy.
Can you hit these buttons with your big toe to work them? Yes you can.
So what do you do with the info? Well I made an excel spreadsheat with charts so that I can keep track of the data and also keep notes on what I did. For example one week I did cardio for an hour every night, in addition to my regular weight training and my body fat% went down, and my muscle weight increased. (awesome) Then another week we had a hurricane, so I didn’t do any work out for 5 days straight. I measured myself after this and I was the same weight. Woo hoo, I lucked out right? Wrong…Even though I weighed the same…my fat% was up and my muscle mass was down. (bummer) So this of course motivated me to work out like crazy the next week to get my numbers back in line and even drop some weight. Can your scale do that? Or would you just look at the weight, see that it’s the same and say, great I’ll take another week off. This scale tells you the truth while other scales don’t give you the complete picture of what is going on with your body.
I am the type of person that likes to buy the very best and I am very happy with this scale.
Bottom line is that this is the best scale…period.
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This was the top of the line consumer Tanita scale when I bought it ($115 US), and I’m glad I chose this model. I’m sure I won’t use it as much as time goes on, but currently I am using it 3 times a day for the last month and plotting all the readouts in excel. I know you don’t care, but just to prove that it does work, I have been constantly adding reps to my workout, and I am seeing results only a scale like this could tell me. My weight is staying constant, but my body fat is dropping by 0.06% per day and my muscle mass is increasing by 0.1 lbs per day. That’s 3 lbs of muscle and almost 2% body fat in only a month! I only regret I didnt get this scale sooner. Oh, and it only stores your last measurement, so don’t expect to track your changes with just the scale.
Their instructions say to take your reading just before your last meal of the day. I also take mine right when I wake up and just before bed, but the afternoon reading seems to be the most reliable (smallest standard deviation from the trend for those math majors out there).
If you are what Tanita considers to be an athlete (10 or more hours of workout per week or resting pulse of 60 beats or less), then you definitely need a scale with an athlete mode, bc otherwise your body fat % will be discouragingly high. I have had a few other people take their measurements using this scale (different heights, ages, body types, and genders), and the consensus is that it is pretty accurate for them as well.
Yes, it does use electrical resistance for the readings, but you could chew the two AA batteries it uses and not feel anything. (I disclaim any liability for injuries resulting from chewing batteries)
The instructions and reading material that come with it are informative and gives you explanations of all the extras (like BMR and visceral fat) along with the healthy ranges for both male and female.
If you are serious about getting in better shape, I encourage you to get this scale or one like it. It will motivate you to keep going and think twice about that fourth doughnut. If you just want to lose weight, don’t waste your money, any scale can tell you that.
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This scale is a great tool for those people looking to make a change in their lifestyle. Knowing if you drink enough water, have enough muscle or what your bodyfat % is are valuable assets. My whole family loves this scale. I would recommend it to anyone serious about weightloss and their health.
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We got our Monitor yesterday and of course, got right into setting it up. Is it ever NEAT! I have been exercising religiously for about two years but other than weight and heart rate, really didn’t have any way to gauge just how I was doing. Talk about pleased after getting the results from the body scan. At 53, I have a metabolic age of 39 – it definitely gave me a boost of confidence AND showed that dragging myself out of bed at 5:00 AM to do an exercise routine has proved to be worth it; and gives me incentive to keep it up. My husband, who has not been quite so religious about his exercises, found that some of his results indicate that he nees to get much more active!! It will be fun to see how much he improves over time. We are really pleased with this purchase (can you tell?)! I think anyone who is just starting an exercise routine and looking at getting into a more healthy lifestyle should definitely buy one of these to get an early baseline so they can get full benefit of it right from the start.
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I don’t have any biological educational background. But I did read the instructions for this scale when I received it.
The important point is to weigh yourself under the same conditions from weigh in to weigh in and to program into the scale a correct profile before you begin to use it. That way you are comparing apples to apples. I weigh myself each day after I wake up and after I have moved my bowels but before putting anything in my mouth. That provides the consistency needed to compare results. This scale is very sensitive. Think about it – even a 12 ounce glass of water is going to affect your weight if you drink and then get on the scale.
