The big app issue was due to a small bug in the IDE.
If you strill get big apps after stripping, do the folowing:
open a console
make sure your path system variable includes FPC bin dir in Control Panel->System->[Advanced] [System Variables]
or type in the console "SET PATH=C:\lazarus\pp\bin\win32\;%PATH%"
then
Code:
strip --strip-all yourapp
upx --best yourapp
This will make your apps much smaller.