Intrauterine nutrition can program the metabolism of offspring, creating stable changes in physiology that may have significant health consequences later in life. We have previously found, using a mouse model of natural-onset obesity and type 2 diabetes, that offspring exposed to maternal obesity in utero exhibit a latent predisposition for metabolic disease in adulthood that is associated with widespread epigenetic changes. Our most recent work demonstrates that a latent metabolic phenotype is also conferred by being born of an obese father. While offspring can avoid overt disease by consuming a healthy diet, most worrying is the finding that the latent phenotype can persist through several generations. These findings and their implications will be discussed.