People generally overestimate the size of a wild animal, and the more dangerous we think the animal may be, the bigger we perceive it to be. Most black bears weigh about the same or slightly more than the average human being, generaly from 160 to 220 pounds. Some have been known to reach 500 pounds, but this can be said of people too. A bear is fully grown at about the age of seven or eight, and the northeastern states have yielded the largest black bears.