How We Lost 100 Lbs.: Real-Life Stories of Weight Loss Wins, Non-Scale Victories and Life-Changing Transformations

Samantha Milton and Charleah Torres-Vega are strutting toward the camera, beaming, hands tightly intertwined. The two first met less than an hour before their PEOPLE shoot but quickly formed a bond, like warriors who’ve battled a common foe.

“We had this shared experience of being seen by the world in a way that was so minimizing,” says Milton, 29. “That was my experience being overweight.”

Says Torres-Vega, 46: “I understand what it’s like to be made to feel unworthy. I’ve always been a nice person. I’ve always been warm, friendly, but it wasn’t always returned to me because I was heavier.”

Sharing her story now through “tears of joy,” she says she’s “celebrating the inner strength I have over adversity. I want people to know I’ve been there and I know your struggles. I’ve overcome them. You can too. I’m living my best life. Everybody deserves that.”

After facing long struggles with weight, the women lost a collective 360 lbs. by moving more, eating less and making healthier choices, and, like a growing number of people, taking weight-loss medications known as GLP-1s.

Both women say they changed their lives and habits before they turned to the drugs.

When she began her health transformation, Milton, a mom of three, didn’t have time or money for a trainer or gym, so she started small by changing her fast food orders to healthier options. (Milton, who now microdoses a compounded version of a GLP-1 to help maintain her weight and to manage her Polycystic Ovary Syndrome symptoms, shares her fast food hacks with her social media following of 4 million that she’s built as a content creator.)

Torres-Vega had lost more than 60 lbs. after diet and exercise changes and a vertical sleeve gastrectomy. But no matter what she did, she felt like her body was battling to put the weight back on.

“It’s really biology. I have obesity, and my body has this preset weight and it wants to get there, by any means necessary,” says Torres-Vega, a paralegal who also now works as a wellness coach. “Even though I’m disciplined and my nutrition is great, my body still wants to gain this weight.” She began taking a GLP-1 “and it has been a huge key tool that I depend on. I’m really thankful I have it to help me maintain my health.”

GLP-1s have “revolutionized the way we think about obesity as a chronic disease,” says Dr. Sohaib Imtiaz, a board-certified lifestyle medicine doctor and chief medical officer for People Inc. Imtiaz points out that obesity in America is declining after decades on the rise — 37 % of adults in America are considered obese compared to 40% in 2022.

And the drop in obesity rates are largely attributed to the use of GLP-1s, which beginning this year will be available in pill form. More than 12 percent of adults in the U.S. report using the drugs.

But the medication is just one powerful tool for success. Over the next week on PEOPLE.com, PEOPLE will be sharing more from Milton’s and Torres-Vegas’s journeys, as well as success stories from five other everyday people, each of whom has had a unique path to weight loss that has changed their lives.

Says Milton: “This feels like our moment to shine.”