How long does it take for excess weight to catch up with a person? A young person is relatively resiliant to obesities damages (not all, and it is certainly doing something to them inside but it hasn't manifested as DMII, htn etc).

How long did it take to catch up to you or people you know? Meaning you could high blood pressure, diabetes, knee issues etc?

all depends on genetics

A close friend of ours is severely obese. Guessing 6'1" and well over 450lbs (?). He has been at least 350 lbs for the 12 years I have known him. We were mid 20's when we met.

Knees started going in his late 20's. Even at 350 he was capable of softball and racquetball, now at 35 he can barely climb stairs

But his cholesterol and bp is still healthy. For now.

My dad was "normal overweight" Meaning not that much different than the average american. 5'10", always about 40 lbs overweight, later it got worse. He had cholesterol and BP issues by late 30's, quality of life issues by 40's, digestive and heart issues by 50 diabetes in late 50's, etc. etc. etc. cascading effects after that. The drugs started compounding the weight problems which compounded the symptoms, etc.

I was about 220 lbs. and put on blood pressure medicine by the age of 26 yrs. old. By the age of 44, I weighed 237 lbs. and took 8 blood pressure pills a day. I now take 1/2 tablet a day after reaching a healthy weight. I also was diagnosed diabetic at age 44. So for me, health problems started fairly young due to my weight. One of my earliest symptoms from the excess weight was constant back pain.

There is absolutely no one answer for this. It varies GREATLY.

I remember my knees started hurting me about 6 or 7 years ago, I was about 36 or 37. I became obese sometime during my early to mid twenties. I remember looking around me as I was limping around, thinking "Wow, she's heavier and older then me and is walking perfectly" And then you see the opposite, she's thinner and younger then me and her knees are in worse shape then mine. You never know when health problems will arise. It's best to take care of your weight BEFORE anything occurs. Something I've learned the hard way.

I'm 25 and I weighed 350lbs for about a year of my life. I knew I had to lose weight when it hurt my knees to get up off the couch...when I got winded by walking around walmart.... those where what got me. When I had my labwork done in June before starting optifast, I found out that I was prediabetic and that my blood pressure was higher (but not bad). My blood sugar is now normal, my blood pressure varies but is basically normal, and my cholesteral is in range now. It doesn't hurt to walk or move anymore. I would have to say that when a person is morbidly obese, the first signs of physical issues are joint pain and problems with physical exertion. It is hard for a body to carry that massive amount of excess weight at any age.

I was in the 350 range for about 5-6 years. No real manifestations of weight related issues until I turned 32 (last year). My knees would hurt when I got up from the couch and walking up and down stairs. I love to dance and after a night out they would be swollen and tender the next day which had never happened before. Blood pressure, cholestoral and sugar were always normal if not low.

I would agree with others in that it is all about genetics.

I weighed over 300 lbs for 15 years. I weighed between 350-360 for 5 years or so. I've never had high blood pressure or bad cholesterol. I had a few knee problems from actual knee injuries but not from the weight. (Although I'm sure having a 300+ body slip, fall, twist knee wasn't helpful). Last year, I found out I have mild osteoarthritis in my left knee. It is something that won't go away and will probably only worsen with the years.

I've been 300+ for the last five years or so. I had been super healthy until this past year...now I am a cardiac patient and have prediabetes. It just snuck up on me and bit me in the butt.

Turn it around NOW while you are young!!

I think you're asking the wrong question. Studies are showing that it is not obesity itself that is a causal factor for poor health, but the person's level of physical inactivity. Overweight but physically active people are more healthy than normal weight but inactive people. So I guess it depends on whether you intend to be overweight and inactive, or overweight and active.

There is a waaay too much information floating around these days, about kids as young as 10 or 12 having elevated cholesterol levels and high blood pressure, for us to feel safe at any age.

As noted by others before, due a combination of other factors, there's no black-and-white "cut off point" before being overweight is linked to chronic problems such as cardiovascular diseases (but if you want a shocker, plaque starts building up in your arteries in your teens! and of course, an unhealthy diet & being overweight will only speed this along) or diabetes (and younger and younger folks now, some in their preteens, getting "adult-onset" diabetes as a result of, again, obesity and high-sugar diet.) So it's never too late OR early to start making healthy lifestyle changes.

Like has been said, it's different for everyone. My daughter is 22, 5' 7", and 270 pounds. She has severe knee problems. She was born with a hole in her knee for which she's had surgery, but the weight simply exacerbates the problem. I didn't start having problems with my knees til I was in my 30s. However, by losing weight in my late 30s, my knee problems have nearly vanished. I can't "undo" the damage, or the arthitis I was getting in them, but I minimized it and stopped the further damage. At over 200 pounds when I first started running, I needed knee supports. Now, I don't. But I still wear them, again, to minimize damage. But I don't need them to keep my knees from hurting now. I can run and not feel any of the previous problems I used to feel. I used to avoid steps because they bothered my knees. Not a problem anymore.

Both my dad and daughter have had knee surgery and both of their doctor's have advised they lose weight. They can't reverse their damage either, but by continuing at the rate they are, they make the damage worse, and make it more noticeable causing more knee pain than is necessary.

True there is so much information out there and its so true that at any age who can really be safe!
I'm 26 and my highest recorded weight last November was 238lbs (though I'm sure at times it was higher). I have normal cholesterol, blood pressure and no signs of diabetes yet...I have knee problems but they are not weight related...though I'm sure the weight doesn't help. I was also a very heave drinker and smoker. I started to notice some changes in how I functioned and felt really over the past year. Not sleeping well, feeling run down and tired all the time, the beginnings of back & neck pain, breaking a sweat on a flight of stairs, IBS symptoms.....I'm sure if I had kept going it wouldn't have been long before I had some major medical problems....just by losing the 20lbs or so that I've lost so far, eating healthy and exercising regularly those symptoms I had are starting to be eliminated.

I am one of apparently a lot of people with knee problems that were exacerbated, though not caused by, excess weight. I was born with a spare ligament which runs under my kneecap - by the time the doctors figured out what was going on and did surgery to remove the ligament, I had next to no cartilege in my knee left.

I can say that losing weight has helped me enormously in terms of pain, stiffness, and the frequency of problems (since my knee is all weird, it dislocates really easily - knee cap pops right off to the side because the underside of my kneecap is covered in scar tissue and the kneecap is sitting up higher than it would otherwise). I haven't had a full dislocation for 7 months, and while the knee still bothers me when the weather changes and etc, its way better now.

I have been overweight for 12 years, since I had my last child, I just haven't been able to shake the weight, I went from 160 on up to 204, I lose some, and gain more, anyway, some time last year I noticed the wonderful creaking of my knees as I walked up stairs, and my ankles began to become sensetive to walking up stairs or inclines of any kind, I also noticed I ran out of breath walking from one room to the next, I don't know about my cholestoral but I have never had high blood pressure and according the the blood pressure machines at the pharmacy in walmart I still don't, lol

I honestly believe it is different for everyone and as the other member said, genetics and what runs in your family. The worst thing for me is I have no idea about my families history and what does and doesn't run in my family and I have no way to find out.

The best thing would be to not ever let yourself get over weight, so much easier said than done. We are all here to help ourselves no longer be overweight so these problems don't begin or so they start to fade away