trying to lose weight-- how are you supposed to burn more calories than you eat???

[celery_is_the_enemy]

Ok, supposedly the body is supposed to consume 2,000 calories a day, I don't eat a ton of junk food anymore, replaced potato chips with carrots, etc, etc. But how am I supposed to burn that much more calories with workouts and exercise? When I walk, jog and run on the treadmill for 45 minutes, by the end of the workout I've burned about 250-300 calories. This is getting frustrating! The scale hasn't budged and I started trying a month ago, I know it's not all instant gratification but it sucks putting in the effort working out 3-4 times a week for an hour and a half each time and seeing no results. I do not eat excessively either and I don't skip breakfast, eat healthy.
I'm also using weight machines to build muscle on my arms and I know muscle weighs more than fat, so I suppose that makes it a little tricky. Not significantly overweight; I just want to lose 25-30 pounds.

[Anberlin.]

You burn the most calories simply by being alive and breathing.
Search google for a BMR calculator, which calculates how many calories your body will burn in a day just by you being ALIVE, bin a sedentary position. Usually this is anywhere from 1100 to 1800 calories depending on your age, height and weight.

So, if you burn 1400 calories just by being in existance, and you burn about 600 calories extra through exercise, and eat about 1500 a day (which is suggested for females) You will have a deficit of about 500 calories a day, which is a total of 1 lb weight loss a week.

This is the healthy way.

[Spank Daddy]

I lost about that much. I cut out all fats, kept low carbs and moderately high protein. It's going to take atleast 2-3 months before solid results. TV has just blown everything out of proportion.