Kimkins makes the Local News

Corona woman's diet program given low marks

07:40 PM PST on Tuesday, December 30, 2008

By DOUGLAS QUAN
The Press-Enterprise

A Corona woman's Internet-based weight-loss program has been named the worst diet product of 2008 by a healthy-eating Web site.

In announcing winners of its 20th annual Slim Chance Awards, the Healthy Weight Network -- an online forum for health care professionals, researchers and consumers -- said the Kimkins low-fat, low-carb diet amounts to a "starvation diet" that deprives members of many nutrients.

"This weight obsession is causing so many problems," said network founder Francie Berg, a licensed nutritionist and adjunct professor at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine.

Corona resident Heidi Diaz, founder of the Kimkins program, which charges members a fee to access the diet, could not be reached Tuesday by phone or e-mail.

A pending class-action lawsuit filed against Diaz claims that Diaz misled consumers with made-up success stories and pilfered images from a Russian dating Web site to depict as successful Kimkins dieters.

Some Kimkins members have said that they suffered hair loss, heart palpitations, weakness, nausea, muscle fatigue, forgetfulness and abnormal menstrual cycles.

Court records show that Diaz dropped her lawyer this month and is representing herself.

In an online message to Kimkins members posted a year ago, Diaz acknowledged that she had not lost 198 pounds in 11 months, as she had claimed on her site, but 100 pounds in six months. She also wrote that photos accompanying success stories were taken from another site.

"We wanted to show visitors the possibilities with Kimkins," she said.

Woman's World magazine featured the Kimkins diet program on its cover in June 2007 with the headline "Better than gastric bypass!" The magazine later apologized to readers for "having shared with you a story we can't stand behind."

As of Tuesday, the Kimkins Web site was still running, telling visitors that "many Kimkins members drop 5 percent or more of their total body weight in the first 10 days."

Members pay $79.90 to join the program.

A disclaimer tells visitors to contact their doctor before starting any diet.

Berg said people should focus less on losing weight and concentrate more on eating well, staying active and relieving stress.

Berg's Web site named as its worst gimmick of 2008 a brand of jeans that claims to release a cellulite-fighting medication when the jeans rub against the skin.

"Some of this is just ridiculous," Berg said.

Reach Douglas Quan at 951-368-9479 or dquan@PE.com

Yet Another Kimkins Award

Top 10 Worst Diets of 2008 

Sunday, December 28, 2008

1. Ear Stapling. Think about this: how many chubby people do you know with multiple piercings? (If you're having trouble envisioning, think about going to a Ren Faire.)

2. Original Hollywood Celebrity Diet. Sure, you too can lose weight if you live on 400 calories a day for two weeks. Wow, it's like magic!

3. Kimkins. Gives sketchy advice like super-low calorie levels and also laxatives (eeek!), but finding out that the diet's supposed inventor and biggest success story actually weighs over 300 pounds must have been très awkward.

4. Hydroxycut. Starbucks sells buckets of caffeine for much less money than these capsules, and with no scary ephedra accidentally making its way into your misto.

5. Celluslim. Random words thrown together to name pills that made a lot of people feel ishy. Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to us.

6. Chitosan. Weirdly, found to reduce cholesterol to some extent, but totally does not help you lose weight even a little.

7. Slim Slippers. Are you kidding us? Reflexology has no proven association with weight loss or metabolism and also, need we mention that these are slippers! For your feet!

8. Hoodia. It might be TrimSpa, but it's also bullshit, baby!

9. Diet Patch. Come on, you're on a diet, not an ocean voyage.

10. Mariah Carey's Purple Food diet. No, really. Purple food.

Merry Christmas

Who would have thought that we would see yet another Christmas with Kimkins.con still being up and running? At least a lot have been accomplished during the year. Many, many pro-kk articles have been removed from the internet. Many anti-kk blogs are still kept current. A dieter looking for a new plan is bound to find information to be warned about the dangers of the Kimkins diet.

Kimkins.con is a ghost town today. Many members have left and found other support communities. A few loyal members remain. Most of them signed up a long time ago so they don't bring any new revenue for Heidi Diaz. Hopefully she doesn't get many, or any, new customers.

Many times during the past year, I have heard pro-kk people telling us bloggers to "move on". We are moving on. We have been moving on. But my blog will remain until I can report the shut down of Kimkins.con.

Kimkins doesn't consume my life. I have many projects I'm working on, both in real life and on the internet. One of them is a new forum: Tipping the Scales to Health

As the name implies, we are focusing on Health. That may include losing weight. It may not. For me, the most important is to eat healthy to stay healthy. To exercise for health.

While the forum was formed by an anti-kk group, the focus is no longer Kimkins. Yes, we follow and report the latest developments, but it's not an anti-kk forum. We also report on other diet fads and quick fixes that are designed only to line the pockets of the people promoting them.

Please join us in our goal to make 2009 and beyond Healthy years. Meet like minded people. Discuss. Share your ups and downs. Receive and give support.

Kimmer Representing Herself

12/22/2008 SUBSTITUTION OF ATTORNEY FILED; ON 3RD AMENDED COMPLAINT OF JEANESSA FENDERSON REMOVE ATTORNEY LAW OFFICES OF COTTLE & KEMP FOR PARTY(S) HEIDI DIAZ AND REPLACE WITH ATTORNEY PRO/PER

The Kimkins Class Action Lawsuit took a new twist when Heidi Diaz' lawyer was removed from the case and leaving Heidi to fend for herself.

What is the reason? Nobody knows.

Perhaps he was fired by Heidi. She seems to have unreasonable expectations which is evident from the counter suit that she filed. She appeared to have listed a number of defendants just because she was mad at them, and not because she could possibly win a verdict against them.

Perhaps Heidi didn't want to, or could not, pay him any longer. All the hours Cottle has put in during the last year must have cost her a lot of money.

Whatever the reason, I think it is very good news for the plaintiffs in the Class Action Suit and the defendants in the Cross Complaint. Perhaps this saga will be over sooner than we expected. Perhaps the day to celebrate the shut down of Kimkins.con will arrive shortly.

It will be interesting to see Heidi Diaz representing herself. What persona is she going to assume? Heidi? Kimmer? Vanessa? Lesya, the Russian Bride in the red dress?

Kimkins Wins the Slim Chance Award

The Worst Diet Promotions of 2008 snag 20th Annual Slim Chance Awards

HETTINGER, ND – Healthy Weight Network released its 20th annual Slim Chance Awards today, highlighting both the hidden dangers of diets and supplements that often contain unknown ingredients and sometimes potent drugs, and the merely ridiculous.

To call 2008 a typical year in the weight loss field would be too easy. This year’s awards go to an infamous huckster of diet infomercials, known for his outrageous disregard of injunctions against him; $139 body-shaping jeans impregnated with substances that supposedly reduce cellulite; a pill that’s “proven” to make your belly fat vanish; and a dangerous starvation diet launched recklessly on the Internet with false promises of safe, fast and permanent weight loss.

All in all, a typical year that synthesizes all that is deceptive and exploitative in this field. So, here they are, the 20th annual Slim Chance Awards (only "Worst Product" is shown here):

WORST PRODUCT: Kimkins diet. It must have seemed an easy way to get rich quick. Founder Heidi “Kimmer” Diaz set up a website and charged members a fee to access the Kimkins diet, boasting they could lose up to 5 percent of their body weight in 10 days. “Better than gastric bypass,” there was “no faster diet,” and in fact she herself had lost 198# in 11 months. Stunning “after” photos were displayed. In June 2007 Women's World ran it as a cover story, and that month alone PayPal records show the Kimkins site took in over $1.2 million. Then users began complaining of chest pains, hair loss, heart palpitations, irritability and menstrual irregularities. This was not surprising since Kimkins is essentially a starvation diet, down to 500 calories per day and deficient in many nutrients (shockingly, laxatives are advised to replace the missing fiber). In a lawsuit, 11 former members are uncovering a vast record of Diez’s alleged fraud. They found that the stunning “after” photos, including one of Kimmer herself, had been lifted from a Russian mail order bride site. According to a deposition reported by Los Angeles TV station KTLA, Diaz admitted using fake pictures, fake stories and fake IDs, and a judge has allowed the litigants to freeze some of her assets.

For a full list, go to Quackery and Fraud

Motion for Class Certification

The motion for Class Certification for the Lawsuit against Kimkins.con was filed last week. It is an impressive document that details many of the lies told by Heidi Diaz in her efforts to attract customers to her website.

The motion has an excellent summary of why a Class Action Lawsuit is justified. The entire document can be read on the Riverside Court website (look up RIC483005 or search on Diaz, Heidi).

An excerpt from the motion (edited to shorten):

The Unraveling of America's Worst Internet Diet Scam.
Almost all of the material representations of the Kimkins.con website and advertisements were in fact false. The success stories were pure fiction and photographs were stolen from other Internet sites. The Kimkins diet was not ever proven safe or effective.

