Stationary bike questions

L0Lnikki
L0Lnikki Posts: 41 Member
edited November 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
Hello! Bought a great stationary bike off Amazon & love it. I don't see anything about watts in the booklet or on the machine. Is there a way I can figure out what watt I am? This is based off nowloss.com work out calculator for my bike. Please help this fitness noob figure it out!

Replies

  • chelllsea124
    chelllsea124 Posts: 336 Member
    What is a watt?
  • macgurlnet
    macgurlnet Posts: 1,946 Member
    Which bike did you get? Does it have any digital display at all?

    ~Lyssa
  • ssbbg
    ssbbg Posts: 153 Member
    @TeacupsAndToning Some bikes measure your power output in Watts. You can convert Watts to calories based on some assumptions about the efficiency of power transfer. It is generally considered a pretty accurate way of getting at calories burned. (And certainly better that using MFPs vastly inflated calorie burns for biking based on speed...)

    @L0Lnikki Not all machines provide Watts as an output. The way to change your display to output watts will be specific to your machine. So if cannot find it in your manual, then it may not be an option. You can try googling using the brand & model & energy in Watts and see if there are instructions somewhere.

    Unless you are asking how to determine your FTP, which is related to the maximum number of watts (output from bike) you can sustain for an hour. To determine that, you need to take some sort of fitness test. It isn't straightforward unless you have that test built into your bike's programming.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    You can add a power meter to measure your output. Assuming you can mount one you an exercise bike. Pedals might be your best bet.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    chelseahatch24 wrote: »
    What is a watt?

    One Joule per second.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    TeacupsAndToning wrote: »
    I'm very confused by your question. What do you mean, what watt are you? Isn't that for like, light bulbs?

    One horse power is about 750 watts. Engines are rated for their power. Bikes have humans for engines. A typical cyclist can put out about 150 watts for an hour. (Bikes don't move themselves, they have to be powered, even if they run on human muscle power.)
  • L0Lnikki
    L0Lnikki Posts: 41 Member
    ssbbg wrote: »
    @TeacupsAndToning Some bikes measure your power output in Watts. You can convert Watts to calories based on some assumptions about the efficiency of power transfer. It is generally considered a pretty accurate way of getting at calories burned. (And certainly better that using MFPs vastly inflated calorie burns for biking based on speed...)

    @L0Lnikki Not all machines provide Watts as an output. The way to change your display to output watts will be specific to your machine. So if cannot find it in your manual, then it may not be an option. You can try googling using the brand & model & energy in Watts and see if there are instructions somewhere.

    Unless you are asking how to determine your FTP, which is related to the maximum number of watts (output from bike) you can sustain for an hour. To determine that, you need to take some sort of fitness test. It isn't straightforward unless you have that test built into your bike's programming.

    Thank you very much. I was able to convert to regular MPhil, but the watts confused me sinced it usually refers to light bulbs.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    watts is a measurement of electricity or energy.
    "The watt (symbol: W) is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units (SI) defined as 1 joule per second and can be used to quantify the rate of energy transfer."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt
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