Drinking five or more cups of coffee a day can help keep dangerous belly fat at bay, reducing your risk diabetesheart disease and even cancerresearch suggests.
Finnish scientists found that those who regularly drink about five cups of coffee a day have less visceral fat and more muscle mass than lighter coffee drinkers, despite weighing broadly the same.
Unlike the fat you can squeeze around your waist, visceral fat surrounds internal organs and releases harmful chemicals that can cause disease.
Visceral fat has been called a ‘silent killer’ and has been linked to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s and a range of cancers, including liver, colon and stomach cancer.
Coffee has previously been linked to a lower risk of heart disease. But now researchers say regular consumption can lead to a healthier overall body composition.
“Coffee is consumed by millions of people every day, yet we still know surprisingly little about how it is linked to our metabolism and hormones,” explained Luca Verroest, a doctoral researcher at the University of Oulu, and the lead author of the study.
‘What stood out in our findings was a clear pattern that did not disappear even after we took body mass index (BMI) and lifestyle factors into account.’
The study – published in the European Journal of Nutrition – analyzed data from 2,264 participants aged 46 years from the Northern Finnish 1966 birth cohort.
People who drink at least five cups of coffee a day tend to have less visceral fat than non-drinkers
Participants were divided into four groups based on the amount of coffee they drank on average, ranging from none to five or more cups per day.
Researchers then looked at their weight, BMI, waist circumference, body fat percentage, muscle mass and blood pressure.
Blood samples were also taken to measure cholesterol and insulin levels, and to monitor sex hormones such as testosterone.
They found that those who drank the most coffee had the lowest body fat percentage – about 27 percent – compared to those who didn’t drink coffee, who were around 29 percent body fat.
People who drank five or more cups a day also had about 6 percent less visceral fat than non-drinkers and the highest muscle mass.
Interestingly, BMI – a measure of weight-to-height – was virtually the same across all groups, despite regular coffee drinkers having less fat and more muscle.
Higher coffee intake was also linked to lower levels of a type of amino acid previously linked to obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Men who drank more coffee tended to have more favorable insulin levels and higher levels of total testosterone, which the researchers said could help protect against diabetes and other metabolic diseases.
However, men who regularly drank more coffee also had lower levels of free testosterone, which has previously been linked to low libido, fatigue and reduced muscle mass.
The researchers concluded that regular coffee consumption is associated with a “leaner body composition,” which could have beneficial effects on long-term health.
However, they acknowledged that further research is needed before the findings can provide dietary recommendations – with some people being less able to tolerate caffeine.
Because this study was observational, the team also could not comment on whether coffee’s protective effect was due to anti-inflammatory compounds in the beans, known as polyphenols, or the caffeine itself.
A 2026 study of the coffee habits of more than 350,000 adults found that those who drank five or more cups a day were 47 percent less likely to develop liver cancer — even if they chose decaffeinated coffee.
But unfiltered options, such as French press, have also been shown to increase levels of so-called bad cholesterol, which can build up in arteries over time and increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.
It comes as US researchers found that drinking five cups of black coffee a day could reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.
However, when they published their findings in the Journal of the American Heart Association, they also warned that higher doses of caffeine can overstimulate the heart, leading to sudden blood pressure spikes, irregular heartbeats and even cardiac arrest in healthy adults.