"Kimmer", aka Heidi Diaz, never lost 198 pounds in 11 months. "Kimmer" was purely a fictional character created to defraud the public. The perpetrator of this scam is Heidi Diaz, who habitually lied about the Kimkins diet and her alleged weight loss on the Internet for years from her home in Corona, California. She regularly used false names on the Internet, lied about her weight loss, created countless false success stories, falsely claimed celebrities such as Jessica Alba and Lindsay Lohan used her diet, lied about the safety and efficacy of the Kimkins diet, falsely impersonated consumers in order to induce sales, used unlawful labels and Metatags to misdirect Internet traffic and fraudulently tried to conceal her assets to avoid repaying customers. Heidi Diaz was caught red-handed but still continues to engage in false and misleading advertising on the Internet while making a substantial profit.

1. Kimmer is not Kim Drake, the thin diet expert: Kimmer is Heidi Diaz, a morbidlv obese Internet swindler from Corona, California.
The beautiful woman in the red dress featured on the Kimkins Internet site named Kim Drake aka "Kimmer," does not exist! Ms. Diaz also admitted that she had posed as Kimmer in a "public apology" that was posted on Kimkins.con after she was successfully exposed by an investigative report on the KTLA news. The Kimkins "poster girl" is actually a model named Lesya whose image was lifted by Heidi Diaz from a Russian bride Internet site. Heidi Diaz used her own picture to depict the "before Kimkins diet" image of Kimmer, and unlawfully misappropriated the photograph of Lesya as the "after Kimkins diet" image of Kimmer. Heidi Diaz has been and remains a morbidly obese woman.

Heidi Diaz created false identities to sell or promote the Kimkins Diet. She admitted under oath that she had used such names as Kimmer, Jennifer Danser, Brad Curtis, Kimberly Stewart, Kimberly Drake, Vanessa Sharp, Dennis Sharp and numerous other monikers.

2. Use of False Pictures of Kimmer.
Under oath and by way of public apology, Heidi Diaz has established that she has used false pictures to depict the weight loss success story of Kimmer. Under oath she stated that the picture of the Kimmer was not her and was actually "a model."'M s. Diaz' decision to use a false picture to advertise Klmkins was even questioned by her technical support staff. Her technical consultant, Aliyar Firat, wanted to use a real picture of Heidi Diaz but Ms. Diaz refused and insisted on using the picture of the model for Kimmer's after diet photographs.

3. Heidi Diaz Lied About Her Alleged Weight Loss.
Under oath, and by way of public apology, Heidi Diaz admitted that she lied about the alleged weight loss success of Kimmer on Internet and print advertisements. She admitted that her statement that Kimmer lost an amazing 198 pounds in 11 months was in fact a statement that she prepared but was false. Ms. Diaz also admitted that the woman identified as Vanessa does not actually exist and her story was a fictional creation by Ms. Diaz.

With respect to Kimkins' homepage, Ms. Diaz admits that her testimony on said homepage was derived from the interview wherein she claims to have lost a purported 198 pounds in 11 months was false. Variations of the homepage of Kimkins.con were accessible to the public throughout the class period.

To promote Kimkins, Heidi Diaz made phenomenal misrepresentations on the Internet program known as the "Livin La Vida Low Carb" show hosted by Jimmy Moore on July 19, 2007. Heidi Diaz also stated in the interview that she had kept the weight off for a total of 5 to 5 1/2 years. At the time of the interview, Heidi Diaz weighed over 300 pounds. She was photographed several times shortly after the interview.

4. Material Misrepresentations Contained in the Woman's World
Magazine Article "Make Heidi Diaz a Millionaire."
In June of 2007, the story of Kimmer and the Kimkins diet reached millions of Americans. Heidi Diaz admitted that she supplied her own "before diet" photograph for the article but used a photograph of another model for her "after diet" photograph. When asked where she obtained the picture of the model, she stated: "from the Intemet. I don't remember the site. Just again, I wanted to be anonymous." Ms. Diaz does not dispute the fact that she also used the false name "Kim Drake" and another false picture in the article.

Her statements in the article were a phenomenal act of fraud by Heidi Diaz. In the article she falsely stated she had lost 200 pounds in 11 months. She also falsely represented that she soared up to 318 pounds after a serious injury. She falsely claimed she went from a dress size 26 to a size 6. As a result of such blatant false advertising, sales shot up immediately. In June of 2007, there were 15,330 paid memberships.

5. The Use of Fortv-One (41) False Success Stories with Misapproprated Photographs.
Numerous Kimkins' success stories used on the websites and on advertisements were FALSE. The photographs featured in each of the success stories were lifted from Russian Bride websites. Ms. Diaz admitted that each and every person featured did not use the Kimkins diet and did not lose the weight as advertised.

She admitted to fabricating success stories and using false photographs in connection with the advertisements. She also created fraudulent success stories on the Kimkins Newsletter which was accessible to the general public and designed to promote Kimkins.con subscriptions.


6. False Celebrity Endorsements.
Heidi Diaz admitted that she had represented to the public that celebrity Jessica Alba, a famous actress, used the Kimkins diet. She testified that she did not know if Jessica Alba used the diet but repeated the "rumor" on the internet. She admitted in retrospect, she thought it was deceptive to repeat the rumor that Jessica Alba used the Kimkins diet.

Heidi Diaz also falsely claimed and advertised that Lindsay Lohan was a user of the Kimkins diet. In fact, she misappropriated a picture of Lindsay Lohan wearing a T-shirt. The Kimkins logo is superimposed on Ms. Lohan's t-shirt. Ms. Diaz admitted that she has never had any contact with Lindsay Lohan. She also testified that she never believed the photograph of Lindsay Lohan with the doctored image displaying Kimkins across Ms. Lohan's chest was real.

7. Unlawful Use of Labels and Metatam to Misdirect Internet Traffic.
Many of the Kimkins.com advertisements have labels or tags that are used as a basis to direct traffic to the Kimkins.com site. Heidi Diaz was an expert on how to misdirect traffic on the Internet. For example, Heidi Diaz took a popular Internet topic such as the "Geico Caveman" which generated a lot of Internet activity at the time. Heidi Diaz placed the labels: "Caveman, Geico, Kimkins" together so that when "Geico" and "Caveman" would be searched, the Kimkins advertisement would appear. Heidi Diaz admitted that she prepared the graphic and text without the permission of the Geico Insurance Company. Heidi Diaz admitted that labels were also used as tags and that if a search were conducted with respect to the terms "Geico" or "Caveman," the subject advertisement would show up in a ranking!'
Another example of label/tag misdirection occurred on the Kimkins Blog. Ms. Diaz used the following labels: "Celebrity Diet Secrets, Christie Brinkley, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kimkins, and low carb."

8. No Lifetime membership as Promised by Heidi Diaz.
Members of Kimkims.con were promised a one-time payment for a lifetime membership. However, if anyone complained of becoming ill on the diet, which was a common occurrence, said member would be immediately terminated. In fact, if Heidi Diaz or any of her minions decided they did not like you, you would also be terminated. Heidi Diaz testified that troublemakers would be blocked from full access to the website. She claimed to have no criteria for terminations. She stated that the term "troublemaker" would be defined by each administrator!

9. Advertised Lies and Misrepresentations.
Although Heidi Diaz is the sole owner of Kimkins and responsible for all of the content on its website, she has made the miraculous claim that certain representations appeared on her website without her knowledge.

Another classic misrepresentation repeated throughout the Kimkins advertisements was that the Kimkins diet was a "fast and permanent" way to lose weight.

Heidi Diaz admits that no medical doctor has ever approved the safety or efficacy of the Kimkins diet."

Another amazing misrepresentation repeatedly stated that the Kimkins diet was thermogenic and that no exercise was needed to lose weight. Many other irresponsible statements were made by Heidi Diaz and it is anticipated that she may even try to claim that she was not responsible for everything stated on her own website. However, she did admit undeer oath that no one had access to her website other than her technical company, Clexus New Media. Ms. Diaz admitted under oath that in her best estimate, she only visited her homepage two times in the year 2007, despite being the sole owner of the website.

The Court already has on file numerous declarations and affidavits signed by purchasers of Kimkins.con memberships, who stated under oath that they relied on the representations of Defendant's weight loss claims when they decided to subscribe to Kimkins.con. The subject declarations and affidavits illustrate the consumers' reliance on the fraudulent representations of Heidi Diaz. Heidi Diaz admits she lied and the sheer volume of lies proves her intent to deceive her customers.

Kimmer Ignoring Members

A while back, Kimmer asked for her members input to come up with a Kimkins maintenance plan. She eventually came up with something she published as a "plan."

The "plan" was really obscure and really just consisted of calorie recommendations: "........ a 10-12X multiplier for women and 12-14X for men" i.e. if your weight is 125 pounds you would eat 1250 to 1500 calories per day. The "plan" didn't include any recommendations about carb limits, more than that you had to find out your own "Carb & Calorie Equilibrium" without any explanation of what this is or how to find out what it is.

On Kimkins forum, she posted a more detailed sample menu. For being a low carb plan, it included a lot of carbs in the form of fruit and grains. Still low fat, of course. Her menu had waffles for breakfast, a hoagie roll for lunch, and pasta for dinner, for example. For her 1200 calorie menu, the carb count varied between 103 and 135 grams! From where did she steal this plan? Weight Watchers?

Following the posting of this menu, some members on the maintainer board weighted in with their comments. All (3?) of them pointed out that they could not eat anywhere close to that carb amount. They also said that any grains were off limits for them.

So what did Kimmer do?

Nothing. No comment. No change of the menu. Did she even read the comments?

