PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to examine the influence of weight status on the muscular strength in a large cohort (n = 6.085) of university students. METHODS: The sample comprised 2.648 male and 3.437 female, apparently healthy young university students (mean age, 21.2±4.7 years) attending public and private institutions in the cities of Bogota and Cali (Colombia). Handgrip strength (HGS) was measured two times with a TKK analogue dynamometer. To account for differences in body size, peak grip strength was divided by body mass and HGS/kg was used in further analysis. We also classified the sample into 4 weight categories (underweight, normalweight, overweight, and obese) to examine the influence of weight status on muscular strength level. RESULTS: The prevalence of underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese was 6.5%, 70.7%, 18.9%, and 3.6%, respectively. Underweight students showed similar HGS/kg levels than their normalweight counterparts. Both underweight and normalweight male and female had significantly higher performance than their overweight and obese counterparts in HGS/kg. CONCLUSIONS: The present study showed the influence of weight status on muscular strength levels gender-specific. Our findings suggest that in Latin American, the importance of assessing muscular strength in the target population for primary prevention to estimate the proportion of adults with high or low muscular strength levels.