Tanita BC-533 Digital Bathroom Scale - Japan Technology Clear Glass Smart Innerscan Body Composition Monitor, Measures Weight, Body Fat, Muscle Mass, BMI, Bone Mass, Visceral Fat - FSA/HSA Eligible

For many years I used a digital scale that gave me a different readout each time I used it. I like to weigh daily but found that stepping up and down on the scale several times to get an average weight was frustrating. I thought that was the norm with scales until I started reading scale reviews and discovered that many people found the Tanita line to be accurate. If they weighed several times in a row they got a consistent readout. They did not have to take an average as I did with my Health-O-Meter. As a treat to myself, for losing 10 pounds, I decided to purchase a Tanita and after doing some research opted for the Tanita BC533. The Tanita BC533 is a state of the art scale that measures your weight (to two-tenths of a pound), body fat, visceral fat, bone mass, metabolic age and muscle mass. It is very simple to operate. You input your height, weight, average physical activity level and age. The Tanita will remember this information for up to four people so you only have to do it once, unless your information changes. (There is also a guest mode if a visitor wants to try it.) Once you have programmed the scale you toe tap your number, step on the platform and you will see your weight and body fat measurement. (Note - If you wear socks the body fat measurement will not work.) Then you can toe tap other buttons of your choice. A little figure gives you a visual cue as to what the buttons are. For example for muscle mass the figure is holding weights. For bone mass there is a tiny skeleton inside the figure. You decide which body composition features you wish to check. You may for example want to check your bone mass once a month, or then again you may want to check it weekly. It's up to you. It's as simple as pressing the corresponding button, and takes only seconds. Tanita has also introduced the Ironman Innerscan line. I was not sure of the difference so I called customer service. Amber went out of her way to explain the benefits of the Innerscan line, and the basic difference between the regular Innerscan and the Ironman. The Ironman gives you your BMI or basal metabolic caloric rate. This is the basic number of calories your body needs. The regular Innerscan (like the BC533) gives you your DCI instead. The DCI is a calculation where the BMI is multiplied by your activity level to tell you the number of calories you are taking in to maintain the weight you are. When you see this information you can then adjust up or down to help you gain or lose weight or stay the same. Nifty! Tanita includes a guide with the scale that explains exactly how the scale works. The scale is a bioimpedence device. A low level current (which you don't feel) passes through your body and the impedance or resistance level is used to calculate body composition. The booklet explains healthy ranges of body fat and also explains what body water percentage, visceral fat, etc. mean. The scale is also very attractive. Sleek styling and easy to use. Those with poor vision may find the buttons a little hard to see. But the visual clues will help. Despite the glass surface the scale stays very clean. The BC533 is an outstanding tool to help you accomplish your health goals!

This is the second scale of this exact model of have owned. I was sad when the first scale died, I had it so long I can't remember exactly when it was purchased but I believe I owned it for over 15 years, maybe more. I decided to buy a new scale of the same model since i was happy with the old one, and was happy to see the new scale seems to work just as great as the first one. I prefer this scale because it shows body fat , and visceral fat, among other readings, as well as weight. There are so many variables in your overall weight, looking at just weight number is not giving you the full picture. Your body fluctuates in water composition, adding or subtracting to your overall weight. Also your body fat is a very important component of overall health. This is why is dislike BMI. BMI does not take into account muscle mass or body type, just height and weight. While BMI may give a quick overview for some, it may be inaccurate in measuring heath in others. I personally have a more muscular build and a larger torso than my height would normally have, so my BMI is always high. So I prefer to look at body fat percentage. I feel the weight is acceptably accurate on this scale and the body far percentage seems accurate as well when I compare to other body fat readings. I also really like the visceral fat reading, this is an important measure of health. While I can't attest to the accuracy of the visceral fat reading, after many years of use and recording my numbers. In general the visceral fat is higher when my overall body fat is higher and lower when body fat is lower regardless of my overall body weight. Tracking thisnover time can so important trends in your visceral fat levels. I also like the lean body mass feature, as well and % water, and the calories calculation feature. Overall this scale is very useful for someone wanting more information than just weight in a single number. When you look at all of these features, this scale offers a much more in depth review of overall body composition and health. Pros: shows weight, body fat %, visceral fat, water %, bone density, resting metabolic calorie calculations. One con I see is the stability of the scale, you must step on carefully it can rock if your weight distribution is uneven. This is easly preventable by stepping on carefully.

This provides a lot of information, much more than just weight, and is very consistant. We have used this every day for over 15 years and it seems to function very well. I read other reviews from other websites on this, like thecompetitiveedge.com. Do some research. I weigh my dog on it (by holding him then weighing myself and subtracting, getting the difference, and the same with my luggage), too (you can select just 'weight' with your toe). Great memory (age, height, and fitness settings, too) and holds several people's information and has a guest setting. You can also choose adult or child. Do not use if pregnant or plan to be at the time of use as an un-feel-able amount of DC goes through your legs (not the belly or above the waist). It is about the size of a typical bathroom scale. I cannot vouch for its fat 'accuracy' but it seems right or at least close enough to compare. The scale seems very accurate. Though it will weigh someone up to 330 lbs., one may need the larger scale if they cannot see the readout. I changed the batteries once in 8 years (it has auto off, but it has never failed or indicated I needed to nor does it become inaccurate over time. The glass seems unbreakable and I would not worry about it; it has rubber feet. I do not recommend using this on carpet, but it does reset itself to 0; just seems to me the carpet/pad could absorb some weight. On a 'scale' of 1-10 I give this a 10, meaning tops. This is one of those good investments that can save you much more in medication. I highly recommend this nice looking informative lightweight scale, would buy again, and I hope this helps someone.

