Coincidentally Andrew Read posted about this topic (or at least related to it) on his facebook page yesterday (Post 1) and a little follow up today (Post 2).
In the context of average Joe and health I'm totally with him. Of course you need to add mass if you want to be e.g. a NFL lineman. The sport just requires it.
For everything that's not related to specific sports or professions you probably need a certain amount of mass (-> e.g. some mass is good as you age), but not more than that.
I'm 6'4 205lbs, which puts me a bit above my ideal weight and I can tell you that gaining more mass than I already have would require a good amount of supplements like "weight gainer" or something like that, because I'd have a hard time eating enough
clean food to support further mass gains. 200-205lbs is just where my body naturally wants to be and where I feel good.
For me that supports Andrews statement.
Here are his two posts:
Post 1
I am always interested in why people insist on saying they're healthy when they are clearly not. These charts have been developed by doctors and insurance companies over decades looking at hundreds of thousands of people. In other words, they have a very large cross section of society they've used and chances are you fit in the middle range, whether you want to believe it or not.
Let's discuss common issues people ave with these...
1) "I'm really muscular and therefore not at risk". Note - it doesn't say anything about your bodyfat percentage. Extra weight is extra weight and your heart, lungs, and vascular system still need to be able to supply blood to it all. Secondly, the extra food you will need to eat to fuel that extra muscle won't help you live a long life. There are multiple studies that show that deliberately eating less, not more, will extend your life. Finally, if you did take drugs to gain that extra size do you really think that is a healthy practice?
2) "I'm normal sized". Not really. Not if you're outside the ranges shown here. You may be the common size - because 70% of the population is overweight or obese - but that doesn't make it normal. Common and normal aren't the same thing. Like it or not you are most likely of average genetics which mean you fit in the fat part of the bell curve that these charts represent.
3) Of the leading causes of death 7/10 are primarily effected by your diet. Exercise plays a part too but diet is number one when it comes to keeping most major illnesses away. Any extra weight you carry beyond the averages increases your chances of death.
4) If you're over 40 you need to pay double attention to your diet and body fat levels. You are already at the age where you are most at risk for heart attacks and the like. Any extra weight you carry only increases those risks as well as speeds up the decay of your joints thanks to having to carry that extra weight or push those heavy loads you are using to build the extra weight in the first place.
5) "I'd have to lose X kg to weigh that! I haven't been that small since high school!" Do you mean that you have slowly added mass to your frame despite not growing any taller? That's called getting fat. Apart from undersized individuals, of which I was one, who are still gaining muscle into their late twenties, you absolutely should weigh roughly what you weighed when you finished high school. My bodyweight has stayed the same for twenty years. The reason for that is simple - I don't eat a ton of crap and try to justify it to myself and I exercise regularly. It's called discipline - a skill all adults are supposed to have.
Post 2
I want to thank people for all their responses yesterday.
Let's start addressing some of these things.
For all the guys who are big and lean and think it makes them healthy... maybe not. And you should read this as it breaks down in quite simple terms.
I've had a world champion powerlifter call me at 9pm on Christmas Eve crying because he had been told only that day that his heart was operating at 17% and he was a huge risk of dying. It took a year but we got him off the drugs (both his performance stack as well as what his doctor prescribed to keep him alive). Got him back to the 70ish% it's supposed to be.
I've had an international strongman call me after having a heart attack and finding out his heart worked at 20% wonder what to do. Fast forward a year or so and he's dropped some weight and feels alive again.
Mass - all mass - has a cost. That table yesterday indicates risk. Insurance companies use them to figure out how much money they want to gamble on your health. It doesn't matter if you're big and lean, or big and fat, you're going to pay a cost.