You would think that Kimmer would listen to her maintainers. After all, Heidi Diaz has no experience of her own for how to maintain weight loss. But then, she has never listened to anybody in the first place. She is still acting as the know-it-all diet guru that lost 200 pounds and maintained for 6 years. Not as the 300+ pound obese person she is that has failed over and over again to lose weight.

It is also baffling that the maintainers stay at Kimkins.con. Could it be because they are still doing Kimkins? Constantly trying to take off a few regained pounds? It certainly can not be to receive "advice" from Heidi Diaz.

Move On

Some people find us anti-kk bloggers "obsessed" and suggest that we "move on". The reasoning seems to be that fraud has now been admitted, the Class Action Suit is underway, and many people have left Kimkins to gather at other places. Why would we continue to pursue this one woman that started it all?

The answer is simple. Kimkins.con is still operational. Heidi Diaz is still running google ads to snatch new, unsuspecting members.

Some also think that we are doing this for attention. And, they are right. I do this for attention. Not attention for me as a person, but to spread awareness of the Kimkins fraud to prevent other people to lose their money like I did. Remember that when the Woman's World article came out in June 2007, there was no negative information to be found about Kimkins on the internet.
A Kimkins search at that time gave a lot of hits to affiliate blogs, and if ending up on Ask Kimmer on Lowcarbfriends, there was just praise for the diet there as well. Today, Kimkins Survivors often come up as the 2nd hit, directly following the Kimkins.con website. Hopefully, seeing a site dedicated to "survivors" will give pause before blindly signing up for Kimkins. Or, going down the list to read all the other anti-kk blogs.

Some also criticize the anti-kk bloggers based on that many of us (a) lost weight, (b) didn't do the diet, or (c) never were Kimkins members in the first place.

With very few exceptions, the ones that lost weight on Kimkins didn't do it without consequences. Some suffer health problems. Many discovered that they had developed an eating disorder. Most regained weight.

I am in the group that didn't do the diet, so my only loss was the money I paid for the "lifetime" membership. And the loss of trust. Knowing that people like Heidi Diaz so easily can create an online persona that has very little in common with who she really is. And me falling for it, paying her money that helped establish a website based on fraud. You could call me a "disgruntled customer" and I want to prevent others, not yet Kimkins customers, to become "disgruntled" also.

The last group that never were Kimkins members largely comprises dieters that are concerned about their fellow dieters' health. That were appalled at the diet "advice" Heidi Diaz gave out. They became aware of the fraud, and now want to stop Kimkins.con.

When it comes to "moving on", many, many have done so. The vast majority no doubt within weeks of signing up at Kimkins.con following the WW article. The anti-kk bloggers and the people working behind the scenes constitute just a small number as compared to the reportedly 40,000 that paid money to Heidi Diaz. Do not the people that walked away also deserve restitution? To get their money back when they realized that the diet was not anything they could ever do?

Some also tell the anti-kk bloggers to "get a life" as if we spend all our time obsessing about Heidi Diaz and Kimkins.con. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just check out the FWK thread to see how many other subjects that are discussed there. Or visit one of the other boards where we hang out and it will become obvious that this Kimkins thing is just occupying a small part of our lives. And it will keep on doing so until Kimkins.con is shut down. I will not "move on" just yet.

Happy Thanksgiving

Kimkins Business Ethics

Or rather lack thereof. I was banned from Kimkins more than a year ago. Not for anything I posted on Heidi Diaz' site but for something I posted on another board. But as the post referred to as a reason for my banning took place a month after I had been banned, who knows what the real reason was. I would expect that Tippy knows, but she is not telling.

Anyway, a while back I started to receive emails from Kimmer to the email address I had used on Kimkins. I tried to unsubscribe several weeks back, but apparently that is not working.

I received an email today for "Kimkins Holiday Savings!" where she suggests that I get a "buddy" to sign up for Kimkins, and providing a discount code for 15% off off the $79.95 "lifetime" membership fee. Yeah, right. As if I would recommend this program to someone else. I already lost my money. Why would I want a "buddy" to do the same.

In addition, the email had my user name and password for Kimkins:

HERE'S YOUR KIMKINS USER NAME & PASSWORD:
user: sward001
pass: T58ZSOFV

Apart from it not being secure to send this type of information in a standard email, I can't figure out why Heidi did it in the first place. I am banned. Try it for yourself. You will just get this:


And, no. Waiting 1-2 hours will not change anything. I am permanently banned.

If this was an attempt by Heidi to collect my IP address, she will be disappointed. The constantly changing IP my broadband connection provides is not going to give out any information of use to her.

Kimkins Still Banning Members

Kimkins is subject to a Class Action Lawsuit for banning members without cause and without giving them a refund. While there are many other complaints about the Kimkins Diet, they are not as easily proven as the simple fact that you paid for a lifetime membership and did not receive what you paid for.

The latest banned member was asked to provide "before" and "after" photos for herself to be used in a Kimkins success story. Timing was imperative as Kimmer is gearing up for the weight loss boom that always take place after the holidays. The member did not promptly respond and found herself banned.

It is clear that Kimmer has no concern about banning lifetime members without cause. After all, they are of no use to her as the one time fee has been paid and they don't bring in new revenue for Heidi Diaz. That the member has formed friendships inside the Kimpound and is following the restrictive posting rules there is of no importance to her.

Only new members bring in money.

It's ironical that one of the selling points Heidi is using in her google ads and newsletters is the lifetime membership. "$79. Not another penny ever." It seems that her definition of "lifetime" is something else than for the rest of us. I think an honest ad should say "$79 to get access to a poorly defined diet plan. Receive advice from the diet's creator that never lost weight on it herself and that is not able to stick to her own diet. Join a dying community on a board where you have to watch what you say. Do not venture out on other, public, boards. Be prepared to lose access when the founder decides you are no longer of use to her, or if you annoy her. Being electronic media, the membership fee is non-refundable".

I doubt she would get any new members with such an ad. Hopefully she is not getting new members anyway. I hope they have the knowledge to google Kimkins before they shell out the money. The second google hit "Kimkins Survivors" should tell them something.

Anoretix

Anoretix is a weight loss pill. Who on earth came up with this name? Yes, I know that "anorexic" literally means "loss of appetite" but don't most of us associate it with anorexia nervosa?

Anorexia nervosa is a serious, often deadly, eating disorder. Medusa has written extensively about it. Eating disorder victims should not have any further encouragement to starve themselves.

I wonder if there was some marketing team behind this name. Or just an ignorant internet marketer. Very ignorant.

The Anoretix web site is a typical weight loss product sales page. The head line announces "I lost 12 pounds in 72 hours" next to a stock photo of a slim woman with tape measure. Some testimonials. Promise of a lifetime money back guarantee. Whose lifetime?

By the way; these testimonials? How many of you go back to a web site where you made a purchase just to submit a testimonial? And post progress updates? I have never done it. I don't even give feedback reviews on Amazon for a product I like.

Not that I believe for a minute that this product is any more helpful for weight loss than any other pill. Actually, it is a combination of some 9 other weight loss products that all are supported by some undisclosed studies and research. Just the usual "clinically proven" nonsense. And the "patented" or "patent pending" statement. As if a product needs to be proven effective to get a patent.

Many affiliates have jumped on the Anoretix train and it seems that very few of them have any knowledge about weight loss. A google search returns 40,000 hits. Blogs, ads, web sites. Hoping to cash in from desperate dieters. I hope they all fail.

One of the sites I looked up actually provided some interesting info; inadvertently, I'm sure. They said: "Most diet pills have about a 1,000% markup meaning that if it costs $3 to manufacture — companies sell it for $30. Which means we consumers are getting ripped off."

You can say that again. We consumers get ripped off!

Kimkins Sues

It is not that easy (for me, at least) to understand who is being sued for what. In addition to the named defendants, there are 100 Roes being sued, and just one of these have been named. It is assumed that these Roes are anti-kimkins bloggers and if the suit is not being thrown out, we surely will be seeing more of us being named as the time goes on.

The Kimkins Counter Suit claims:

Interference with contract
"By contacting Kimkins members and encouraging them to terminate their memberships, By contacting and harassing affiliates and agents and demanding and threatening them to stop working for or with Kimkins and further threatening members and affiliates with criminal persecution of civil suit."
I assume this refers to our "weed pulling". I don't see how informing people of fraud can be seen as "threatening" and "demanding". Everybody contacted had the option of making an informed decision of what action they wanted to take. If Kimmer hadn't committed fraud in the first place, there would have been nothing to inform them about.

Interference with economic advantage
The suit claims that we "disrupted the relationship between Heidi Diaz and the Kimkins members and affiliates telling each that Heidi Diaz was unsafe, unreliable and often failed to meet its contractual obligations and was continuing to defraud it members at their expense. Cross defendants made these statements and allegations at a time when they knew the statements to be untrue."
Economic advantage? As gained by fraud? And in my opinion, Kimkins was "unsafe" with its recommended 500 cals. They also did "fail to meet their contractual allegations" as I was banned without a refund.

