The post Coffee Drinkers May Have Less Body Fat, More Muscle and Unexpected Hormone Differences first appeared on Crafting Your Home.
For many people, coffee is simply part of the morning routine. It can boost alertness, provide a familiar morning ritual, and, depending on how it is prepared, add relatively few calories to a person’s diet.
But new research from Finland suggests that habitual coffee consumption may be associated with more than just feeling awake.
A study published in the European Journal of Nutrition found that people who reported drinking more coffee tended to have lower levels of total body fat and visceral fat, as well as greater skeletal muscle mass. The researchers also found differences in several sex-hormone measures, with some associations differing between men and women.
Importantly, the research does not show that drinking coffee directly causes people to lose fat or gain muscle. It was an observational study, meaning researchers examined existing differences between people rather than assigning them to drink specific amounts of coffee.
The Study Looked at More Than 2,000 Adults
Researchers from the University of Oulu analyzed data from 2,264 participants in the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966. Participants were 46 years old when the researchers collected the measurements used in the analysis, and about 47 percent were men.
The researchers examined participants’ habitual coffee consumption alongside body composition, blood metabolites, glucose and insulin-related measures, and sex hormones.
They also accounted for several factors in their statistical analyses, including body mass index, education, smoking, physical activity, and alcohol consumption.
The results revealed an interesting pattern.
People in the higher coffee-consumption groups generally had a lower percentage of body fat, less total fat mass and less visceral fat. At the same time, they had greater skeletal muscle mass.
Yet their BMI was broadly similar to that of people who consumed less coffee.
That distinction matters because BMI only compares weight with height. It does not show how much of a person’s weight comes from fat versus muscle. Two people can have the same BMI while having noticeably different body compositions.
Less Visceral Fat, More Skeletal Muscle
One notable finding involved visceral fat.
Visceral fat is stored around internal organs and differs from the fat stored directly beneath the skin. Higher coffee consumption was associated with lower visceral fat and lower overall body fat.
At the same time, higher coffee intake was associated with greater skeletal muscle mass.
However, the researchers were careful about how to interpret these findings.
The study used bioelectrical impedance analysis to estimate body composition. This is a commonly used method, but it is not the same as directly measuring fat and muscle tissue. The researchers therefore noted limitations surrounding the body-composition measurements.
More importantly, the study’s design cannot establish cause and effect.
In other words, the results do not mean that increasing coffee consumption will automatically reduce someone’s body fat or increase their muscle mass.
The Hormone Findings Were More Complicated
The most surprising part of the research may have been the differences observed in sex hormones.
Among men, greater coffee consumption was associated with higher concentrations of total testosterone, bioavailable testosterone and sex hormone-binding globulin, commonly known as SHBG.
But the picture became more complicated when researchers looked at free testosterone.
Higher coffee consumption was also associated with lower free testosterone and a lower free androgen index. That means the results cannot simply be summarized as “coffee raises testosterone.” Different measures of androgen activity moved in different directions.
Women showed a somewhat different pattern.
Higher coffee consumption was associated with higher SHBG and lower measures of free testosterone and the free androgen index, while the researchers found fewer clear associations involving other hormonal measures.
These differences are one reason the researchers described the findings as a sex-specific hormonal pattern rather than a simple hormone boost from coffee.
Coffee Was Also Linked to Metabolic Differences
The researchers found additional differences in metabolic markers.
Higher coffee intake was associated with lower circulating levels of branched-chain amino acids, or BCAAs, in both men and women. BCAAs are essential amino acids involved in numerous processes in the body, including muscle metabolism.
Previous research has linked persistently elevated levels of these amino acids to metabolic problems such as insulin resistance, although the relationship is complex.
Among men in the Finnish study, higher coffee consumption was also associated with a more favorable glucose-insulin profile, including differences in insulin-related measurements.
These observations add another layer to the relationship between coffee consumption and metabolism.
So, Is Coffee Responsible for the Difference?
That remains unanswered.
Because this was a cross-sectional observational study, the researchers observed participants’ coffee habits and biological measurements rather than following people over time after assigning them different amounts of coffee.
That means several possibilities remain.
Coffee itself could contribute to some of the observed biological differences. Coffee contains caffeine and numerous other compounds that may influence metabolic processes. But other characteristics associated with coffee consumption could also contribute to the results.
Although the researchers adjusted for several lifestyle factors, observational studies cannot completely rule out other influences.
Previous research has also produced mixed findings concerning coffee, caffeine and sex hormones. For example, an earlier randomized controlled trial involving 42 adults found no consistent effect of caffeinated coffee on SHBG or sex hormones after eight weeks, highlighting why the new findings warrant further investigation.
What Coffee Drinkers Should Take From the Findings
The study offers an interesting picture of how habitual coffee consumption may be associated with body composition, metabolism and hormones. Still, it does not establish a new coffee-based strategy for losing fat or building muscle.
The researchers themselves concluded that future longitudinal and intervention studies are needed to determine whether coffee or particular compounds in coffee actually cause the observed changes.
For now, the takeaway is more nuanced: people who drank more coffee in this Finnish population tended to have less total and visceral fat and more skeletal muscle despite similar BMI. At the same time, their metabolic and hormone profiles also showed several differences.
That does not make coffee a substitute for physical activity, adequate nutrition, sleep, or other established components of a healthy lifestyle.
Instead, the findings add to the growing scientific interest in what happens inside the body after years of habitual coffee consumption and suggest that the effects may be considerably more complicated than simply getting a caffeine boost in the morning.
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