Coffee Drinkers May Have More Muscle and Less Body Fat, Study Finds

Key Points:

• A recent Finnish study published in the European Journal of Nutrition found that people who drank more coffee tended to have greater muscle mass and less total body fat, despite similar BMIs, suggesting a link between coffee consumption and body composition.
• The study analyzed data from 2,264 middle-aged adults and found that higher coffee intake was associated with lower branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) levels, which have been linked to a higher risk of type 2 diabetes.
• Researchers caution that the cross-sectional study shows an association but cannot prove causation, and factors such as coffee serving size, roast, and additives were not controlled for.
• Possible explanations for the findings include caffeine’s role in enhancing exercise performance and metabolic effects like increased energy expenditure, thermogenesis, and fat oxidation, which may contribute to muscle gain and fat loss over time.
• Experts advise against using coffee as a weight-loss strategy or increasing intake solely based on these results, emphasizing the need for further research to understand coffee’s role in body composition.