Slander/libel
"publishing malicious and false posts regarding Heidi Diaz ". And, "the entirety of each message was and is false as it pertains to Heidi Diaz because said statements were made solely in an effort to humiliate, defame, infuriate and injure Heidi Diaz. The statement is slanderous per se in that it imputes to Heidi Diaz a dishonest and bad reputation in the business and Internet community."
Huh? Heidi wasn't dishonest? When she posted false pictures and claimed non-existent weight loss? Starting on LCF years ago? Stating the TRUTH is not slander or libel. Furthermore, it's up to the plaintiff to prove that the statements are false. How is Heidi Diaz going to do that? She will produce REAL pictures of herself from June 2007 showing that she actually was 118 lbs? I don't think so.

Invasion of privacy
Heidi is a public figure. She submitted her picture to a wide spread magazine (yes, the "after" picture was not her, but the BEFORE picture was). And a person can become a "limited public figure" by engaging in actions which generate publicity within a narrow area of interest. This made Kimmer a public figure even long before she started Kimkins.con. She can not deny to willingly generate "publicity" with all her posts on Lowcarbfriends forum.
However, the counter suit seems to refer to a to me unknown issue of her ex husband disclosing some private information from a Family Law matter. It's not clear to me why this was bundled with the suit of the 1 - 100 Roes.

Civil conspiracy
"conspired to slander and defame Heidi Diaz" and "each of them acted despicably, willfully, wantonly, oppressively, fraudulently"
Conspiracy is an agreement between two or more people to accomplish a criminal act or a legal act through criminal means. I'm not aware of any "agreement" between the Ducks. I am an individual blogger and I don't take orders for what to blog about. If there is a "Duck in charge" he/she is unknown to me.

Intentional infliction of emotional distress
I'm sure it's stressful to being found out as a liar, especially when the lies have been told for years and the lies were the foundation of her business. I don't see how that can be blamed on the defendants.

Kimkins Email

My email boxes have been flooded by Kimkins newsletters, 10 reasons, and other messages from Kimkins lately. Even the email addresses where I have opted out from receiving them. Seems to be difficult to get out of her database.

It's sort of fun to read them though. To see what Kimmer consider selling points for the Kimkins Diet. Like this one:


"Hey there!

You know when you've tried other diets in the past and you didn't quite understand something or wanted more details? What did you do? Ask a friend or try to figure it out yourself, right?

Don't you wish you could ask the diet creator directly? With Kimkins you can! Our members have direct access to "Kimmer", the founder of Kimkins, by asking questions in the Kimkins Cafe forum or an easy email."

Wish to ask the diet creator? The one that can't do her own diet?

Kimkins Sued - Again

This time by the City of Corona. For not applying and paying for a business license. The fee, including penalties, is a mere $150. Heidi Diaz can afford to run google ads for hundreds, or perhaps thousands of dollars, but not pay $150 to her city? Heidi Diaz that bought a house for cash? That bought two brand new cars for cash? That earned millions from defrauding people over the internet?

Sure, not applying for a business license in the first place might have been an oversight on Heidi's part. After all, she is not selling anything in Corona, but just operating an internet business out of her Corona house.

But surely the attempts by the city to collect the money could not have been ignored due to an "oversight". Heidi probably thinks that the city is not entitled to any money from her. Or, she might just be trying to avoid the home inspection that may be required when you operate a business in your house.

Kimkins Hunk

That is what Kimmer calls the latest success story, a handsome Hunk. He claims to go to the gym at least four times per week, and perhaps if he exchanged some cardio for weights, I would call him a hunk too. But, I digress.

This Derek, like many of the recent success stories, turned up on Kimkins.con after he had lost his weight. He never participated in the support forums, never took part in a challenge, never asked any questions. Just suddenly arrives on Kimkins.con and posts his before and after pictures. Then finds LCF and comes in to "defend his name". Providing inconsistent answers when asked questions.

I have no doubt that "Derek" is a real person. But where did he come from? Some Kimmer supporter's son, brother, nephew, neighbor, friend? Did he lose 125 pounds? On Kimkins? I have no idea, and I couldn't care less. It's beside the point.

In my opinion, the point is that Derek promotes a fraudulent business.

Kimmer's defenders (how people can still defend this woman is beyond my comprehension) claim that Kimkins.con is not committing fraud any longer and we Ducks are just meanies that will not allow Kimmer to operate her business in peace. In their opinion, we have achieved what we wanted; the diet doesn't promote starvation levels of calories any longer and the Russian bride photos are gone.

To me, it's irrelevant whether fraud is still committed on Kimkins.con or not. Kimkins.con was created by fraud. There would never have been a Kimkins.con if Kimmer had not claimed to have lost 198 lbs and kept it off for years.

If I buy a car with a check that bounces, should I be allowed to keep the car just because I presently do not write any bad checks?

Of course not.

Kimkins.con should be shut down.

Kimkins Lawsuit 1 Yr Anniversary

Wishing all the plaintiffs Happy Anniversary!

A lot has happened in one year. The Ducks have worked tirelessly to uncover more lies. Pulled thousands of weeds. Sent in complaints to agencies and consumer groups. Learned web technology and tools. Set up forums. Formed friendships that will last long after the Lawsuit is over and done with.

And we are not done yet. We are still patiently waiting for the trial or settlement that will take Kimkins.con down. I have no doubt it will happen.

Heidi Diaz is probably less happy with what has happened since the lawsuit was filed. She has been forced to clean up her site and remove fraudulent pictures. She has seen droves of members leaving and probably very few new ones replacing them. She has been blogged about. She has had to make deposition where she admits to lying. No, it's not been a good year for Heidi.

And to think that all this could have been avoided, had she only given a refund to the members she banned. Or, it would probably have been enough not to deny Jeanessa a refund. I bet she wishes she could take that back.

Camp Carbaway Closing

The former Kimkins Admin Tippy Toes created Camp Carbaway in December last year when she left Kimkins. It was supposed to be a "safe" place for Kimkins "refugees". I never figured out what it would be "safe" from, more than that Tippy herself needed a place where she would be accepted as the majority of the lowcarb community shunned her at that point.

From all indications, Tippy intended to make this into a business, registering an LLC and charging a $19.95 membership fee after the initial, free registration. That didn't work out. Who would pay to join her board when there are so many free boards available? I think she had greatly overestimated her popularity.

She turned the board over to Brian and Heather, the couple she had brought with her from Kimkins that helped her set it up. Tippy stayed on as an admin.

The board did not grow. It remained a small place with some 100 members with probably not more than half of them active. It was mainly calm for a long time, with just a few bannings here and there.

Personally, I had guessed a year for the board's existence. It is very hard to keep a board alive with so few members. People drop out due to other priorities in life, and when fewer and fewer people participate, it generally just fizzles out due to lack of interest.

That didn't happen. The Camp went out with a bang. And what was the cause? The rumor blames Tippy.

It seems that Tippy has learned nothing from her previous experiences. She brings drama wherever she goes. She is an expert at turning people against each other by working behind the scenes.

The rumor further says that first Tippy was stripped of her Admin powers but when not even that helped, they are shutting down the board and starting over without Tippy.

Now, the only refugee is really Tippy. Where is she going to show up next? Will she be welcome? Trying to join some board anonymously will not work. Her writing style is much too distinct, as is her method of operation.

What do Kimkins and Zero Carb have in Common?

Kimkins' K/E (Kimmer Experiment) is a meat only diet. So is Zero Carb. The difference is that K/E is lean meat only (preferably skinless chicken breast) while the Zero Carb woe (way of eating) advocates fat meat and even added fats (preferably beef and a 80% fat, 20% protein ratio).

Both diets do not allow vegetables, no fruit, no dairy, no carbs. K/E includes eggs, but even that is discouraged on Zero Carb.

But the most scary similarity between these two diets is the self-proclaimed diet gurus that promote them; Kimmer for Kimkins and Charles for Zero Carb. None of them have any nutritional qualifications but freely dispense their "expert advice" on the internet. Just look at the Ask Kimmer on Lowcarbfriends and the Zero Carb thread on Jimmy Moore's forum.

The similarities are striking. For example:

Kimmer says that zero cals is absolutely fine as long as you have body fat. Charles says that Zero Carb is suitable for anyone, even pregnant women.

Kimmer has her own definition of "real ketosis". Charles is talking about "ketoadaption" and claims that Zero Carbers are not in ketosis, despite the 80% fat/20% protein diet.

Both state their opinions as facts. Anybody questioning these facts is ridiculed by the diet guru, and the loyal followers that quickly chime in with their support.

"Studies" are referenced, but only the ones that support their opinion. When other studies are quoted, or when the simplistic interpretation of the referenced studies is questioned, the question is dismissed as not relevant or completely ignored.

There is a lot more, but I suggest you go and see for yourself.

Last, but not least, Jimmy Moore's support of these self-proclaimed diet gurus is very similar. He has now denounced Kimmer, but that was due to being forced by an outcry from the lowcarb community. He is still strongly supporting Charles, and most likely loves the increased blog and forum traffic the present debate is giving him.

Personally, I have a hard time to see that a diet on exclusively ground beef (hamburger) from Walmart has much nutritional similarity to the wild animals that the Mackenzie Eskimos ate 100 years ago (which is the study quoted over and over again by Charles for support of the Zero Carb diet). But this is the subject for another blog post.

UPDATE
The similarities between Kimkins and Zero Carb continue. Jimmy Moore just announced that he will no longer allow the Zero Carb people on his forum and Charles will open his own forum. I wonder if there will be a "lifetime" membership offered for a nominal fee.

