Product Description

Tanita BC-533 (BC533) Tanita InnerScan Body Fat Composition Scale

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9615 in Health and Beauty
• Color: Glass and Silver
• Brand: Tanita
• Model: BC533
• Released on: 2005-04-10
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 13.00" h x 1.00" w x 13.00" l, 8.00 pounds

Features

• Easy-to-read
• Highly accurate body composition monitor
• 4 person memory
• Weight, body fat recall, body water and muscle mass recall
• Glass and silver

Amazon.com Product Description
The Tanita BC533 Glass Innerscan Body Composition Monitor is one of the most comprehensive body monitors on the market today that's designed for home use. Using advanced Bioelectric Impedance Analysis (BIA) technology that was previously available only to medical professionals, health clubs and professional athletes,

Monitoring features help you keep tabs on your body composition and health. View larger.

There is more to healthy dieting than weight loss alone. Body fat percentage measurements are also important indicators of good health. View larger.

this monitor analyzes a full range of body measurements, including weight, body fat percentage, body water percentage, metabolic age, physique rating, visceral fat, muscle mass, and bone mass. It's a mouthful of measurements, but what it means is that with the Tanita BC533, you now have the unprecedented ability to monitor your body and the effects of your diet and fitness routines, comfortably and affordably in the convenience of your own home.

With the Tanita BC533 up to four unique users can benefit. Simply supply your gender, age, height and weight into the memory, step on the scale, and the monitor does the rest. The results are analyzed according to each user's information, and the result -- displayed in the monitor's 2.25-inch LCD screen -- is the one of the most comprehensive at-home readings you can get.

This monitor, which is about the same size as a typical bathroom scale, is ideal for anyone who is serious about monitoring their health and fitness. Knowing your body fat percentage -- the amount of body fat as a proportion of your body weight -- is essential if you want to create a diet and exercise plan that helps reduce the risk of certain conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Body water percentage is the total amount of fluid in your body expressed as a percentage of your total weight. Maintaining a healthy body water percentage ensures that your body functions efficiently. The metabolic age level is related to your body's metabolic rate and helps you maintain the daily minimum level of energy or calories your body requires when resting or sleeping to function effectively. Even though your total body weight might not change drastically over time, your muscle mass and body fat levels may be changing. Keeping tabs on them can help you stay at a lower risk of certain diseases. And knowing your levels of visceral fat -- the fat in the abdominal cavity and surrounding the vital organs -- can help you keep heart disease and high blood pressure at bay, and may delay the onset of type two diabetes. In short, this monitor gives you essential information and greater control as you work to stay healthy and live a more active, vital life.

Operating on four AA batteries (included), the Tanita BC533 is intended for use by persons up to 330 pounds and is backed by Tanita's 10-year warranty.

Note: Pregnant women should not use this monitor, and if you have a pacemaker or other internal electronic medical device, you should not use the body fat reading feature.

Customer Reviews

Tanita scale
Tanita BC533 Glass Innerscan body composition monitor is a wonderful product. It not only gives your weight, but tells you visceral fat % and much more. Very important for those who are diabetic.

Great for the athletic person
Got this scale for my athletic teenage son and he loves it. I think seeing a change in body fat rating helped him to lose those extra pounds and keep them off. Now if it would just encourage me...

Excellent and accurate scale
I purchased this product several weeks ago and was a little hesitant to do so based upon the many negative reviews regarding how the scale calculates one's bodyfat (and several other tests). Let me first say that my primary goal is tracking how much I weigh on a daily basis and keeping close tabs on my bodyfat level and lean mass numbers. Back to my story though: I was very hesitant to buy the scale because there were quite a few reviews that said that the bodyfat readings were off (some claimed way off) and that the scale was only useful to get an accurate bodyweight reading. After quite a few tests and comparisons, I have to disagree with many of the reviewers. I was pleasantly surprised at how accurate the bodyfat readings are.

