Record-breaking Hong Kong powerlifter and dietitian now battles bad online health advice

Jaclyn Hei Tsang was working at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Hong Kong as a clinical dietitian in 2021 when she left her job to become a professional powerlifter. Just a year after she became a full-time athlete, she set a Hong Kong record in the under-57kg (125lb) weight class when she bench pressed 90kg at the 2022 Hong Kong Powerlifting Championships. In the same competition, she squatted 120kg and dead lifted 151kg, for a total weight count of 361kg – also a Hong Kong record. Today, the 33-year-old dietitian, powerlifter and personal trainer – and PhD candidate in sport science at the Education University of Hong Kong – is a fixture in the city’s health and wellness arena, often appearing on talk shows and at sports events to speak about fitness. Tsang says there are many health myths on the internet, with much unfounded advice on which diet to follow or which supplement to take for a successful fitness journey. In her role as a dietitian and personal trainer, she is on a mission to debunk the myths – mostly through her Instagram page, @fitness_dietitian_hk. What began as a simple hobby to pass the time on her daily commutes has evolved into a powerful platform of evidence-based education for more than 52,000 followers. Tsang uses infographics to clearly explain what people need to know about their food choices. Many appeal directly to Hong Kong viewers with their focus on common local foods, such as detailing how many calories are in different types of mooncakes, how much protein soy milk contains, and how to have a nutritionally balanced Mid-Autumn feast. One example illustrates how much protein there is in meals at popular Hong Kong fast-food chains. Fairwood’s chicken breast and red-grain rice meal, for example, offers a high 50g of protein, while a 7-Eleven chicken Caesar salad wrap and sugar-free soy milk combo contains 40g. Several other options – including Tamjai’s rice noodle meal with chicken and lettuce, Subway’s chicken breast submarine sandwich, a McDonald’s grilled chicken burger with a side of corn with a latte, and Hana-musubi’s soup and onigiri set – all have around 30g of protein per serving. Tsang was a competitive junior swimmer as a child – she was even briefly in the same class as Hong Kong Olympic swimmer Siobhan Haughey – though it was not something she enjoyed. “I hated swimming so much,” she says. She acknowledges, however, that the training laid the groundwork for her powerlifting careerby instilling an athlete’s mindset of perseverance. The swimming came to an end when she moved to the UK for her A-levels. “That was the time when I really wanted to lose weight, and I was doing all these stupid diets like eating cup noodles for weight loss – the kind of thing that teenagers do,” she says. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jaclyn (@jaclyn.tsang) Aware that her approach was far from healthy, she turned her frustration into a target and chose to study nutrition at the University of Hong Kong to find the right answers for herself. After attaining a bachelor’s degree, she moved back to the UK for a postgraduate diploma in dietetics, working in the National Health Service for a year before returning to Hong Kong as a registered dietitian in 2018. Her return to the city also marked the beginning of her weightlifting. Her now-husband – also a researcher in sports science, whom she met while the two were studying for their bachelor’s degrees – encouraged her to go to the gym and acted as her personal trainer. By their third session together, a coach in the gym noticed that she was deadlifting 60kg to 70kg and encouraged her to join a competition “I didn’t realise it was that heavy,” she says. So just two months after she took up the sport “for fun”, Tsang took part in her first formal powerlifting meet. But it did not go as well as planned. “I got DQ’ed from my first competition,” she says. The reason for disqualification? She was “ego-lifting” and attempted a lift beyond her limits. This failure sparked her motivation. She continued to train, eventually securing a spot in the Hong Kong Powerlifting Federation in 2021. She joined the Hong Kong, China Weightlifting and Powerlifting Association in 2022, going on to break Hong Kong records. She placed first in her weight class at the Asian Powerlifting Federation’s 2023 Asian Pacific African Classic Bench Press Championship. Tsang’s dieting and nutrition knowledge helps her build muscle and cut weight to meet her class division in a healthy, sustainable way. But she says there is so much misinformation online that gym-goers consume. “Some posts say they need to eat 200 grams of protein or three to four protein shakes a day, which is definitely not true!” Tsang notes that while protein needs are based on weight class and less so on gender, female athletes face the challenge of navigating mental and physical well-being throughout their menstrual cycles. “Periods can affect the progress you’ve been building up across the month because with hormonal and emotional fluctuations, there are just some days where you really don’t want to train,” she says. She may recommend more carbohydrates for clients training during that time to ensure enough nutrition for energy and recovery. The appeal of her online infographics and her impressive résumé as a powerlifter led to a deal for her 2023 book, Fitness Nutrition Guide: An Evidence-based Approach to Gaining Muscles & Fat Loss. The publishing company, for which her husband had previously written, was seeking potential new authors, and Tsang was also looking for a way to put to good use the research she had done for her Instagram account. She compiled the book while running Fitness Nutrition & Training Centre, a space and company she founded where she worked as a dietitian, nutritionist and personal trainer. But with only the help of an assistant to run the business, she experienced burnout after three years and closed it in 2024. Next up for Tsang is to complete her PhD, which centres on a thesis investigating whether there is scientific evidence to prove that “cheat days” can actually boost an athlete’s metabolism or motivation. Tsang continues to compete as a powerlifter regionally, most recently in September at the Hong Kong Bench Press Championship 2025 – her first time competing in two years. She scored first place. Reflecting on her career pivots – from hospital dietitian to powerlifter to PhD candidate – Tsang says it never feels like the right time to make a move. She recalls sitting in the hospital she worked at, thinking: “If I don’t do it now, then when am I going to do it?” Like what you read? Follow SCMP Lifestyle on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also sign up for our eNewsletter here.

Record-breaking Hong Kong powerlifter and dietitian now battles bad online health advice

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Jaclyn Hei Tsang is on a mission to debunk online health myths and unfounded advice by setting the record straight on her Instagram page

Jaclyn Hei Tsang is on a mission to debunk online health myths and unfounded advice by setting the record straight on her Instagram page