Honest Kimkins Ad

Heidi Diaz' counter suit claims "Interference with Economic Advantage". So how did she accomplish her economic advantage in the first place? By lying about her own weight loss for years and by fabricating success stories with fake pictures.

How would a true representation of the Kimkins Diet look? And would she have had any members at all if the front page on kimkins.con said something like this:

Hi, I'm the founder of this diet that I put together from using ideas from Atkins and Stillmans. I have lost 50 pounds the last year, following the diet on and off. I still have 150 pounds to goal.
I'm a diet expert as I have been dieting for 35 years. I lose weight quickly when on plan, but unfortunately I can not stick to it very long and regain weight even quicker than I lost it.

I know that the diet works for weight loss as I have seen many people during the years (on kimkins.con and lowcarb boards before then) losing several pounds quickly. Now, most are not strong enough to stay with the diet and quickly regain what they have lost. But that's not the diet's fault. They were just weak. Kimkins is not for sissies!

Sign up for my forum and you'll get some loosely formulated rules for my diet (that are also available on many free sites on the internet). You'll get access to a very friendly forum where no negativity is allowed. You'll get personal support from me where I tell you to do as I say and not as I do.

Don't you want to get skinny and sexy? Perhaps even a MILF? A little hair loss is a small price to pay. Nutritional short comings? A daily multivitamin provides 100% of RDA. Developing eating disorders? Every overweight person has an eating disorder, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten this big.

The most important is to get the weight off! At any price! $79.95 is a bargain (note, any ER costs and doctors' fees are additional).

Kimmer's Counter Suit

Heidi Diaz is responding to the Class Action lawsuit against Kimkins by filing a counter suit against a number of plaintiffs, plus other persons that have taken part in the Kimkins drama.

The suit is available to read online at Riverside Court. What I find interesting is the Heidi claims that "the use of controversial advertising practices have been fully and completely addressed, terminated and/or corrected by Heidi Diaz."

So why do we still find fraudulent pictures on the internet? Sure, Heidi can correctly claim that she has no control over blogs or affiliate websites that she does not own. But Heidi has control over pictures that reside on HER own server and that are linked from her site. If she removes them from there, they also disappear from the other sites. Simple.

Here are some examples of what is still on kimkins.con (not copied to my blog but linked from kimkins.con):

Edited 09/13/2009

It seems that the affiliate pictures are finally gone. At least the links are no longer valid.

The origin of the stolen pictures can be found on HoneyBee's blog.

Kimkins Google Ads

There has been a lot of Kimkins Google Ads the last couple of weeks. Now, I know practically nothing about the cost for Google AdWords but it seems that:

The advertiser pay per click, i.e. every time someone clicks on the ad, the account is charged.

The cost for a click varies. It starts at 1 cent, but can be much higher depending on how popular the AdWord is (the word in a google search that will make your ad show up). The actual cost is determined by bidding.

It looks as if Kimmer is just using "Kimkins" as an Adword and the estimated cost is around 75 cents per click. Estimated number of clicks is 7 - 8 per day. I have no idea if this is per ad or per account. Heidi presently has about 25 different ads showing up. Assuming it is per account, the cost adds up to $4 - 6 per day, or $120 - $180 per month.

The question is why Heidi bothers to spend money on these ads. Kimkins is continuing its demise. I don't see that anything can save this business by now. Surely anybody googling kimkins will see all the negative blogs that show up and not just blindly click on the google ad.

Now, if she used an AdWord like "turbo weight loss" or something similar, she wouldn't need to compete with the anti-kimkins blogs. But I'm sure the bidding on those generic terms make the cost per click very high.

While the AdWord used seems to be only "Kimkins" she is using other terms in the actual ad to catch new customers. For example: "Gastric Band Diet", "Insulin Resistant Diet", "Low Glycemic Index Diet", "Master Cleanse Low Carb", "Low Carb Diabetic Diet", "Postpartum Weight Loss", "Quick diet for new moms", "Gastric Band Alternative", "Fast Detox Weight Loss".

Who would have known that a starvation diet could have so many names?

She is also trying to capitalize on the weight loss "success" stories on Kimkins. Out of the 25 ads, 15 of them are using the name of one or another poster girl. Deb is most popular, but also Pat (or Pattie), Del (or Delaney) and Lynne are featured. We might soon see Jan that Medusa wrote about earlier today.

If it were me, I would be embarrassed to lend my name to Heidi. But it's clear why Heidi doesn't use herself for the ads. Who would sign up for a diet where the founder herself can not lose weight?

Ask Kimmer Digest

The “Ask Kimmer” thread on LCF was started on April 18, 2006. Kimkins.con was registered on April 22. It’s interesting to read the Ask Kimmer thread now. Knowing that Kimmer never was the pretty young-looking, slim, woman in a white dress. Knowing that she had not maintained for years. Knowing that she was getting ready to leave and was using the thread for marketing of her new business; Kimkins.con.

In the thread, Kimmer personifies what every dieter wants to accomplish. Easy, fast, lasting weight loss. Looking beautiful. Little did we know then that all of it was a big lie.

If she had used her real picture for the avatar on LCF, I doubt there would have ever been a Kimkins.con.



Nobody would have believed her claims:

"If you check my Fitday, my calories were very low and I lost 160 pounds in 7 months."

"How 'suddenly'? Like 318 to 158 in only 7 months. I just say 'pass' and stay size 4."

"See me at 118 lbs and 70-90 carbs with no weight gain ... actual loss sometimes."

"The strongest motivator I know is fast weight loss. If I were losing 1-2 lbs a week I'd be ripping into an Entemann's box."

"I lost very quickly because I was determined. I knew how fast I could lose and that's what I wanted ... no cheats, no snacks."

"I lost quickly, I knew I would."

"I, too, am impatient with slow weight loss. I can't imagine eating anything that would have been worth waiting 2 months to go down 1 pant size."

"For me, the ability to lose 160 lbs in 7 months meant way more to me than pork rinds and cheese ever would but that's me."

"I find it very easy to keep my weight stable."

"If I were eating my maintenance amounts (1200-1400 calories, 70-90 carbs) during my weight loss phase, I would have lost very slowly. Very. But now, I can eat 90 carbs a day and not gain. Who knew, LOL?"

And of course, she shares her diet wisdom:

"I got used to SNATT, but then again I don't mind the feeling. I wanted to lose 200 lbs as quickly as possible and SNATT helped ketosis greatly!"

"The nauseous feeling subsides a bit over time, but for many of us it just hangs around. You might also get a headache, feel tired and/or light headed."

"You're doing it right or you wouldn't feel so lousy. The strong nausea dies down in 2'ish days after the conversion is complete, but there always seems to be a quasi nauseous feeling about eating."

"If I had to do it all over again, I would definitely water fast the first 100 lbs off."

"The body self regulates. Even with 0 calorie 0 nutrient intake, the body stabilizes it's sodium, potassium, etc. levels."

"Reminder to everybody as to whether epsom salts or other laxative is necessary? We want to keep things moooooving, so to speak."

"If you have regularity problems, buy a small carton of epsom salts (in the medicine aisle) and follow the directions. It tastes horrible, works great ... mix with diet soda to help a bit."

"Traditional advice is that laxatives are not for daily use because the digestive system will depend on them, but I've read new info (don't have a source) which says that's old science. The opinion was that it was more important to keep waste moving. We're talking the stated dose, not mass quantities or laxative abuse."

But the most interesting in the Ask Kimmer thread is to read between the lines. In the posts, people are reporting 2-3-4 lbs losses overnight. But look at where these people are NOW, two years later. Nobody reached goal. The ones that didn’t leave LCF (or that have returned) have started over. After having regained some or all that was lost on Kimkins. And this is what Kimmer calls a successful diet? Short term losses? Yo-yo dieting? Eating disorders with binges?

Kimkins Debate

Do you remember when Heidi Diaz "came clean" after the Mike&Juliet show in November last year? The page is still there; just no link to it.

I wonder why. Could it be due to what she says there? For instance:

• Heidi claims to have regained her weight after Kimkins appeared in Woman's World in June 2007. I think it's obvious that not even Heidi Diaz could gain from 118 lbs to whatever her weight was (350+) when the P.I. took her picture in August 2007. Not even rebounding after a starvation diet like Kimkins would cause a person to gain 200 pounds in less than 3 months.
  

• She did say that she had lost 50+ pounds in the "last couple of months" and that may have been true. But it looks as if it stopped there. That she has lost no more since November last year, judging from the recent pictures on AmyB's blog.

• Heidi also promised to be a model on the homepage and update her stats each week. That didn't last long. The updates stopped after a few months and it's obvious that she didn't "lose her weight all over again".

• She also claimed: "Kimkins works. I've offered diet advice online for 10 years and was hugely successful." Works for whom? Who was "hugely successful"? Not Heidi Diaz, for sure.

Kimmer's Progress Pictures

Why would anyone even consider following the Kimkins Diet after seeing these? The diet surely has not worked for Heidi Diaz.

The first picture is Kimmer's "before" picture used on LCF. The next 5 are from when Heidi still posted progress pictures on Kimkins.con. The last picture is from AmyB's blog.

