How We Lost 100 Lbs: Real

PEOPLE’s new cover story features everyday people sharing their weight-loss success — with GLP-1s and without — and how they’re staying healthy

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.