Is walking enough?

Calories burned are calories burned. It may take you longer to burn them, but they'll still be gone. I say good job!

I think walking is great! You can even step it up a bit and add hand weights or ankle weights to make it a little more of a challenge and burn even more calories. I agree with the other poster about adding in some strength training. You can buy a video and a few hand weights and add this into your routine 3 days a week. The lean muscle will go a long way to help speed up your metabolism! Plus, you can do this at home when you are with your kids!

Keep it up - you are moving and burning calories!

I do a lot of walking, and it helps to burn calories. I do not think that walking gives a great
cardio workout. It's a lot better than doing nothing, but not enough to really whip you into shape.
Recently, I added bicycling to my routine. It fills this gap, it's fun, and people who ride bikes a lot
tend to be skinny.

I've noticed if i work up a sweat, but can still talk - that's a good pace. If I go on a stroll - I don't seem to lose as much.

Walking is good - it is also a weight bearing exercise which, if you're a woman of a certain age (Like me )
, helps to build up bone mass density which can help to ward of the dreaded osteoporosis

Bogmama,
In kickerz case you are probably right. She is very near a normal body weight and I do agree with you that the muscle helps, but concentrating on muscle building when you have 100 lbs to lose is going about it the wrong way. You simply cannot build enough muscle to burn 350,000 calories worth fat without doing significant cardio work. Also, cardio work does build signigicant muscle, in the largest muscles in your body, for those who are severely over weight. I think it is far better to do cardio down until you are a normal body fat percentage (31% ish for women which is about the line for overwight BMI on the calaculator here) then beginning heavier lifting, than to risk the injury of heavier lifting with a body that is not used to any sort of exercise and has a weak base and core.

In your own case you followed my way, with a slight detour in which you gained weight back. You did the walking and lost weight and strengthened your leg and core muscles in the process, then committed to more weights and got results.

You know, I just want to respond to this, because straight cardio is not the answer. You don't have to go and lift a lot of weight. You can do 12-15 reps of lifting to get a nice lean look. A pound of muscle (while yes, it takes a while to build) burns almost 8 times as many calories as a pound of fat.

Muscle burns ~6-8 calories per pound per day and fat burns ~2 calories per pound per day, so only 3-4 times as much. Also even if it were 8 times, it is effectively irrelevant in practice. A typical person gains 3-5 lbs of muscle in 6 months to a year if they dedicate themselves to it after they hit maintenance weight. That would add up to maybe 40 calories a day; less than a 10 minute walk so it is not an effective strategy to burn extra calories per day other than the calories you burn exercising to maintain that muscle. Fantastic for fitness and strength but poor for weight management.

Actually it is a great strategy for weight management, although not because of the calories that the muscles allow you to burn. When you are much stronger, the perceived effort of all your activities goes way down, even though the amount of calories you burn doesn't. So burning calories becomes a lot easier and maintaining your weight does too.

Exercise is exercise, whether it's cardio or strength training, both will increase heart rate, get blood flowing and burn calories. Both will burn calories at a different rate too. Cardio is good for you cardiovascular health and strength training is good for your bones and muscles. It's not about fat and muscles doing different things and (heaven forbid) one weighing more than the other ??

One thing that could help you on your walks, is to get a Heart Rate Monitor. Some of them, you can set up to alarm you are above or under specific range of heartbeats. When you go over, slow down, when you are under, speed up.
This can help you keep your intensity up and get the most out of your walks. So, even though walking with your mother may pass the time because you're chatting away, you could be doing yourself a disservice by dawdling or not necessarily getting the most out of it.
There's supposedly different "heart rate zones" that will burn more fat or increase endurance, to that I say whatever. Because they are all going to do you good. Burning 20% fat cals of more total calories is the same amount as burning 40% fat cals of less total cals. It's like asking if you'd want 20% of $5000 or 40% of $2500. Which one ?
What you'd do is setup your device and the target a "zone" or heartbeat range. It's all based off of your own maximum heartbeat, but lets' just say it works out that your 50-60% range is between 110-130. Then, when you're out for your walk, you will do everything you can to stay within that range to maximize your exercise. Say you walk 6 times a week. Then you'd do this 3/6 times. 2/6 times you may try to get your HR into a higher 60-70% 130-150 zone to really exercise yourself and increase endurance, and the other 1 time, you'd do between 40-50% 90-110 for a "rest" of sorts. It just helps to keep your walking on track, and to ensure you do different levels of intensity to mix it up".

I can never remember the ranges etc that are best, there's plenty of charts and things around. The trick is to keep your 'workout' at certain intensities, and, to prevent overtraining or becoming to used to a certain intensity, change them up.

You know, I just want to respond to this, because straight cardio is not the answer. You don't have to go and lift a lot of weight. You can do 12-15 reps of lifting to get a nice lean look. A pound of muscle (while yes, it takes a while to build) burns almost 8 times as many calories as a pound of fat.

Muscle burns ~6-8 calories per pound per day and fat burns ~2 calories per pound per day, so only 3-4 times as much. Also even if it were 8 times, it is effectively irrelevant in practice. A typical person gains 3-5 lbs of muscle in 6 months to a year if they dedicate themselves to it after they hit maintenance weight. That would add up to maybe 40 calories a day; less than a 10 minute walk so it is not an effective strategy to burn extra calories per day other than the calories you burn exercising to maintain that muscle. Fantastic for fitness and strength but poor for weight management.

Actually it is a great strategy for weight management, although not because of the calories that the muscles allow you to burn. When you are much stronger, the perceived effort of all your activities goes way down, even though the amount of calories you burn doesn't. So burning calories becomes a lot easier and maintaining your weight does too.

But that is not what the poster said. She said that simply gaining muscle in and of itself was a good weight management strategy because of the extra calories it burns simply by existing. That is a poor strategy for weight management. Your suggestion of getting fit and it is regardless of gaining muscle is an excellent way to manage weight if you continue to exercise.