The Infamous Kimkins

Infamous
in·fa·mous [in-fuh-muhs] Dictionary.com

1. having an extremely bad reputation: an infamous city.
2. deserving of or causing an evil reputation; shamefully malign; detestable: an infamous deed.

Kimkins has certainly earned this label by now. Any of the synonyms would work too: abhorrent, arrant, atrocious, base, contemptible, corrupt, degenerate, despicable, detestable, dishonorable, disreputable, evil. Or, all of them.

So why does Heidi Diaz still hang on to kimkins.con? Even bad publicity is better than none? In this case, I doubt it. Just google kimkins and see what it brings up. Who in their right mind would consider handing over $79.95 to a forum owner that has no many negative things said about her? So many negative things said about the diet she promotes? That is facing a Class Action Lawsuit for fraud?

Why not abandon the tainted Kimkins name? The Ducks and their blogs are not going to go away as long as kimkins.con stay operational. The success following the Women's World article in June of 2007 can never be repeated. Kimkins.con is broken beyond repair.

The site is a failure. Just accept it and shut it down.

Kimkins Maintenance Diet

There is no such thing. The founder has not yet put one together, and it may take a while before she needs one herself.

So we have to look at what the maintainers on Kimkins are doing. Not surprisingly, they are still doing Kimkins with low calories. Experimenting with a few added carbs and calories. Cutting back again to take off the pounds regained. Trial and error, and so far nobody has come up with a long term strategy.

One of the most recent success stories, Debv, is starting boot camp. The most popular Kimkins option! 30 minutes daily exercise required.

All Kimkins options have been modified to allow higher calories. So how does the new bootcamp look?

Daily Limits

Breakfast
2 eggs (cooked without fat) or 4 egg whites (1 cup egg substitute OK)
1/2 cup Level 2 veggies
4 oz sandwich ham or other lean protein
Unlimited non-calorie beverage

Lunch
4 oz lean protein
2 cups Level 1 veggies
1/2 cup Level 2 veggies
Unlimited non-calorie beverage

Dinner
4 oz lean protein
3 cups mixed greens
1 cup Level 2 veggies
Unlimited non-calorie beverage

Plugging this into Fitday, I come up with 541 cals (using egg whites) or 624 cals (eggs). And this is what a Kimkins dieter has to look forward to in maintenance?

And about Debv, who willingly has provided her success story and pictures for Kimkins promotion, I don't doubt that she lost some weight. But, I have a really hard time to believe that the pictures she offers as proof are real. To me, it looks as if the before picture could be her daughter.

Look at the age of the kids. And the clothes in the before picture. It doesn't look as if it were taken 25 years ago like the age difference suggests.

Mother?

Daughter?

Grandparents with grandchildren?

Daughter with grandchildren?

My suspicion seems confirmed about this old testimonial on kimkins.con that google found:
Deb V Madison, WI , Posted at Monday, 13 August 2007 12:21. I have to tell you this is fantastic! My mom and I are doing Kimkins together and she's lost 37 ...

Kimmer's 1 Year Progress

These pictures show Heidi Diaz' progress after one year on the Kimkins Diet. The August 2007 picture was posted by Slamboard and the August 2008 picture by AmyB.

I think it's obvious that Heidi has lost weight. How much? Hard to tell and she doesn't give any updates about her own weight loss on her own diet site. 50 pounds perhaps? Down from 350 lbs to 300? 50 pounds in a year is about one pound per week. Huh?

What about the claim of "No faster diet, none"? What about promising 3 - 5 pounds per week? As compared to the 1 - 2 pounds' "gaggle" other diets provide?

What is it with the Kimkins Diet that makes it not work as promised for the founder? The fact that the diet is not suitable for anyone? That it's impossible to stick to? That any weight lost on it is really hard to keep off?

Any decent person would stop promoting something that obviously is not working for herself.

Kimmer's Diabetic Diet

Is not Kimkins. At least, not for herself.

Kimkins has been promoted as perfect for diabetes, with catch phrases like:

"Kimkins is perfect for all diabetics!
Most diabetic members reduce their medication dose because Kimkins controls blood sugar levels so well. In fact, many type 2 members are able to stop their meds completely!"

"Is Kimkins good for diabetics? Kimkins is perfect for all diabetics!"

"Researchers have found Kimkins to be exceptionally effective for the people having mobility problems and diabetes." (Source)

And, today, the kimkins.con website still claims:

"Is Kimkins good for diabetics?
Kimkins is ideal for managing diabetes! As a low glycemic weight loss plan, Kimkins allows many members to reduce or eliminate their medications due to excellent blood sugar control."

So what does Kimmer, a.k.a. Heidi Diaz do when she herself is faced with diabetes? AmyB reports that Heidi tried to follow the Diabetes Educator's advice as recommended by her nurse. She claims that she gained 15 pounds in the 12 weeks she followed the diet. I wonder how good the adherence was. (Not that I believe anything this woman says. I think that any truth coming out of her mouth would be by pure accident).

A typical diabetics recommendation is to:

1. Limit sweets
2. Eat often
3. Be careful about when and how many carbohydrates you eat
4. Eat lots of whole-grain foods, fruits and vegetables
5. Eating less fat
6. Limiting your use of alcohol

I can see Heidi managing 2) but the rest? I doubt it.

So what about:

"According to Kimmer, many members of her diet program who are Type II diabetics say that, after a few short weeks using her meal plan, they need to take less medication, or none at all. There even are some Type I diabetics who can lower their insulin intake — of course, with permission from their doctors.

That is why, if you are diabetic, or someone in your family, or someone else you know needs to control their blood sugar levels, then you would probably be doing them a favor if you let them know about the Kimkins diet.

An ounce of prevention, of course, is worth a pound of cure. So anyone who is having problems with carrying extra weight could possibly prevent getting Type 2 diabetes by losing that weight now. And the Kimkins diet seems to be working for many people."

So, the Kimkins Diet is just good for paying members and not for the founder? Do as I say and not as I do? Well, that is sort of obvious, considering that Heidi never lost weight on Kimkins and still weighs some 250-350 pounds. Why would anyone take this woman's advice?

Tired of Kimkins?

Not tired from Kimkins, even though I understand that is common for anyone following the Kimkins starvation Diet. Tired of Kimkins and Kimmer.

Many people have followed the Kimkins Saga since the start late June 2007. Some have left and others have joined the anti-kimkins ducks along the way. Many are still here, but quieter than before. And some, like Yust Yucky, announce that they are fed up and are looking for other things to get engaged in. That have more rewarding results? Or, perhaps any results?

The entire anti-kk community seems to be in waiting mode. The Class Action Law Suit is continuing with more depositions, but it's a slow process. No new, juicy, information has surfaced lately and no new pictures. Is Kimmer finally losing weight? Nobody knows. Do we even care at this point? I don't. She is a proven liar and one more lie will make no difference to me.

No news about the absent admins either. Gary is long gone. Singingass rarely makes an appearance on Kimkins these days. Kimkins website is a ghost town with sockpuppets manning the ranks. Yawn.

But I'm still blogging. Why? Because Kimkins.con is still operating on the internet. And I plan on going on blogging as long as there is a risk that unsuspecting people googling for a diet will find Kimkins.con. At least the anti-kk blogs provide a second opinion. Perhaps we can prevent new victims.

Yes, Heidi Diaz supposedly has sanitized the diet. No 500 cals any more. No laxative abuse. But it is still a horrible diet, in my opinion. Low carb should not be low fat. A diet should not be used as a quick fix (and not so "quick" as you are supposed to follow Kimkins to goal). A diet should be a life style change long term. A restrictive diet like Kimkins promotes yo-yo dieting and eating disorders.

The Kimkins.con website is now supposedly "legal" but still has questionable weight loss photos, they just haven't been proven fake. There are "success" stories on there that look as if they have achieved weight loss. And why wouldn't they? Not eating, or eating very little, will cause you to lose weight. But what about maintaining a weight loss? I still have not seen anybody that has managed to maintain their goal weight after reaching it on Kimkins. And I doubt I ever will.

Instead of feeling despair at the legal machine moving so slowly, look at what has been accomplished during a year. A class action lawsuit is underway. Many, many promotional articles have been removed from the internet. The Russian pictures are gone. Heidi Diaz does no longer (openly) push 500 cals and laxatives. Very few people are still at Kimkins and I doubt she is getting any new members. Kimmer is gone from LCF and dieters there are encouraged to use safe weight loss methods.

Calling Kimkins Diet Members

Please join the Class Action Lawsuit. You don't need to have been banned from Kimkins. It is enough to have paid for a membership before November 12, 2007.

Why should you join the lawsuit? It's not to help the anti-kimkins bloggers, the posters on LCF's "Fascination with Kimmer" thread. It is to help to shut kimkins.con down!

Many, many people signed up for Kimkins based on fraudulent information (Kimmer's fake pictures and her fake weight loss claims) presented in Women's World in June 2007. The vast majority of these have left kimkins.com.

Many couldn't stick to the diet and just saw the membership money as wasted on yet another fad diet attempt. Others left when the controversy started and tried to forget about it all, embarrassed that they bought in to the lies.

Many of the members just walked away and had no interest in joining the lawsuit. Let others deal with it. Hope that kimkins.con gets shut down without them doing anything.

But, please, think about other potential victims.

