In order for me to lose weight, I need to eat less calories and exercise more. I know that under 1000 calories isn't healthy. But I am starting out with losing weight, so at this point I'm only burning 200 calories, which i plan to burn a lot more. How am i supposed to lose weight burning 200-500 calories per workout session 3 days a week?

Hi champagne

I am also 5"3 and was at your weight not so long ago. i find i lose weight eating around 1300 cals on days i dont work out and 1600 on days i do.
I work out 3 days a week for 45 minutes to and hour.

My advice is see how you get on with whatever amount you decide on for a month and then tweak it. I would suggest you dont eat less than 1200 a day rather than 1000.

Hi! If you are eating less calories than the ones your body needs just to maintain it's current weight, then you are already having a deficit and will lose.
Exercise only comes on top of that, to create a larger deficit.
I'd suggest finding your maintenance number through an online calculator and eating maybe 20% less than that or whatever reasonable deficit you feel comfortable about.
I am 5'2'' and I agree that with Rechyl that no less than 1200 is a better idea.

Everything your body does burns calories. If you never got out of bed, and slept most of that time, you'd still probably be burning at least 800 to 1000 calories a day.

Weight loss and gain is pretty simple really, if you consume too many calories in a day and don't burn them off with exercise you gain weight. If you eat the right amount of calories your body needs in a day, you will maintain your weight. The amount of calories your body needs can be measured by finding out your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) - I always understood it as the number of calories your body uses just to live. So to lose weight you need to eat slightly less calories than your body's BMR. Slightly less, not dramatically so, 1000 calories is way too little.

Calculate your BMR using one of the online calculators you can find. I Googled it and this was the first result: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/bmr_calculator.htm

Start by eating 10-15% less and eating back the calories you burn. If you don't eat back the calories you burn with exercise, (it doesn't have to be ALL, but if you're hungry then you should eat - listen to your body) then you might find yourself feeling drained and your weight might stall. The more exercise you do, the more you should be eating. Athletes tend to eat 2000+ calories a day because of all the exercise they do - food is fuel remember, not the enemy! Being mindful of calories is a great thing, but make sure you're giving your body what it needs to keep functioning.

I usually don't eat breakfast (I don't like it and i can wait until lunch) and i eat lunch and dinner and work out. I'm not sure if I'm consuming too little calories without breakfast. Also, I only eat the three meals (or two) a day. I stopped snacking because that was my downfall. Because of this, i don't eat a lot now. I usually avoid foods with a load of sugar because that doesn't keep me satisfied.

calculate you body weight x 12 for calorie intake
as your weight decreases your calorie intake will too

I'd recommend using MyFitnessPal to count calories, you can use the website but their app is fantastic. Using the app you can actually scan the barcode of the foods you eat and it will find it in their database - so useful!