Customer Reviews
Great for weight, good for tracking trends. 
2008-01-20
This scale measures weight very accurately. As far as that goes, it's the most accurate (consistent) scale I've ever owned. You can get on and off over and over, and it will give you the exact same weight every time. Be sure to put on a hard, flat surface. If you put it on a bathroom rug, the scale will be way off for some reason.
All the other measurements are fun to look at, but I have no way to verify if they are accurate or not. The readings can vary wildly depending on time of day and what you have been doing. I've found if you go out the night before and drink a little bit too much alcohol, the scale thinks you are in fantastic shape. On the other hand, if I have a long run (15 to 20 miles), the next day the scale thinks I'm fat and lazy. Obviously, the more you mess with your body, the more it messes with the scales readings (This is informative in its own way, and as I mentioned earlier, pretty entertaining).
In order to overcome the daily fluctuations, I weigh myself first thing in the morning before eating or drinking anything. I also created a spread sheet in Excel to track my readings. That way I can average the numbers over a month and then track my changes from month to month. This is much better than trying to compare these numbers day to day anyway. Realistically, your muscle mass or your bone density is not going to change at all on a day to day basis.
Hope this helps.
Very good within the constraints of bioelectric impedance analysis 
2007-11-25
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.
Well Done! 2007-10-10
This scale is just what I was looking for. I have had it for a couple months and am very satisfied. Programming was easy, and the info adds that much more detail to help you focus on your health. Other reviews noted frustration over the fact that you cannot pick-up a stick of butter and see the weight change because of the device's calibrators that will reset to the most recent close weight. But you can check subtle variations by using your pre-programmed button on the first try, and then using the "guest" weight button on your second attempt.
Best Scale 2007-09-29
I like this scale. I use it in KG mode to match my medical needs and my wife uses it in LBS for her monitoring.
Real Motivation 2007-09-12
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.
[...]
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
Great Scale 2008-06-25
Scale is great, but it is a bit pricey. Does as advertised, and customer support is outstanding.
Be wary about using your Tanita in a bathroom. 
2008-05-22
Be wary of Tanita and their warranty claims. The product itself was decent, and fairly accurate, however Tanita is not a company that prides itself in customer service and product support. I used my scale in a normal bathroom environment, and after just 3 months you could see evaporation underneath the screen. I don't know if a gasket had a crack in it, or what the issue might have been, but the unit couldn't withstand the normal humidity of a bathroom. In fact, the unit was a good 20 feet from any active water, like a shower and tub.
I shipped the unit in, and without even so much as a courtesy call, the "customer service manager" returned my unit with a note that my warranty claim was refused, even though I had spoken to someone before about the issue, and said it would be replaced no problem. The customer service manager was nice enough, but said that even though it was well within the boundaries of his discretion, he was going to refuse the claim, because they refuse all like claims regarding evaporation. He even admitted that it happens fairly often.
Stay away.
His recommendation? Buy another Tanita, and not place it in the bathroom. Right.
Best in Category 2008-05-11
Most accurate of the body composition monitoring scales I have tried-
Especially good if you are in pretty good shape to begin with. Only drawback is the kids can break it if they're not careful.
Garbage in Garbae out 2008-04-21
This thing is ridiculous. I have a Homedics scale right next to the the Tanita and the Homedics is always consistent. The Tanita body fat % varies by 20% depending on how warm my feet are, whether I took a shower prior or used the hot tub. Somehow the Homedics is consistent regardless of these factors. Of course I don't have the box and I can't return this useless scale.
Accurate 2008-03-26
I have only used the weight feature of this scale so far. For many years I had another scale of the same brand and I decided to get a new one because the other one was so old and I was starting to assume that the weight was getting less accurate. But since I'd been happy with the accuracy till then, I stuck to the same brand and bought this model. I was astonished that when it arrived and I weighed myself on both scales, they each gave me the exact same weight. I was impressed. Over the next month or so the readings sometimes differed by as much as .4 lbs. But that's not a big deal, I don't think. I'd once bought an expensive black scale at Sharper Image that really angered me when I realized they'd "tricked" the mechanism to make it appear consistent. This meant that if you were to weight yourself 10 times in a row, it would give you exactly the same weight each time, but only because the mechanism "locked" the weight in. I was able to verify this by stepping on the scale holding a glass of water. It would still give me the same weight. And it wasnt' until I stepped on the scale holding something much heavier that it would "unlock" the weight and give me a more accurate reading. The Tanita brand does not do that at all. I welcome variations of .2 or even .4 lbs when I weigh myself a few times in a row, because at least I know it's real.