Read Kimkins Survivors to see what happened to trusting people following Heidi Diaz' diet advice. People were HURT by the diet. Physically and mentally.

Would you really want, 5 years from now, your daughter/granddaughter/niece/friend finding kimkin.con on the internet? Develop an eating disorder? Starve herself thin? Suffer health complications that may follow her for life?

If you haven't already joined the Class Action Lawsuit, please reconsider your decision for not doing so. There is strength in numbers.

You are eligible if:
You paid for a membership to Kimkins before Nov 12, 2007, and you either
i) have not received a refund (or refused it in case one was sent to you) OR
ii) are still a Kimkins member

Information on how to join is available on Kimkins Lawsuit.

Or, watch the video

You can also contact John Tiedt, the Class Action lawyer, directly:

www.tiedtlaw.com

jtiedt@tiedtlaw.com

951-549-9400

Kimkins in Diets in Review

I came across this article, and while I read it back then, I found it interesting to refresh my memory. You might too.

Direct from Kimkins - Rebuttal
by Jimmy C

October 8, 2007
posted to Diet News and Diets in Review.

UPDATE:
Diets in review has received a rebuttal to our review from Jeannie Baitinger - Kimkins PR Director.

Dear Jim,

Thank you for giving Kimkins.com the opportunity to present our side of the story.

First please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jeannie Baitinger and on the website I am known as Tippy Toes. I am employed by Kimkins.com as PR Director and as management.

We know we are under attack from various sources. But many of these sources are coming from people who have only heard about our diets and have not actually tried them. The effect has been much like a snowball effect of people who genuinely mean well but are not actual members. Much is based on hear say and negative publicity.

Moreover, we offer no calorie limits on any plan. There are no 500 calorie per day plans. No plan is 100% fat free. We do allow the individual to use common sense when adding healthy fats and we term this as “just enough fat to make it work”. We do not promote starvation of any kind and we never will. We encourage members to stick within the plan guidelines and further, we encourage them to add extra protein and possibly extra salads if they are still hungry or not feeling well.

We do not encourage or promote laxative abuse. However, it is not at all uncommon for a low carb diet plan to cause constipation. When a member complains we have recommended gentle stimulants such as M.O.M. or 100% physillium husks. There is also a tea which is helpful in relieving symptoms. We will never recommend laxatives as part of weight loss plans. Never!

Additionally we do encourage our members to have their Doctor’s review the plans and monitor their progress. Many, many members report excellent lab reviews and Doctor’s blessings. On our website I have never seen anything but positive reviews. On other websites I read the negatives but without offered proof. What I do read are stories of hair loss. This seems common on a lot of diets. Even the Atkins diet can cause this. When I did Atkins it happened to me. Oddly, I never lost hair doing Kimkins though. But again, hair loss is easily corrected and people who have their Doctor’s monitoring progress can address the issue and get help. I would find it rather bizarre to lose huge chunks of my hair and still continue with any diet WITHOUT seeing my Doctor immediately. So I must question why there are no medical claims based on proof…

I am personally a Kimkins success story. I began my weight loss journey at 263 lbs. I am a female of 5′ 7″. I began losing weight with the Atkins diet (also quite con-traversal) and did well on it for about a year. I lost approximately 50 lbs on Atkins and then it stopped working. For the next 6 months I lost no further weight or inches. A dear friend told me about the Kimkins diet and I decided to give it a try. The weight came off just as promised! EXACTLY as promised! I made a personal choice to begin alternating Kimkins diet with Atkins. On Kimkins I could lose the weight and on Atkins breaks I could easily maintain it. Today my current weight is 152. Maintaining my weight has never been so easy thanks to a low carb lifestyle.

Our website is full of happy success stories much like mine. Many people have no trouble doing only Kimkins straight to goal. I have seen amazing losses–as much as 100lbs in 5 months. These big losses are quite common at Kimkins. Side effects appear minimal and as stated previously we do encourage everyone to have their Doctor’s monitor them every step of the way.

Our members are not uneducated people being mislead. We just completed a Teacher’s Challenge and the entire group lost an unbelievable amount of weight. The teacher’s group had planned to make a public donation to fund teachers but with all the negative publicity they have opted for private donations instead. It is not at all uncommon for Internet users to wish to remain private. That is why many choose a nickname rather than using a real name.

As far as the founder of Kimkins.com is concerned and with all due respect, most members really don’t care who she really is or is not. We believe the founder has every right to privacy and further we believe she is entitled to such. Her real name and weight is not an issue to people who are serious about weight loss and finally are able to make it happen. People buy a membership for their own weight loss and that is what they get. Weight loss. Our claim “there is no faster weight loss plan” is very accurate.

I will be more than happy to issue you a temporary site pass if you would like to come in and see what is really happening for yourself. Just let me know if you are interested in the real truth. It’s pretty amazing!

Sincerely,
Jeannie Baitinger, PR
Kimkins.con

Katey Oct 8th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
This is white-washing nonsense. I was a member of Kimkins. Members were told to eat their fill of lowfat protein. The ketosis kicks in very strong on that diet, and the appetite completely disappears.

Most Kimkins members, including admins and “star” losers provided their FitDay links. All of them were getting around 500 calories per day, sometimes less. I questioned this on the forums and was told that all the calories I needed would come from my excess body fat.

As far as members not really caring who Kimmer is….also nonsense. Plenty of members cared, and voiced their concerns on the forums. But you won’t see those posts, because they are immediately DELETED and the posters banned. (Yes, BANNED, after paying for a “lifetime” membership.)

Susan Oct 8th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
Jeannie is terribly misleading. I sent my diet log personally to Kimmer/Heidi and was instructed to reduce my calories (running around 700 at the time) and my protein “If I wanted faster losses.”

When I was a member on KimKins, I complained that I was stalling due to starvation mode and was chastized that there was no such thing! All I had to do was lower my calories further!

Constipated? Take 1/2 the usual dose of Milk of Magnesia daily, that’ll keep the pipes working.

This coming from Heidi/Kimmer, an obese woman who enticed us with fake photos and her own fake FitDay diet weight loss log & journal. Makes me question everything now.

I CARE about who this Kimmer is, if she based the diet on years of lies and her own faked before and after photos, that diet plan lost all credibility. I am now banned from Kimins for having a different view of that diet. I discovered she faked most of the Success stories.

ANYONE having a different view of that diet or questions anything will have their posts removed and then eventually they too, will go *POOF*. So much for paying for a lifetime membership.

You will find NO dissenters as you read the Kimkins posts, they simply are not allowed to exist. You will however find posts from the new administrators that will say “Who cares who this Kimmers WAS…this diet works!”

Candace Oct 8th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
This article is pure rubbish. I was a member of Kimkins when it first started and I tried their original Boot Camp Diet. It was 500 calories per day at that time. It is only recently that they have recommended more calories, and a paltry 800 calories per day at that.

Kimkins is a diet based upon a big fat lie. There is no Kimmer who lost 198 lbs in 11 months. The woman behind the diet is an obese fraud. The diet has been grossly misrepresented and success stories proven to be fraudulent. This diet is unsafe and unhealthy. There is only one nugget of truth to this post.

Where Tippy says “On our website I have never seen anything but positive reviews.” Anyone who dares question the diet, the founder or posts any negative effects are quickly banned from the forum without a warning or a refund.

I would urge anyone considering Kimkins to do their research. There are healthy lowcarb plans out there that are safe and that work. Please consider Atkins or Southbeach.

unhappyexkimkin Oct 8th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
What utter rubbish Jeannie (Tiptytoes) is spewing. Up until a few weeks ago when the media began investigating Kimkins the slogan of the site and members was “SNATT” which stands for Slightlky Nauseous All The Time. It was encouraged and cheered on by admins, other members and the Kimmer herself.

I bought the lifetime membership based on Kimmer’s success story of losing over a hundred pounds and finding out she is a morbidly obese fraud and con artist with criminal convictions was not my idea of who to take nutritional advice from.

I lurked for months on the site and saw firsthand Kimmer and other admins advising members to cut calories, take laxatives daily and that if your bowels only moved once a week it was fine. They actually sold T-shirts with the SNATT logo. You were berated if you ate over 500 calories a day and the notion of starvation mode was laughed at.

I could go on but there is enough information out there on the lies and eating disorder type strategies on the Internet already. Kimkins has been sanitized and cleaned up to cover up the real plan that is advocated. It is not sound nor healthy and most importantly it is not safe.

I hope that once the various authorities who are undergoing investigations conclude the site will be shut down and proper criminal charges laid against all who perpetuated this dangerous fraud and I do hope desperate people like me who want to lose weight find other healthier plans to follow. I am paying with my health for my months trying to follow Kimkins as laid out. I pray no one else is as foolish as I was.

Really? Oct 8th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
>But many of these sources are coming from people who have only heard about our diets and have not actually tried them. As far as the founder of Kimkins.com is concerned and with all due respect, most members really don’t care who she really is or is not.

yes REALLY! Oct 9th, 2007 at 2:21 am
The members who Do care who the Kimmer really is, are instantly banned. We Have tried the diet and we Do have serious comlications from the diet.

Clumps of hair falling out due to the malnutrition, slow metabolism and rapid pulse, no energy and fainting. Impaired thyroid function. Yoppy even has that now.

