Five Daily Coffees Linked to Less Body Fat and More Muscle, Finnish Study Finds

A group of 2,264 Finnish adults, all of them 46 years old, sat at the center of a study that asked a simple question about a very common habit: what does a lot of coffee look like in the body? The answer, published in the European Journal of Nutrition, is that people who drank five or more cups a day tended to be leaner and more muscular than people who drank less.

The participants came from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966. Researchers recorded each person's usual coffee consumption and set it beside measurements of body composition, blood metabolites, metabolic markers and hormone levels. They sorted people into four groups: non-drinkers, those drinking one to two cups a day, those drinking three to four, and a high-consumption group at five or more.

The differences in body composition were the most visible result. The higher-coffee groups had a lower body-fat percentage, lower total fat mass and less visceral fat, along with greater skeletal muscle mass. Their BMI, though, was broadly similar to that of people who drank less coffee. That suggests BMI alone missed some of what the researchers saw in the body.

The hormone findings were more tangled. Among men, greater coffee intake was associated with higher total testosterone and higher bioavailable testosterone, as well as higher levels of sex hormone-binding globulin, known as SHBG. But coffee intake was also associated with lower free testosterone and a lower free androgen index, so the testosterone picture is not a simple one of more coffee, more hormone. Among women, the pattern was more limited: higher SHBG, and lower free testosterone and free androgen index.

The study was cross-sectional, meaning it captured coffee habits and biological measurements at a single point in time. That design can reveal associations, but it cannot show that coffee caused any of the differences. The researchers themselves say longer-term studies and intervention studies are needed to establish whether coffee, or particular compounds in it, directly influence body composition and hormone levels.

There are other limits. Coffee intake rested on what participants reported about their own habits. The researchers had no detailed information on bean type, roast, or what people added to their cups. And because the group was a specific set of Finnish adults, the findings may not carry over equally to other populations.

Dr. Lodha, quoted in the coverage, urged reading the work as an association and not as advice to drink more coffee. In the doctor's words, sustainable fat loss and muscle preservation depend on adequate protein, resistance exercise, regular physical activity, enough sleep and a balanced diet overall.

For now, then, the finding is interesting rather than instructive. Among these 46-year-old Finns, heavier coffee drinking went along with a leaner body-composition profile and measurable hormone differences. Whether the coffee is responsible is a question that future research will have to answer.