Maria Kang is a fitness coach who gained even more attention with her viral post on Facebook in 2013 when she posted a picture of her toned body with 3 kids with the caption “What’s Your Excuse”. Before becoming a fitness coach, she was a model and had won Miss Petite Teen International, Miss San Francisco Chinatown, Miss Philippines USA, and Miss Bikini California.
Born Name
Maria M. Kang
Nick Name
No Excuse Mom, Fit Mom
Sun Sign
Sagittarius
Born Place
San Francisco, California, United States
Residence
Elk Grove, California, United States
Nationality
Education
Maria attended the Laguna Creek High School and was involved in cheerleading. In 2002, she graduated from the University of California, Davis with a double major in history and international relations.
Mother – Caroline Kang (Managed a state-owned parking garage)
Siblings – Angel Kang (Younger Sister), Christine Kang (Younger Sister), Dominic Kang (Older Brother)
Others – George G. Aducayen, Jr. (Maternal Grandfather) (Philippine Diplomat)
Manager
Unknown
Build
Athletic
Height
5 ft 4 in or 162.5 cm
Weight
57 kg or 125.5 lbs
Boyfriend / Spouse
Maria Kang has dated –
David Casler (2010-Present) – Maria and David Casler, who is an ex-mariner, met on MySpace and got married on November 27, 2010. Her mother wasn’t present at the wedding due to health-related hospitalization. They have 3 kids together, all boys, Christian Casler (b. 2009), Nicholas Casler (b. 2010), and Gabriel Casler (b. 2011). In 2016, their marriage hit a rocky patch when Maria filed for separation. But they managed to pull through and have been stronger than ever since.
Race / Ethnicity
Asian
She has Chinese and Malaysian ancestry on her father’s side and is of Filipino descent on her mother’s side.
Hair Color
Dark Brown
Eye Color
Dark Brown
Sexual Orientation
Straight
Distinctive Features
Pointed chin
Wide smile
Brand Endorsements
She has done a lot of endorsement work on social media. She has advertised for Lulus.com among many other brands.
Religion
Christianity
She was raised in a Christian family and is still a practicing Catholic.
Best Known For
Her viral post on Facebook in 2013 wherein she was flaunting her toned physique, 8 months after giving birth, along with her 3 sons. The post which was captioned “What’s your excuse” sparked a national debate and she received criticism for allegedly fat shaming mothers with a less-than-ideal body.
Her extensive work as a fitness advocate and for being a motivation to mothers who want to get in shape after having kids.
First TV Show
She made her first TV show appearance as herself on October 16, 2013, on the news talk-show Fox & Friends.
Personal Trainer
Maria has been following the same workout routine for more than 10 years. She trains 5 to 6 days a week for 30 to 60 minutes, of which 3 or 4 days involve resistance training. She works each of her body parts by doing at least 3 exercises, 3 sets per exercise and doing 10-15 reps per set with a resting time of 30 seconds in between.
In order to save time, she usually does supersets which involve not taking a break between exercises. She also includes cardio on all the days of her training. She performs high-intensity interval training (HIIT) by running, stair climbing or attending a spin class.
She follows a timely dietary schedule, which is described below –
Breakfast – She has her first meal of the day at 8 am with 4 egg whites or oatmeal. At 10:30 am, she consumes a protein shake along with an apple and peanut butter.
Lunch – She prefers to have ground chicken with quinoa for lunch which is usually pre-prepared.
Mid-Day Snack – To satiate her hunger pangs during the day, she relies on peanut butter smoothie and almonds or some chocolate.
Dinner – She opts for a low carb meal at night, going for fish with veggies and salad.
As Kang’s mother was overweight and suffered from many health-related illnesses, it affected Maria’s outlook on health and fitness and she started getting involved in activities like running and aerobics.
Kang briefly worked as a fitness writer for the popular website Bodybuilding.com.
While in high school, she was bullied leading her to indulge in self-harm practices like scratching and cutting herself.
She began competing at the local beauty pageants at the age of 16 at the behest of her mother. She has won several beauty competitions like the Miss Petite Teen International, Miss San Francisco Chinatown, Miss Philippines USA, and Miss Bikini California.
In 2003, when she won the Miss Bikini California competition, she took part in a photo shoot with other bikini models. Feeling exploited by the environment, she left the shoot and vowed to never compete in a beauty or fitness figure event again.
In 2004, Maria suffered from bulimia which involved binge eating and then purging by self-inducing vomit. She overcame this eating disorder by forcing herself to eat without vomiting. As a result, she gained weight till she was 145 pounds which she thought was overweight.
Her non-profit fitness advocacy called “Fit Mom” was rebranded to “No Excuse Mom” in January 2014.
Under the new advocacy, especially mothers with small children are provided free weekly workouts by volunteers. Until mid-2015, around 300 workout groups were formed all over the world with 70,000 participants.
She promotes her business through her website by selling fitness workout DVDs and calendars which feature pictures of “fit moms” from her program.
On August 25, 2012, she uploaded a post on her Facebook page which quickly went viral. In the post, she appeared in a toned figure along with her three sons and the caption “What’s Your Excuse?”.
Although it received largely positive feedback, it was also the subject of criticism as some labeled her as a bully, narcissist, and a bad mother for promoting unrealistic standards of motherhood.
In November 2013, Maria was embroiled in a controversy when she responded to a fat acceptance campaign by the owner of San Jose plus-size lingerie shop Chrystal Bougon. In her post on Facebook, she commented on how she was annoyed that the US was moving towards accepting obese bodies rather than developing a healthy body through hard work, dedication, and discipline.
Her post was reported to Facebook’s administration and was touted as a hate speech for body shaming mothers. As a result, her page was blocked for 2 days on the social media site. Later, Facebook cleared the air that her page was automatically blocked as other users had flagged her content as being offensive.
In December 2017, 4 years after her controversial post went viral, she re-enacted the same pose with her then older kids and captioned it “What’s Your Reason”.
She also manages two residential care facilities for the elderly, situated in Elk Grove and Sacramento.
She has a pet dog named Ranger which is of the Goldendoodle (a hybrid of golden retriever and a poodle) breed.