"In order to lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume"

How is that even possible without pushing yourself really hard? Exercising for an hour burns at the most 500 calories and 2 hours would be 1,000 then. Does your BMR count?

Oh yes, BMR counts. Around here we tend to also say that weight loss tends to be 80% diet and 20% exercise, because you are right. It's far easier to consume those calories than it is to burn them.

I personally diet to lose weight and exercise for my health and to be able to do anything in life I want to do, like take the insane caving trip I took this past weekend with ease. Don't discount the importance of exercise, particularly weight training! Muscles burn more calories at rest. I credit strength training with my success and with the shape my body has taken on that I rather like.

Yes it's possible. Theoretically just to exist you burn say (for your weight) 2150 calories (your weight x 10). To maintain you can eat around 2150 calories a day, maybe slightly more or less. Now to lose a pound a week you'd need to consume 3500 less calories a week or 500 less per day. So for you that'd mean going from 2150 to 1650 calories a day. Some people are lucky and can just calorie count and eat anything in their calorie allotments.

But for myself it's also WHAT I eat that counts. I eat lots of lean protein and vegetables, very small amounts of fruit, and small amounts of carbs. If my carb intake goes over 40% for the day I don't lose weight. So in addition to making sure I only eat 1300ish calories a day I also have to make sure that I do not consume more than 100 grams of carbs a day AND that most of the carbs come from my veggies

1650 calories would probably be a great starting place for calories for you Remember going too low can cause you to slow in your weight loss because your body isn't getting enough nutrients.

You're constantly burning calories, don't forget. Sleeping, breathing, cleaning, even eating burns calories.