I always wonder how accurate the BMI method of calculating body fat is but as a relative indication (probably not to far off the actual percentage) it is an excellent tool to measure progress on fittness, weight loss or gain, and body fat. The scale sends an electrical pulse (undetectable to you) through one foot and measures the return signal in the other foot. The measured decrease in the signal is used to calculate body fat based on statistics of the general population. This scale also calculates muscle mass, visceral fat (fat around the belly organs)and a few other useful measures but the thing to keep in mind is the readings are all calculations using your weight and the electrical signal passing through your body. Again the calculations are based on statistics and studies of the general population that have been conducted. But my reasearch indicates that a great deal of effort has been put into these studies and I personally am comfortable with what the results indicate. Another improvement over my first scale is the literature and owners manual that comes with this scale. It explains the BMI method and other features of this scale in excellent detail and it also spells out the impact of the water content of your body which affects the signal passing through your body. This product is great and should be used by anyone who is an athlete, working on gaining muscle mass or trying to lose body fat weight. This is the second Tanita scale I own and this one comes with lots of bells and whistles. I am very pleased and recommend this product without hesitation.

I'm 6' tall and 199 lbs. Comparing me to the sea of obesity that is modern America, friends and family always say "You're not fat". Government and insurance company tables, however, say that a 6' tall man should weigh between 150 and 185 lbs. depending on frame size. I bought this scale to replace a 10-year-old Tanita that has always had an annoyingly flaky memory. The new scale is consistent in weight measurement with the old one, to within about 0.5 lbs. Unlike the old scale, this one presents a lot more information including the fact that I am "medium frame obese", i.e., with a moderate amount of muscle but an excessive quantity of fat. Sometimes the government is right after all. The scale gives dramatically different readings at night or first thing in the morning. Overnight I shed almost 10 lbs. of muscle and gained 3 percent in body fat. So the best that one can hope for with the body composition measurements is consistency, not accuracy (in fairness the manufacturer does explain that there is an ideal time of day to measure oneself if accuracy is desired, but I'm on the Steve Ward Diet and need to weigh myself first thing in the morning in order to decide how much food to eat during the day). Maybe the billions of dollars that the TSA is spending on body scanners for airports will give us more accurate measurements every time we pass through airport security. For a device that costs less than $100 and touches one's body only at the feet, I think the Tanita does a pretty good job. I will sign off like Eric Cartman... not fat, just big-boned.

The only method to measure body fat reliably is hydrodensitometry weighing. However, there exist two kinds of accurate devices that are capable to estimate this measure and offer reliable results, bioimpedence and skinfold calipers. In order for them to provide with repeatable and dependable measurements, skinfold calipers ought to be used by professionals while bioimpedenzometric scales do not. The science behind the Tanita BC533 scale is bioimpedence, which allows for a body composition estimate by sending a brief pulse of low voltage electricity through your body. The electricity that leaves your body at your feet is then read by the scale and your body composition is calculated and displayed for your convenience. Because the estimate is done through electricity everything impacting on electricity and its conduction also has an impact on the results you get. For this reason, you need not to use the scale while your feet and/or your body are wearing isolating materials (shoes - especially plastic, and socks and sweaters - especially in wool), when your skin is wet (ie: after a bath or shower, when you have recently sweat), and when you have eaten or drank in the previous 3 hours. On top of that, because of circadian hormonal rhythms, weight changes within the day. My suggestion is to pick up a time of the day and stick with it. For even more dependable measurements, use the scale in the same conditions every day so that you can compare successive measurements and hopefully track your progresses. This scale isn't any more difficult to use than other bioimpedenzometric device is, but you need to know the technology and its limitations in order to exploit it to your own advantage. Pros: it looks stylish, it's very dependable Cons: it needs to be set up, it requires a flat surface

This is very difficult to use. It does test so much more than merely weight, and I trust it's accurate, but it's tough to get the numbers quickly enough before they disappear and tough to figure out how to use it in the first place.

I purchased this scale because I was primarily interested in the bone mass measurement. I also have an Omron Body Composition and Scale (available here on Amazon). The Omron has scale plates you stand on and also a hand grip. The Tanita only has the usual foot scale. My review will compare the two. First, both are sensitive to hydration level. I think the Tanita, however, is more sensitive. Now that I've used it for a few weeks, I can pretty much predict my muscle mass and body fat percentage just by the hydration level. As hydration goes up, muscle mass goes up and body fat percentage goes down. This is true for the Omron but it seems to a lesser extent. Overall, for muscle mass and fat percentage, the two scales are pretty close in their measures over time. The Tanita does consistently indicate about 2-3% higher value for fat than the Omron. For weight, the Tanita has me consistently about one pound lighter than the Omron. For both scales, visceral fat percentage stays consistent with no variance. Bone mass also stays very consistent on the Tanita. There might be a slight increase of .2% given hydration level but, overall, it stays very consistent (e.g., out of 40 measurements, 3 were .2% higher due to a higher than usual hydration level). It also seems to be accurate, in broad strokes, in terms of having average, low, or high bone mass. Both scales provide an estimate of your metabolic age. On both scales, I come in below my chronological age. However, Omron has me about five years older than the Tanita. Also, on the Tanita, my metabolic age varies two or three years based on hydration (more hydration = younger). In summary, I think the Omron with the hand grips might provide more accurate measurements of body composition simply because the hand grips enable a larger area of the body to be measured. However, as other reviewers have noted, the measurement trends give the most accurate overall picture and although the exact numbers might be different between the scales, both scales seem to provide longer term trend consistency.