Originally Posted by hubcyclist

Yeah, I have my doubts about the quality of exercise. Even without any assist I think people don't push a lot of watts, I think untrained people naturally do under 100w, so if unassisted they were doing 180-270kj in an hour (assuming 50-75w, my wife can't even keep up with me when I'm doing 100w on the bike path), then it's even less with an e-bike.

Purely anecdotal, but there's a guy in my neighborhood riding a e-bike and happens to be overweight as well, I don't think I've ever actually seen him pedaling, even on the flat. I have no clue whether he has a physical limitation or not, but if he doesn't, he probably would do a lot better and get in better shape riding under his own strength. I think the thing with e-bikes is that they'll enable a lot of people who are otherwise healthy and capable to get even less of a workout with bikes.