I am burning 500 calories during my 50 minute workout. Is that enough? Too much?

What are you doing for 50 minutes, and how are you coming up with the 500 calorie burned number?

- 250 calories: 20 minutes on the treadmill, jogging (4.5) and sprinting (7.5)(asks for weight and tabulates calories burned)
- 125 calories: 20 minutes on treadmill, hill course, level 6, 80-90 RPM (tabulates calories burned)
- 125 calories: 10 minutes ellyptical machine, 60-65 RPM)(asks for weight and tabulates calories burned)
Also, I'm on a 1200 calories program.

If you're exercising this much daily, I think it may be too much for a 1200 calories plan. If you don't notice a loss over several weeks, talk to your consultant about increasing your calorie level. You don't want your body to go into starvation mode.

I think it also depends on how many days you are working out at this level, and if you are maintaining your heart rate.
Definitely worth a talk to your consultant.

I'm doing this cardio routine 2 days a week, and an equally intense weights and strength training regime 3-4 days a week.
After losing 5 lbs. in the past 2 weeks (my 12th and 13th on the program), I asked my counselor if I was losing too quickly, and if I should increase my calories, as my trainer recommended. She said no, that I should enjoy the rapid weight loss. I'm just not sure that this is sound advice.

Your workout sounds fine, might be too much for 1200 calories, don't want to burn lean tissue. The machines at the gyms, their calulations for calories burned are generally way high (per my gym owner). At 1200 calories a good cardio for 30 mintues is enough for weight loss(unless you are training for something special). More is not necessarly better, I would check with a trainer to see what is best for you. You should be doing cardio 3 times a week, and weight training the other three, switching them everyother day to rest your muscles. Always take a day off a week to rest. The rest time is just as important as the workouts themselves.
This is what I have been taught over the last year, it worked for me. I am sure there are many different opinions on exercise, my trainer has never recomended raising my calories, always altered my exercise to maximize my fat loss, but I did have a lot more to loose, I am sure that was part of it.
Remember to make it fun!
jackal

The calculations for calories burned on those machines are based on the average 20-something male. Those guys have a lot higher metabolic rate than women, who are smaller and have less muscle.
If you want a more accurate estimatin of your calories burned, you need to have your metabolism measured, and use software that can estimate the number of calories burned based on *your* body profile.
For this purpose, I use a product called BalanceLog.