How a Dietitian, Athlete, and Researcher Turns Evidence into Strength
“Science has always been my anchor. It's never been outside my life, only part of it.”
Jaclyn TSANG
• U57kg Champion at the 2023 Asian
Pacific African Classic Bench Press
Championship
• Book Author
• PhD student in Sports Nutrition at
The Education University of HK
• BSc in Food and Nutritional Science,
School of Biological Sciences, HKU
Some journeys begin with grand ambitions. Our alumna Jaclyn TSANG started with a quiet kind of wonder. She did not dream of titles or big stages. She simply likes to understand how food nourishes the human body, how movement changes it, and how science can explain the smallest shifts in strength, energy, and health.
That quiet curiosity eventually led her from the wards of a public hospital to the platform of an international powerlifting championship, from a humble Instagram account to her own training centre, and now, to a PhD lab.
Step by step, that simple curiosity became the thread connecting every chapter of her life.
A Seed Takes Root
When Tsang first entered the HKU Science’s 6901 BSc programme, she did not have a plan. She had not mapped out her career in neat bullet points. She just liked human biology a lot. She liked questions.
Since students were not required to choose a major in their first year, she had the space to explore environmental science, chemistry, and physiology. Still, somewhere in the midst of lecture halls and lab sessions, nutrition quietly took root in her heart.
“I was fascinated by the way food interacts with the body,” she recalls. “It’s something we do every single day, eating, and yet it’s full of science.”
Jaclyn shared practical, evidence-based nutrition
tips with runners at a marathon, turning complex
science into real-life strength.
Her undergraduate years also took her to the University of British Columbia, where visiting farms gave her a firsthand look at how everyday food is produced. An internship at a local social service agency introduced her to the community, allowing her to learn directly from registered dietitians.
“Those experiences, together with my three years of study, were a turning point that transformed my passion into professional path,” she says.
Tsang graduated with first-class honours in Food and Nutritional Science, a foundation that first took her to the National Health Service in the UK, and soon after, back home to Queen Elizabeth Hospital as a registered dietitian. The work was intense: bariatric surgery patients, weight management cases, people navigating major lifestyle changes.
Science in the Hospital
Each day, Tsang drew on the scientific principles she had once scribbled into her notebooks: metabolism, physiology, biochemistry. But this time, they were not theories; they were treatment plans.
“In hospitals, I learnt to make recommendations so clear that even a child or an elderly patient could grasp the key message behind complex science,” she says.
She also saw how easily people were drawn to misinformation catchy, to entertaining content that spreads faster than facts. That was when something clicked: science only matters if it can be understood.
Tsang decided to step outside the hospital walls to meet people where they were. She began sharing simple, evidence-based fitness nutrition tips on Instagram, not as a business plan, but as a way to set the record straight. At the same time, she was also forging another identity: a competitive powerlifter. She pushed herself in training and deepened her expertise by earning certifications as a powerlifting coach and personal trainer.
Armed with knowledge in both nutrition and fitness, her message began to resonate. People listened, shared her posts, and something bigger began to grow.
The Leap
As Tsang influence expanded, she realised that sharing knowledge online was not enough. She wanted to build a space where evidence-based nutrition and training could come together in real life. That clarity pushed her to make a bold move: leaving the security of her hospital job to create her own training centre in Central.
Her approach was straightforward: nutrition and exercise go hand in hand. The centre was not just a business. It was a small kingdom built on science, a place where clients came not for trends or shortcuts, but for clarity and trust. Many who started with her stayed on for years. She also gave talks and workshops, teaching personal trainers and gym-goers how to understand and apply evidence-based nutrition.
“Perfect plans are useless if they don’t fit into real lives,” Tsang says. “That’s why I always tried to make science practical.”
Coming Home to Research
Nonetheless, the more Tsang worked with real people, the more questions emerged. She began to notice gaps in the literature, subtle nuances of performance and recovery that no study had fully explained. That quiet curiosity from her university days resurfaced.
“I realised that if I wanted better answers, I had to be part of finding them.”
In 2024, she received the prestigious Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme, marking a turning point. Now a PhD student in Sports Nutrition at The Education University of Hong Kong, her research focuses on integrating evidence-based nutrition and resistance training into practical applications. To fully commit to research, she has paused her private practice. This is not a retreat, it is a return to the roots of the science she loves.
This bestselling guide bridges science and everyday nutrition for smarter, stronger living.
Science, Translated
Tsang has never stopped living what she teaches. She experiments with nutrition, monitors performance, and turns herself into her own case study. In 2023, she rose to the top of the national powerlifting scene, claiming the U57kg Champion title at the Asian Pacific African Classic Bench Press Championship and setting national records.
She also continues to share her knowledge. Her bestselling book, A Guide to Fitness Nutrition, launched at the 2024 Hong Kong Book Fair, bridges scientific theory with everyday choices, her way of giving people tools to live healthier lives. “Science isn’t meant to sit in books or journals,” she says. “It’s meant to be understood and lived.”
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