I ran across a research paper which found that while the average guy would like to have a lot more muscle, the average woman prefers men with only slightly above-average muscle mass.

Now, I could try to poke holes in this - say that university students' preferences are weird and they should go ask some farmgirls at a disco, or that you should always trust what women actually want and never what they say they want, but let's take this finding at face value. Assume everything in this study is true, and also assume that your only goal in life is to attract more desirable women. If you're a muscular guy, should you lose a bunch of muscle for the sake of the ladies?

Naaaah. I can think of two good reasons why you should keep growing more meat on your bones. One is that women like socially dominant men. For most of us being bigger and stronger than other guys helps achieve that. They'll take you over the better-looking guy who thinks you're more man than him.

Two is that this study is talking about "the average woman", and there are plenty of non-average women as well. Now, I know that when told women don't like something he does, damn near every guy tries to hide behind "well, most women don't, but the ones who are really worth it love it". That's bullshit, of course. No matter who you are, plenty of women who are really worth it hate you and hate what you do. You should be man enough to admit it to yourself. However, there are also plenty of women who prefer meaty dudes, and they sure seem to be more plentiful than the meaty dudes they crave. In other words, the distribution of women's tastes is wider than the distribution of guys' meatiness, and us bigger guys don't have as much competition. Average guys are plentiful - it's a meat market and you want to be in short supply!

I do suspect that there is a grain of truth to this study, though. Whether it captures women's preferences accurately or not, men do care about how big and strong they are a lot more than women do.