Dr. Broda Barnes was the doctor who did most of the testing on hypothyroid individuals and metabolisms. It’s not JUST those with autoimmune hypothyroidism either (Hashimoto’s). Dr. B (and Dr. Atkins much later) found that when you lower your carbs less than 30net, AND your calories to less than 1200, that your T4 to T3 conversion is almost nonexistent and can trigger Hashimoto’s as well as tertiary hypothyroidism.

Subjects who ate well OVER 1600 to 1800 calories a day with 25net grams carbs did quite well. Subjects who ate well over 100 grams carbs and about 1400 cals a day did well too.

and now we have that idiot hick Tippy telling us to us our diet to 800 cals.

IdontThinkSo Oct 9th, 2007 at 7:42 am
This rebuttal is misleading, to say the least. When I joined I had no idea that the impressive before/after pictures and stories were fraudulent, the pictures taken from online Russian bride and groom sites. I had no idea that the inspiring after pictures of the site’s founder were also fake. I, like many, do care who Kimmer is. I based my decision to join on those stories, those pictures, and her claim of losing nearly 200 pounds and maintaining that loss for several years. I paid for her experience, support, and guidance following a plan that I was to find was not based on her success at all.
Members were told to lower already low calories. Members were told to take Milk of Magnesia at half dose, daily. Members were told that the calories they needed would be taken from their excess body weight/fat. “Tweaking” the plan to suit your needs was frowned upon. If you tweaked it, it wasn’t Kimkins. I read those posts during my time as a member of Kimkins. SNATT (semi-nauseous all the time) was applauded and available for purchase, printed on tee shirts.
I agree with one thing said in the rebuttal above. You will find many happy success stories but that is not due to a lack of dissatisfaction. Jeannie Baitinger says, “On our website I have never seen anything but positive reviews.” If this is true then I would guess that she has spent much of her time on the site with here eyes closed. Members who have questioned the validity of this diet, the founder, the advice given, or stated health concerns or health issues were deemed trouble makers and have had their posts deleted and were banned without warning. One needs only search the internet to find the truth.

Sherrie Oct 9th, 2007 at 7:51 am
Yes shes right, there are plenty of people whom haven’t tried the diet…

BECAUSE THEY KNEW IT WOULD BE DANGEROUS!!!

You don’t need to try the diet to make a judgment on it, you just need to be able to read.

500 calorie bootcamp with 30min daily cardio MINIMUM

800 max calorie protein shake plan where you can choose to use standard protein shakes, no mention of adding fat and Kimmer herself has recommended her members to do a 450 cal version for faster weight loss, calling it her fastest plan.

1000 calorie vegetarian plan.

To top that off Kimmer has given out very dangerous advice.

Plus her other two plans being so low fat particularly her lean meat and egg only plan often come to below 500 calories or close for a lot of members due to something they encourage called SNATT (semi nauseous all the time). Just ask their former PR Director, Christin, ask her how she lost her weight and how KIMMER encouraged her members to copy what Christin was doing!!! Ask Christin how healhy she has been feeling lately!

Apparently, they are now stating an 800 calorie minimum (publicly) but this is only because of an impending lawsuit, TV expose and various investigations. Now Kimmer encourages the members to email Kimmer at her gmail account for “Ask Kimmer” questions… SCARY!

Laura Dec 1st, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Isn’t it interesting that the one who posted the rebuttal has now jumped ship?

http://2big4mysize.wordpress.com/2007/12/01/has-tippy-toes-flipped/

http://2medusa.blogspot.com/2007/12/tippytoes-spills-beans.html

If you were a paid member of the Kimkins.com website and you would like to participate in the Class Action Lawsuit against Kimkins:

http://kimkinslawsuit.wordpress.com/

To see the latest information from the KTLA investigation:

http://tinyurl.com/2voac6
[link added by me goes to Insider Exclusive]

Say NO to Kimkins Jan 1st, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Please update your article to reflect that Jeannie Baitinger in NO LONGER the Kimkins PR Director.

You might want to contact her to see if she still feels the same way about her rebuttal. I have a feeling that she does not.

Kimmer Jan 1st, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Please be advised that Jeannie continues to follow and support the Kimkins Plan today.

She simply left Kimkins in order to help spread the word via her own Kimkins-based website. She has my blessing and full support for her Kimkins CTF Diet.

Jeannie is still a very strong Kimkins supporter, and she remains my right hand here at Kimkins. Kimkins would not be the success it is today without all the hard work and support that Jeannie has given me and continues to give me on a daily basis.

If your life has been benefitted by the Kimkins Diet, you owe a great debt to Jeannie and all her hard work.

I couldn’t have achieved all that I have achieved without the monumental contributions made by Jeannie.

She is a fine testament of the proof that the Kimkins Diet is working miracles for thousand of obese men and woman every day.

2BIG Jan 3rd, 2008 at 12:13 pm
interesting post Kimmer. too bad Jeannie saw it and has sent a rebuttal of her own to your rebuttal of her leaving Kimkins.com

here it is for folk not realizing DIETSINREVIEW has moved the Kimmer commnet out as a page of its own

Jeannie Baitinger
Jan 2nd, 2008 at 3:36 pm
I am friggen stunned! I just don’t know what else to say. Cutting/reducing fats from Atkins does not make it Kimkins. I have done both and I know the difference.

First, I am in no way affiliated with Kimkins. In fact, I don’t even visit the site. Check the stats for yourselves. I will try to make this very clear. I left Kimkins to avoid being dragged into a lawsuit and a serious one at that. It is not my intent to bad mouth Heidi or her Kimkins plans. That is NOT saying I support her or any fraud she has done.

I am not following Kimkins diet. I am at goal. I did re-gain a tad over the holidays. I tried STILLMAN’S Quick Weight Loss and took it off. I do believe in freedom of plan choice and I will never bully or harass anyone for their plan of choice. As far as Kimkins plans, yes I did lose weight and a lot of it. No one wants to hear it but I will not lie about it. I have no reason to. I stalled on Atkins after about a 50lb loss. I tried Kimkins but learned I just couldn’t stay on it long. But I also saw weight loss for the first time in a very long time. So, I learned to cycle it back and forth–Kimkins to lose–Atkins to maintain. There are threads at LCF which show this though they are mostly overlooked. :Smiley A matter of convenience I am certain. Check the thread “Has Atkins Quit Working For You”. It’s all there. Another thread I posted a lot on was Support Unlimited. And for a while Banta Babes. Some say that was never Kimkins… But on a Kimkins cycle round it WAS.

Because I did lose a lot of weight using Kimkins I have not asked her to remove my success story. I know that is going to make a lot of people mad to read but that is how I feel. It is fair. I have not had contact with Heidi about my pics, my story or anything else. All ties are severed. We do not communicate by email, telephone or 3rd parties. And while I have been granted immunity from the lawsuit in exchange for cooperating I have not joined the lawsuit nor do I want my money refunded. I just want to be left in peace from all sides. This has been a nightmare.

A family member has started reading all the blogs and such about me and is now worried to death over it all. He didn’t need that at all. He has had one stroke previously and suffers from other health and stress problems. My daughter started reading it too and is very angry over the obvious lies. In fact, my entire family is worried sick for me. People who do not know me at all are repeating the lies. It is sickening of the joy some get from attempts to ruin a person’s life. I don’t understand it.

I had no idea when I left Kimkins that I would be starting a site. In fact, I looked into Amy’s site as a new home and was instantly banned thanks to LCF members who are determined I am not worthy of support, even though I have supported so many of them on my weight loss journey. This is what lead to Brian and Heather offering to build us our very own “home” and that is how Camp Carbaway was born. There was no master plot happening at Kimkins. We can all clearly see how people who follow her diets are treated by the other low carb communities. IF she should be forced to shut her doors due to the lawsuit her people are most assuredly welcome here. In fact, I don’t care if they want to be members of both. That is their right.

Further, I find it surprising that Heidi would want us to offer Kimkins plans here as she sent Brian an email with a hint she would sue anyone for copycatting her plans. And, after all, they do belong to her. I respect that. Because of that I find it hard to imagine that Heidi would write that at all… And I suspect she did not. What I do suspect is just another person claiming glory to once again put a dagger in the middle of my back. Seems my suffering is their joy.

UPDATE 2
After posting this, it was brought to my attention that Tippy had made a new comment with a disclaimer:

Jeannie baitinger
Aug 1st, 2008 at 1:57 pm

Just a note to update my view of the Kimkins diet. I have recently been made aware of serious health complications that may be caused from following Kimkins diet. I urge anyone who is following this diet plan to discontinue the diet until you have the chance to speak with your Physician about the plan.

Please tell your Physician your calorie and carb counts and provide a detailed menu with portion sizes and exact amounts. Be sure the Physician knows how long you have been using the diet and how much weight you plan to lose. Many times we say low carb veggies and lean meats that sounds great but when broken down into the diets guidelines may prove to be dangerous.

I would no longer advise anyone to follow the diet at this time after seeing examples of health problems in members who’s Doctor’s feel is likely is a matter of complication from following Kimkins. There are many low carb diets available with great results as well that have not been linked to the complications that may be from Kimkins. Atkins, when done properly is one, Protein Power is yet another.

I recommend before starting any diet, it is written and approved by the founding Physician or health professional as well as your own. I no longer endorse Kimkins Diets.