TANITABC-554 Ironman, FDA Cleared, World's Only Consumer Multi-Frequency, Full Body Composition Scale

Sometimes you don't know what your missing until you see a better product. The batteries in my previous scale died, and they were odd-sized coin batteries loosely positioned on top of delicate circuitry. I damaged the electronics in my old scale while replacing the batteries, and although I probably should have been more careful during that process, the result was that I needed a new scale. It may sound trivial, but one of the things I like about this Tanita scale is it uses common AA batteries, located in a normal battery housing.Next up on my priotity list for a replacement scale was accurate body fat measurements. As I understand it, bioelectric impedance measurements (i.e. the method used by scales) are not very accurate for measuring body fat, and the inaccuracy can be pretty high for people with excessive body fat, or with very little body fat. But, Tanita has improved the body fat measurement accuracy of this scale by adding an "athletic" mode to increase accuracy for people with low body fat. And, Tanita also provides a somewhat quantitative standard based on resting heart rate and weekly exercise level to help you determine if you should be using this mode. My experience so far indicates this mode is probably a few percentage points more accurate for athletic people. But, I have not yet compared it to a measurement made with hydrostatic weighing, so I can't confirm that with numerical data.This scale also measures weight to the nearest 0.2 pounds, which is an improvement over my previous scale, which rounded to the nearest 0.5 pounds.When you first get this scale, you program it with your gender, age, and height. To measure yourself with the scale, you press a button with your toe and wait about 2 or 3 seconds for a short beep, telling you the scale is ready. Then you step on the scale, and wait 3 or 4 seconds for the scale to take it's measurements. The scale then sequentially displays nine measurements, staring with weight, then body fat %, etc. Some of the measurements have the same untis, so at first I wasn't completely sure how to interpret some of the numbers displayed by the scale. Tanita thought of this, and provided small back-lit icons on the scale to help you identify each measurement as it's displayed. But, the icons are too small to see when you're standing, so you really need to memorize the order in which the measurements are displayed.Overall, this is a great product, and if you fall into the athletic category, the athletic mode makes it better than any other scale I saw for measuring body fat.

I'm unsure of all the bad reviews. I bought this scale about a year ago, and I love it. I compared this to a DEXA scan, and it was almost as accurate as the DEXA. This is a fantastic scale.

This BC-554 Ironman scale is great and repeats well. It has high weight sensitivity at ± 0.2 lb and repeats. I now wish I had bought the even better and more expensive BC-568 that has hand and foot electrodes, for even better fat, muscle, and bone measurements. I use the weight measurement daily and the record the full set of values once per month. As expected, I actually Gained weight for the first month of diet and fairly intense exercise even though I lost fat, because of increased muscle mass. I like the "Metabolic Age" value on the BC-554. It says I was 93 years old before I started exercising and losing weight, lol! Now I am down to 73 years MA (actual age = 68), so I can track my overall physical fitness improvement.

This is my 3rd Tanita Ironman scale. I had 2 exact same one before and the last one broke after 7+ years (class shattered - luckily it was tempered glass). So I decided to get another exact same one (even they don't sell in Canada, I ordered from US and willing to pay shipping and import duty etc). Unfortunately this one is defective. I can't ask for replacement, Amazon said just return and buy another one. I really love this scale (when it works). Very disappointed that this one is defective, it showed (and hung there) 00000 and didn't proceed to perform body analysis after showing the weight. When it did (1 out of many many times), the reading was all over the place, differ a lot even within few minutes.

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.