I keep records of the read out on an Excel spreadsheet. I have gone on a fully researched diet based upon nutrition and calories and I have commenced a rigorous training program. I am 55 years old and I have lost 35 pounds in three months. I am 6′3″ and I went from 215 lbs to 180 lbs.
Do you really need all the extra read outs (there are a total of 9) beyond weight and body fat? No, probably not. But I love gadgets and this is just another one to keep me motivated and inspired. The interactivity of seeing progress is motivational to me.
The scale is fun to use and keeps me involved in my diet and training program. (I also got a good blood pressure machine too that connects to my PC to keep records of progress).
From reading the others reviews, my guess is that a lot of the scale’s measurements are not direct measurements like weight but rather based upon statistical concepts and indirect inferences extrapolated from the information you input into the scale and the actual readings for weight and body fat. There is consistency of results so this implies to me that the scale works.
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After recieving this scale I got answers to a few questions I had wanted to know before I ordered it that I couldnt find in the online manual (from tanita’s website) or from the reviews that I did read. First of all, I was disappointed from what I read that the recall was only for some readings not all. HOWEVER, what no one mentions is that you can (once off the scale) scroll thru ALL the readings using the arrows keys as long as the scale hasn’t turned off. You WILL have plenty of time to record your readings…all of them.. one by one. Don’t worry about the limited recall. Secondly, the scale will beep twice to let you know when it’s done recording and when you can step off. These are petty, but since I can’t see anything while I am on the scale, these two features make this scale simple to use and important to me. Don’t listen to people complaining about the small icons. Just step on, wait for the double beep, step off and record.
I know a lot of people worry about the acurracy. It is clearly stated in the manual that it is more accurate to take the average number of all the readings. I personally use a spreadsheet and have it average the numbers every time I add in a new days worth of numbers.
I am using this scale to track weigh loss and I tend to get hooked on a number even though I know I shouldn’t (it’s easier said then done). This scale keeps me focused on the overall picture. Also, once I started to exercise my weight didn’t seem to change for the better which is descouraging. I found it helpful to see the muscle mass increase while my weight sometimes increased!
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This scale is the best. So accurate and easy to navigate. Bought for my husband who has a fitness and weight loss business (Physiquetransformation.com) and is very scrutinizing to products like this. It not only passed his test but he actually refers customers to these tanita scales. Most people just see weight on home scales and this scale is unlike others that just show the quanity of your body..this one shows the absolute quality of it….it is worth every penny to those who are serious about weight loss and understanding where one pound may have come from (water, fat, lean muscle, viseral fat, bone density…..).
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Is an excellent motivational tool to keep you inspired day after day, as you see the results of your workouts, diet or life-style translate into numbers in the body composition display.
I use this Tanita Body Composition Monitor, along with a Polar Heart Rate monitor (the s625x running computer) and the ABS Diet book (from Men’s health Magazine) to go from 44 to 32 size pants, and I have been able to keep the weight off for more than 5 years.
There will always be a debate on how accurate this monitors are, no matter which model or brand you buy. Independently of the technology that the scale uses, the data displayed will always be related to statistical groups.
The important thing to keep in mind is that you have to record your results and see if the trends show improvements (e.g. decrease in fat %, increase in muscle mass, increase in metabolic rate, decrease in metabolic age, etc.). You get off the scale, scroll thru all the displayed measurements using the arrows keys (as long as the scale hasn’t turned off). You have plenty of time to record your readings. This keeps you motivated as you see the numbers improve week after week. It may be slow improvement or small steps improvements, but over time the motivation will keep you focused and you will get the results you want.
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The challenge when using the TANITA BC554 is figuring our WHEN to get readings. As all readings come about through an electrical charge running up one leg and back down the other, anything and everything that might influence that signal will have an effect.
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Once you log the VELONEWS data and start taking readings “properly,” you’re set to go.
Now I have to tell you, the BC554 has motivated me (and my wife) like nothing ever has. Even if you “fight” with the readings, you will find yourself thinking carefully about fat% and visceral fat, about bone density and the % of muscle your have, etc.
Frankly, I’ve yet to experience anything as motivating as this unit for (a) general health and (b) prepping for a triathlon.
Yes, we have given our unit a name… “Sadie”… short for “Sadie Stalin the Sadistic Scale”… but we love her.
And are far healthier as a result.
Dr. Kirtland C Peterson