I routinely get my bodyfat tested via a technique called BodPod. Hydrostatic weighing is the gold-standard when it comes to figuring out one's bodyfat and lean mass but finding a facility to do hydrosatic weighing has proven very difficult for me and from what I understand it is quite a production and I'm sure not inexpensive. To make a long story short, I had a BodPod test done just this past weekend and I weighed myself on the Tanita BC-533 and the Tanita scale was off by by less than half a percentage point. The BodPod test showed that my lean mass was about 5 pounds more than what the Tanita was showing but the fact that it showed virtualy the same bodyweight and same bodyfat as an expensive BodPod unit really impressed me.

So what about the discrepancy in lean mass? Well, the way that I look at it is if my lean mass goes up on the Tanita then I've gained muscle. Period. To me it's not a big deal if my lean mass is not dead accurate - I'm mainly concerned with knowing if I've gained or lost lean mass. The precise number is not so important as knowing if you're regressing or progressing. That's the big thing that I think a lot of the negative reviewers are missing.

Second of all, in many of the negative reviews, not many people have a reference to what their accurate bodyfat or lean body mass is to begin with. Frankly, I think people who step on the scale think they're in far better shape than what they are and get offended when they see a hight bodyfat percentage number. The only rational scientific way to compare is to have hydrostatic weight, BodPod, or ACCURATE skin-fold caliper numbers and then compare those to the Tanita products. Sorry to tell ya people, but skin-fold calipers numbers can vary widly due to the accuracy of the practitioner and quality of the calipers themselves. It's probably safe to to say that there is at least a +/- accuracy of 5 percent when it comes to skin-fold calipers...and probably even more if your practitioner is trying to make you feel better by fudging the numbers. Not to say that skin-fold calipers are a waste; if that's the only option available to you then use it but don't be surprised if your 10% skin-fold caliper reading is really 15% when done by more accurate, alternate testing.

Anyways, for people who are very concerned about keeping track of their bodyweight and bodyfat, I highly recommend this product. Yes, it's expensive but if you're someone who values the features that this scale offers, then it's not a bad deal. If you're someone who just wants to keep track of your weight, I'm sure there are other less expensive alternatives available so you may want to look at something else (by the way, my Homedics scale that I had previously been using is consistenly 2 pounds heavier than the Tanita and it also fluctuates more widly than the Tanita).

Setup was pretty easy and straightforward. The only issue that I had was deleting the programming that I had entered into the #1 button on the scale. It took me several minutes to figure out how to reset the programming for a particular button. I did manage to figure it out though. The other thing that I feel I should point out, because it is important, is the "average vs. athlete" setting on the Tanita. I found that only after setting my particular setting to the athlete mode did I have accurate bodyfat readings. I'm not privy to the equation that makes the "average vs. athlete" settings different, but when I plugged in all of my numbers into the Tanita, I got a bodyfat percentage that was higher than what it should be. I want to say that it was 3 to 4 percentage points higher than what my BodPod numbers reflected. After I saw that, I went through and reset my settings to have the "athletic" setting. Keep in mind that Tanita says you should excercise for 10+ hours a week and have a resting heart rate of 60 or less to qualify for the "athletic" seetting. I'm somewhat close to both of those criteria so I went ahead and reset my settings to reflect the "athletic male" setting and I've been very happy thus far.

I've found that the scale is most accurate after I've been up for 4 to 6 hours and have had a meal and am properly hydrated. I always weigh myself in the morning, upon awaking, and the bodyfat numbers that I get are about 2 percentage points off. Big deal, right? Nope. Because I weigh myself first thing every morning I know that if the bodyfat number goes up (even if it is not dead-on accurate) then my bodyfat has increased. If it goes down, then I know that I've lost bodyfat. The morning is the only time that I can consistently weight myself under the exact same conditions and that's why I don't rely on the Tanita solely in the evening. Things like caffeine consumption, hydration levels, last time you ate, etc., can affect the numbers that you get on your Tanita so even though my numbers aren't completely "true" in the morning they are the baseline that I write down to see where I stand.