Just curious, what are watts?

bethelcheryl

My stationary bike gives me all kinds of information. It will tell me calories burned, distance rode, elapsed time, heart rate. I understand what all those things are. But what are watts? I did 59 watts in 43 minutes just now. Is that a good thing?

Thanks

DaveRCF

It is a unit of power. Think lightbulbs.

FlynnMacCallister

Joules per second, joules being the metric equivalent to calories. It's your rate of energy burned -- basically a measure of how hard you're working. If you burn.... 500 calories in an hour versus 500 calories in half an hour, your wattage in case 2 would be double that in case 1. Same total energy, different rate of expenditure.