Does coffee make you store fat around your midsection?

Someone told me today that they read that coffee makes you hold fat cells around your midsection.  I have never heard this before and am wondering if anyone else has ever heard of this.  I drink about three - four cups a day and have done so for many years.  Black no cream no sugar.  I do tend to store fat in my midsection and it is the last place I lose it.  I am 5' 3.5" and even when I was 112 lbs I still had extra fat in my midsection but looked emaciated everywhere else.  I wonder if there is any connection.

I also refuse to believe it makes you store fat around your belly area.

I drink coffee regularly and I have pear-shaped figure. 

no, it dosent, i drink a tonne of coffee and ive always looked like a beanpole.

Studies change all the time I know but cortisol is a real stress hormone that contributes to belly fat and if coffee may be effecting my cortisol levels in my body then I am going to try and do without it for a while and see what happens. 

Some people may be more sensitive to cortisol levels than others.  Just cause you yourself drink coffee and have a flat stomach does not mean that there is no way it could not be raising someone else's cortisol levels.

Hello there --- I am new and just freaked about the coffee thing!  You have to be kidding :).  Anyway, I have a great article on reducing cortisol -- it is by a bodybuilder and really helped me with core ab work.....http://bodybuilding.about.com/od/supplementat ionbasics/tp/reducecortisol.htm

 

why do people insist on saying "this isn't true because it isn't true for me"?  do they not realize that people are different?

the standard of evidence for research isn't everybody all the time.  it's more often than by chance.  if more people who drink coffee have higher cortisol, and if more people who have higher cortisol have more mid-section fat, and if this is a consistent finding, it's "true."  that doesn't mean true for everybody; it means it's true for more people than not.

if you drink coffee and if you have mid-section fat that can't be explained by being just generally fat, it might be because coffee elevates your cortisol levels.

Thanks for the website, somestats, I will check that out.

Thanks pgeorgian, that is exactly what I was trying to say.

 

Anything with a lot of caffeine CAN elevate your "stress hormones" (ie cortisol).  It sends your body into that "fight or flight response" which causes your body to horde it's resources in case it needs to burn them off later (ie storing fat).  However, caffeine also revs your metabolism.  I've read journal article after journal article that all contradict one another.  Bottom line....some people just have a tendancy (metabolism) to store fat in some places rather than others.  If we're going to blame coffee....it's not had any effect on my belly fat, just my hips and butt!

I do yoga and go on walks to reduce my stress level. The way I see it, giving up coffee would be more stressfull for me than it may save me in cortisol. 

i have read that the acidity in coffee causes your body to store excess fat around the midsection in order to protect the organs. but i also agree that everyones body reacts differently to everything.

i read that in the book Skinny Bitch...

The acidity thing is bunk, that much I can be fairly sure of. The body does not store fat around the midsection to protect the organs from acid.  That wouldn't even work, for one. And many foods and drinks are far more acidic than coffee.

i was thinking the same thing, trustwomen: (a) you should not be putting coffee in your abdominal cavity, and (b) orange juice is more acidic than coffee.

and carmel_blue, the study doesn't link coffee and stress, it links coffee and cortisol.  basically, you're by-passing the stress and going directly to the stress effects.

Oh, and folks, you also shouldn't put coffee up your butt.

No, seriously, people do that.

i've heard of that.  it's a wonder we've survived as a species, really.

That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.  We are talking about black coffee, right?  Not latte's with whip cream an all that bull.  First of all coffee does not have any calories in it.  Secondly, caffeine speeds up you heart rate and can actually make you burn more calories as a result.  And thirdly, fat gets stored differently on everyone's body.. some people it is even, some it is located in one spot.  The only calories that go to your abdomen is fat that is stored as visceral fat.. actually stored underneath your muscle layer.  This is primarily fat from alcohol.

go to this site it talks about coffer and weight around your waist

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1608/i s_9_19/ai_106652961

On atkins they suggested to not drink coffee much or reduce it.
I have seen this on other diet write ups multiple times so me and my other half just did cut the coffee. It seemed to show results but you can never tell as any diet change can get you results.

We have used this tip to break out of stalls now in just basic calorie counting. What I notice is that coffee affects him a great deal more than it affects me. (Storing and stalling for him, stalling for me)

The metabolism boost you get from coffee or any other diet aid stimulant looses its punch in about 8 weeks when your body adjusts to it.

So he sticks with his 1 cup when we do this. I cut it out totally.
Just try cutting it out for awhile and having it again later. Your skin will thank you too. Its amazing what a few cups of coffee do to the skin. (bad)

The caffine also makes your blood sugar crash. That can make you crave carbs. Another reason to cut it down or out.

chop_chop, i've been thinking about giving it a go.  coffee is just about the only thing i do religiously, but when i accidentally run out, i don't have withdrawl symptoms, so i know that cutting it out is a possibility for me.  so my question is this: how long do you and your husband have to quit before seeing results?

i just don't want to go to the pain of quitting for two weeks, only to give up and pick it up again the day before it starts working, you know?

I usually give any diet changes at least a month.

What I noticed with the coffee thing is that after a week my skin looks better. In two weeks my joints feel better and Im over the coffee lag. Third week I will see more scale action.

I notice the bloating in my s.o. stomach right away though.
And his face. Its down in the first week. He also drinks a ton more coffee than I do.

I think the timeline will depend on the person though. So just go by how your body feels.

And the bonus is when I have a cup after a break...Its that coffee virgin happy energy surge all over again. :)

thanks, chop!  i think i'll give it a try when i finish the coffee that's in my cupboard.  it's good timing for me, as i don't have any early mornings right now.

one thing i know that will be better - coffee and breakfast don't mix for me.  if i eat first, the coffee doesn't taste good, so i drink my coffee first.  but then--even though i wake up hungry--once i've had my two or three cups, my appetite goes and i have to force myself to eat.  if i cut out the coffee, i'll eat breakfast right away.

No- and here's a critical look at Dr Perricone's research, which is where this idea comes from.

http://www.quackwatch.com/11Ind/perricone.htm l

I think coffee consumption adds to weight gain when you add lots of full fat milk and sugars.  There is no strong evidence to suggest that coffee even raises cortisol levels.  I would challenge people to show verifiable evidence of this.  Please cite sources.

Thanks!