Drinking this beverage every day helps protect your muscles from aging

Coffee is part of the morning routines for millions of people. But does drinking more coffee align with having more muscle?

That’s the question behind a new analysis of Americans’ habits and body composition. This research doesn’t try to prove cause and effect. It asks whether higher coffee or caffeine intake corresponds to more limb muscle for a given body size.

The answer points in a positive direction for most adults, with an important exception. The details matter, because the way researchers measured muscle and tallied coffee intake shapes how to read the results.

Why limb muscle matters

Muscle mass isn’t just about strength. Lower muscle mass in arms and legs raises the risk of falls, fractures, and everyday struggles that chip away at independence.

Scientists often track limb muscle adjusted for body size because it flags early losses that can sneak up with age.

A standard yardstick for that job is the appendicular skeletal muscle mass-to-BMI ratio, abbreviated as ASMBMI. In plain terms: “How much limb muscle do you have for your body size?”

This measurement focuses on muscle quantity, not how quickly you rise from a chair or how steady you feel on stairs.

Studying coffee’s link to muscles

Researchers pulled data from a large, ongoing U.S. health survey (NHANES) spanning 2011-2018.

They started with adults, applied clear rules such as “only include people with full diet interviews and body scans,” and finished with 8,333 participants. Muscle was measured by DXA scans of the arms and legs and then expressed as ASMBMI.

Coffee intake came from two 24-hour dietary recalls – structured interviews covering everything people ate and drank on two different days. The team looked at regular coffee, decaf coffee, and total caffeine from all sources.

Their statistical models adjusted for age, sex, race, education, income, smoking, alcohol, physical activity, BMI, medical conditions, total calories, and protein, so they could compare people who were similar on many fronts except for coffee intake.

What the results say

People who drank more coffee tended to have more limb muscle relative to their body size. After full adjustments, the highest coffee group had about a 13% higher ASMBMI than the non-coffee group.

The highest caffeinated coffee group showed roughly a 12% increase. The top caffeine group showed about an 11% increase. Decaf didn’t show a clear, statistically significant link.

When researchers drew smoothed trend lines, the pattern appeared approximately linear: more regular coffee or caffeine corresponded to more muscle relative to body size.

There was one major exception. When participants were split by BMI, the positive link disappeared in the group with obesity (BMI ≥ 30).

In that subset, drinking more coffee was not associated with higher ASMBMI. That doesn’t mean coffee lowers muscle there; it means the helpful pattern seen elsewhere wasn’t present.

A likely reason is biological factors tied to obesity, including chronic, low-grade inflammation that speeds muscle breakdown and may overshadow small benefits from caffeine or other coffee compounds.

Limitations in this research

This was a cross-sectional snapshot. It can spot links, but it can’t prove that coffee changes muscle. People with more muscle may simply be more active or keep schedules where coffee fits better.

The models adjusted for activity and many other variables, which strengthens confidence, but unmeasured factors can still nudge results.

Diet recalls lean on memory and honesty, and add-ins like sugar or cream can be easy to forget.

ASMBMI captures muscle quantity, not strength or performance, so it can’t tell you how much weight you can move or how good your balance is during daily activities.

Results also come from U.S. adults in specific survey years, so patterns could differ in other populations.

Why coffee is linked with muscles

Caffeine stimulates the nervous system and modulates how the body uses fuel during activity. Coffee also contains polyphenols with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

Lab and animal research suggests these compounds may support healthier muscle by encouraging autophagy – the cell’s cleanup crew for worn-out parts – and by dialing down chronic inflammation over time.

This analysis didn’t test mechanisms, but these ideas fit with the pattern. Decaf’s “no clear link” signal hints that caffeine may be doing more of the heavy lifting in this dataset.

What did we learn from this?

In U.S. adults, higher regular coffee and total caffeine intake tracked with more limb muscle relative to body size after accounting for many other factors. However, that association did not appear in participants with obesity.

If coffee already fits your day, these results sit comfortably with a muscle-friendly routine. Keep portions sensible, mind the extras, and avoid late cups that cut into sleep because poor sleep impairs recovery.

If you’re in the obesity range, the study’s “no clear link” finding suggests coffee isn’t a muscle fix.

The bigger levers are steady resistance training, enough protein spaced through the day, and better sleep, ideally alongside medical care that addresses weight, strength, and metabolic health together.

Coffee can still be part of that plan if it agrees with you, but it’s not the star of the show.

It’s a pattern, not proof. Pair your coffee with protein, training, and sleep if your goal is to build or protect muscle.

The full study was published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition.

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