Finnish Scientists Found That Coffee Drinkers Have Less Fat And More Muscle

Researchers at the University of Oulu in Finland analyzed health data from 2,264 people all born in 1966 and participating in a long-running birth cohort study, comparing their usual coffee intake against body composition measurements, metabolic markers, and sex hormone levels. The findings, published in the European Journal of Nutrition, showed that people who consumed more coffee tended to have lower levels of total body fat and visceral fat, the fat stored around internal organs, alongside greater skeletal muscle mass. These differences appeared even though participants with higher and lower coffee intake had similar body mass indexes, meaning the variation in fat and muscle distribution was not explained by weight differences alone. Higher coffee consumption was also associated with lower circulating levels of branched-chain amino acids, biomarkers that when chronically elevated have been linked to insulin resistance and greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a finding consistent with earlier research associating regular coffee drinking with reduced diabetes risk.

The most unexpected part of the study involved hormones, particularly in men. Greater coffee consumption among male participants was associated with a more favorable glucose-insulin profile, higher total and bioavailable testosterone, and greater concentrations of sex hormone-binding globulin, though free testosterone and the free androgen index were modestly lower. In women, higher coffee intake was mainly associated with increased SHBG and lower measures of free androgens. Lead author Luca Verroest, a doctoral researcher at the University of Oulu, said what stood out was a distinct hormonal signature that did not disappear after accounting for BMI and lifestyle factors, and that several of the associations differed between men and women in ways that had not previously been described. The researchers were careful to frame all findings as associational rather than causal: observational data of this kind cannot establish that drinking coffee directly produces these biological differences, only that the differences exist. They are now investigating the question using animal models, with the longer-term aim of moving toward human intervention studies to determine which compounds in coffee might be responsible. Finland, where this research was conducted, is one of the highest per-capita coffee-consuming countries on Earth, with average annual consumption of approximately 11.8 kilograms per person. The scientists studying what coffee does to the body are, in many cases, drinking it while they do.

Source:https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260819041228.htm