A new study suggests folks who drink more coffee have more muscle and less body fat than folks who drink less, or don’t partake at all. But it’s not clear whether there’s a cause-and-effect association or just a casual correlation between the two…
What they did
The researchers wanted to study the relationship between coffee and measures of body composition, metabolic health, and sex hormones. The study was published in the July, 2026, edition of The Euro-pean Journal of Nutrition.
The team analyzed data from 2,264 46-year-olds participating in a long-running Finnish research project, which collected a wide range of diet, medical and lifestyle information on each participant.
What they found
The team found those participants in the Finnish study who drank more coffee tended to have less total body fat, more muscle mass, and lower levels of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) in their blood, despite having similar BMIs. Elevated BCAA levels have been linked to a higher risk of type 2 diabetes.
However… The Finnish study relied on self-reported coffee intake, and did not account for factors such as serving size, darkness of roast, bean type, or what participants added to their coffee.
And no provable mechanism was found for the correlation between coffee and benefits to body fat and muscle mass.
The takeaway
The new study begs questions about the relationship between coffee and measures of body composition.
According to a Food & Wine story, some observers postulate that coffee’s caffeine injection makes coffee drinkers more likely to exercise more vigorously than non-caffeinated subjects. In fact, a 2024 study of more than 8,000 adults also found that higher coffee and caffeine intake was associated with greater skeletal muscle mass.
Other previous research has shown Caffeine can temporarily increase energy expenditure, the amount of energy your body uses. It can also increase thermogenesis, the process by which your body produces heat, and fat oxidation
My take
I don’t care how it works – as long as it works. But I was disappointed to discover that the Finnish study only asked participants whether they drank coffee regularly or not. My biggest unanswered question remains – how much coffee should I drink a day to receive the optimum benefits the new study reveals, without going overboard into ‘too much’ territory…
~ Maggie J.