I read this article saying if I eat right and walk a lot everyday I can lose 10 pounds in 5 weeks, but in order to just cut back on calories I'd have to have to cut back 1000 calories to reach that goal which is next to starving. How is it that exercising while cutting back only slightly on calories speeds up the process of weight loss? And also how come only some workouts say they help to lose weight?
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Exercise, in addition to burning calories, also builds muscle. Strength training or weight-bearing exercise in particular, builds muscle mass. Muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue even when you're at rest, so adding muscle helps elevate your metabolism so you burn more calories throughout the day. If you're afraid to work out with weights because you don't want to get big bulky "man muscles", do more repetitions with less weight and you'll get that long, lean dancer-like look.
Muscle tissue also takes up less volume than an equivalent weight of fat tissue, so as you add muscle and lose fat, you get slimmer looking even if the scale doesn't initially show a lot of weight loss.