Is there a magical way to lose weight? No. Li Hu tells it like it is, giving simple advice on how to lose fat, get fit and lean.
Like most of us, I’ve always wanted that perfectly sculpted body, coconut shaped deltoids, a line on my inner thighs, chiselled abs, a lifted butt…etc.
I’ve been an active person for most of my life. I competed in track and field in grade school and played on the basketball and rugby team in high school. Then in University, I did my undergrad in Kinesiology and biomedical physiology. I’ve got a few 10km runs plus a half marathon under my belt.
But all that effort felt like effort and the abs didn’t come, neither did the perfectly sculpted body. For years, I struggled to manage my eating disorder and would often resort to overexercising as a way to punish myself whenever I binged. I’d do an hour of cardio then another hour of strength training but the results wouldn’t show.
During my ongoing recovery, I’ve realized my reasons to exercise.
Guilt is not a reason to exercise.
Self-hate is not a reason to exercise.
A thigh gap is not a reason to exercise.
A flat stomach is not a reason to exercise.
Eliminating cellulite is not a reason to exercise
What are my reasons to exercise?
To be able to do my favourite hike well into my 90’s
To prevent injuries, disability, back neck problems etc.
To pick up my children (and future grandchildren) without straining a muscle
To get up from the floor after playing with my kids without pain
To walk up and down the stairs with a load laundry without fear of losing my balance
To carry ALL THE GROCERIES from the car
To pull myself up in case I’m hanging off a cliff
To have the endurance to run away and carry my husband and kids from a zombie Apocolypse
As for nutrition, it came down to listening to my body, mindfully eating so that I could feel when I was full and stop. This ultimately led to eating less than I needed and the weight just came off. It didn’t really matter what I ate as long as I listened to my body. And when you’re listening, you don’t want to consume crap that makes you feel like crap.
It was about making exercise a priority but not a focus. And when you make it a priority, you get to be creative with how you want to meet that. It doesn’t have to be 1 hour long runs or 2-hour gym sessions; it can be 30 minutes dancing, squatting, interval training or yoga. The focus should be on mindset and consistency.
I recently connected with Li Hu, an Online Fitness Coach who helps working professionals and entrepreneurs lose weight and get fit while still being able to eat pizza, Thai food and drink beer without having to work out every day.
His philosophy for getting healthy sounded exactly what I had to learn and adapt (and continually adapt) for the past decade. However, he was able to distill down all that mess in my head (overanalysis anyone?) into a bottom-line approach that is simple and easy to understand.
Li Hu tells it like it is. Get ready for some straight-up advice.
“the key is CONSISTENCY, just like with anything else in life”
1. As an online fitness coach, how does that differ from someone who works with clients in-person (ie. personal trainer at the gym)? How has your business been affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic?
“99% of personal trainers only focus on workouts, so they kick your butt in the gym for 1 hour a few times a week. But what about the other 23 hours in the day?
As an online fitness coach, I focus on workouts, nutrition and you get 24/7 access to me and my clients see amazing results.
Thankfully my business hasn’t been affected due to COVID as I am fully online.“
2. What’s your personal journey into physical fitness? Have you always been a fit and healthy Asian man?
“My personal journey has been a long one. The Cliff’s Notes version is that I grew up super skinny – I was one of those kids who could eat whatever I wanted and still not lose weight and this continued into college.
I was really insecure about my body when in college so started researching how to gain weight. I had no idea what I was doing so ended up going from skinny to skinny fat and then to just chubby.
Finally, I was sick and tired of spinning my wheels so I hired my own online fitness coach and he taught me everything I know today and I completely transformed my body
3. What is the biggest misconception folks have about losing weight? Do you find there are differences between Asians and non-Asians?
“Biggest misconception: oh, where do I start.
– carbs make you fat
– you can’t eat after 8 pm
– do a ton of cardio
– you need to workout 10 hours/day
Expanding on the misconceptions and why they aren’t good to follow: I could write an entire book on this…haha.
But the bottom line is that these are all misconceptions because the thing that truly matters, in the end, is a caloric deficit. That is what matters more than ANYTHING ELSE.
Meaning: in order to lose weight/lose body fat and get leaner, you need to be consuming fewer calories than your body burns every single day.
As long as you do that, you can still eat carbs, you can still eat after 8pm, you don’t have to do much cardio at all etc.
No real differences between Asians and non-Asians.“
4. What advice would you give to someone who is really busy and wants to fit in a workout but says they “just don’t have time for it”?
“Do 30 minutes 3x/week to start out with. Literally that’s it. Short and simple because the key is CONSISTENCY, just like with anything else in life.
The mindset here is to stack on wins. You want to make it super easy for yourself to “win” and to cross off a workout from the to-do list, so make it as simple and easy to do as possible.
30 mins 3x/week is so much better than 60-90 mins every day and then inevitably falling off.
Nutrition: I could write an entire book on this but ultimately again it comes down to eating in a caloric deficit (if your goal is to lose weight/body fat) and eat as many whole foods as possible while avoiding processed foods and refined sugars etc. 80% whole foods, 20% you can indulge in what you want is a good overall ratio.“
5. What’s next for Li Hu?
“Going to scale my fitness coaching business and hire some team members and then I want to start a podcast and YT channel among other things!“
You can connect with Li:
Email: lwhlihu@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lwhlihu
Instagram: www.instagram.com/lihufitness
