Kimkins during Pregnancy

This was posted on Kimkins on June 20th:

Pregnant
Has anyone ever done kimkins while pregnant? This is my third child and I really don't want to gain weight I am already heavy and I would actually like to lose a little weight. Please let me know....

Up to today (June 28) no Admin has bothered to give an answer.

Kimmer has posted on other places on the board. Singingass has posted on other places on the board. Gary is missing.

Kimkins is a starvation diet and should not be used by anybody. But an unborn child? I am speechless.

From Women's Health:

Make sure not to restrict your diet during pregnancy either. If you do, your unborn baby might not get the right amounts of protein, vitamins, and minerals. Low-calorie diets can break down a pregnant woman's stored fat. This can lead to the production of substances called ketones. Ketones can be found in the mother's blood and urine and are a sign of starvation. Constant production of ketones can result in a mentally retarded child.

You might also want to see what Medusa has to say about it. And while you are at her site, look at some of her anorexia posts. Would you do this to an unborn child?

Kimkins Exposed Revived

Kimkins Exposed was the first anti-Kimkins blog that surfaced almost a year ago, in mid-July 2007. It was THE place to go for the latest news in the Kimkins Saga and many of us read in awe on a daily basis.

The blog started out as "duckyopinines" and the still unknown blogger (or group of bloggers) was soon known as Ducky.

Eventually other anti-Kimkins blogs followed and for some unexplained reason, Kimkins Exposed stopped updating the blog after the Russian red dress photo was found. The last post was Introducing Kimmer on October 6, 2007.

The blog remained dormant but was still a great source for information. Ducky remained in hiding with just a couple of comments on blogs in March 2008. Not very pleasant comments either. Not the Ducky we loved and thought we knew.

Then suddenly the blog was deleted. With all its posts. Gone.

Thanks to a lot of hours and hard work by BamaGal, Kimkins Exposed has been revived! She has painfully, and with a lot of patience, rescued cached copies of not only the majority of the posts, but also the comments.

The other prominent anti-kimkins blog that disappeared just prior to Kimkins Exposed, Kimkins Dangers, has also experienced a re-birth. Again thanks to BamaGal, here with the help of WunnatheDux.

While the Kimkins Dangers blog was eventually handed over to BamaGal, the posts were all gone and needed to be retrieved one by one from cached copies.

However, thanks to it being the same blog, with the same address, links stay intact.

This is not the case for Kimkins Exposed. The new address is:

http://kimkinsexposed2.wordpress.com/


Please update your blogroll to direct to the revived copy of Kimkins Exposed.

I hope many of the bloggers also take the time to search their blogs and update links to Kimkins Exposed as the old ones no longer lead anywhere.

And as a final note, I'd like to ask any anti-Kimkins blogger that no longer wants to continue blogging to do one of two things:
1) Keep the blog dormant, but do not delete it.
2) Hand it over to the anti-kk community. Contact one of the active bloggers and we will find someone to take ownership of it.

As BamaGal is saying on Kimkins Exposed Revived:

WE AIN'T DONE YET!

Kimmer Exaggerating Kimkins Weight Loss

Kimmer, a.k.a. Heidi Diaz recently stated:

"This is what I did wrong:
1) I used model photos to show Kimkins possibilities
2) I exaggerated my personal weight loss

That’s it. Hand to God, that’s it."

Dictionary (answers.com):

Exaggerate
v.tr.

1. To represent as greater than is actually the case; overstate: exaggerate the size of the enemy force; exaggerated his own role in the episode.
2. To enlarge or increase to an abnormal degree: thick lenses that exaggerated the size of her eyes.
   

v.intr.

To make overstatements.

How can you "exaggerate" something that is non-existent in the first place? Kimmer went from this:

to this:

There never was any weight loss, so how can she "exaggerate" a weight loss? Fabricate seems to be a more fitting word.

Kimmer successfully fabricated a weight loss story that she stuck to for 6 years and posted fake photos to support her claim of being a slender 118 lbs young-looking woman.

"I've been at goal for nearly 6 years and my old 318-pound life seems like eons ago!"

And what about the first thing that she did wrong? Using model photos to show Kimkins possibilities? If the diet was as successful as she claims, where are all the real pictures from the 6 years she was promoting it? She always talked about receiving so many emails from people that thanked her for their weight loss. Were they all camera shy, like Kimmer herself?

"Hello, I'm Kimmer! I've studied weight loss plans for a lifetime, noting what worked. What didn't. And, most importantly, why. Not only from personal experience, but from the feedback of hundreds of unhappy, overweight folks."

I do think she knows what doesn't work. But not what does work. At least not for herself.

Kimmer Shows Her True Colors to Jimmy Moore

Readers of Jimmy Moore's low carb blog Livin' La Vida Low Carb are familiar with Jimmy's infertility issues that have prevented him and his wife Christine from becoming parents.

Jimmy has shared details about their struggles on his blog and podcast:

2008/05
2007/12
2007/12
2007/12
2007/11
2007/11
2007/10
2007/10

Personally, I had the children I wanted, at the time I wanted them, so I can only imagine how painful it is for Jimmy and his wife to go through all this to try to have the family they want.

Most people can sympathize. Heidi Diaz, Kimmer of Kimkins, is not one of them. Instead, she sees it as an opportunity to inflict some more pain for Jimmy. As if he hasn't suffered enough from his previous association with Heidi and the recent (possibly related) hacking of his forum and PayPal account.

Jimmy received this email from Kimmer today:

"---- Kimmer (webmaster@kimkins.com) wrote:
Hi Jimmy, I just heard the fantstic news that you & Christine were blessed with a son! There is nothing more precious than a new baby and he surely has the very best parents. My very best to you & Christine at this special time.

Congratulations! Kimmer"

When Jimmy sent her a reply that she was mistaken, Kimmer responded with:

---- Kimmer (webmaster@kimkins.com) wrote:
Jimmy, what? I received an email this morning from the Low Carb Show. It said you & your wife had a baby? I offering sincere congratulations??? I don't read your blog so I don't know any history.

Confused. Obviously I offended you and I'm sorry. Maybe the Low Carb Show is talking about someone else??? Jimmy, I'm very sorry. I thought this was a happy time.

I meant well. I apologize.

And a little later:

---- Kimmer (webmaster@kimkins.com) wrote:
Jimmy, I *didn't* know it was a different show. I think "Low Carb" + podcast and I automatically think "Jimmy Moore". I receive hundreds of emails a day, as I'm sure you do. I skim quickly and delete or reply. I saw what I thought was good news and dashed off a congratulatory note.

My sons are 14 years apart and not by choice. I had several reconstructive surgeries & fertility treatments to conceive my last child. I also suffered a 16th week miscarriage 3 months before he was finally conceived. I would never make light of someone else in the same circumstance.

It was an honest mistake and I've apologized. There's nothing more I can do.

Kimmer has always stressed how computer illiterate she is, but she has never before claimed to have limited reading ability or bad memory. And if she hit "reply" to the email she received, why did it go to Jimmy?

Surely Kimmer is well aware of Jimmy's infertility problems and Kimmer also knows that Jimmy's podcast is called "The Living' La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore". After all, she starred in it herself not too long ago.

This was when Kimmer, or Heidi Diaz, claimed to be 118 lbs and that she had maintained this weight for over 6 years. Recorded in July 2007, it was just a month before the truth was revealed in a set of pictures of a 350 pounds Heidi.

The question is why she is doing this. It has no bearing on the lawsuit. Intimidation? Why? Jimmy has not written much about Heidi Diaz lately. To me, it seems that if she is leaving him alone, he is pretty much ignoring her and Kimkins.

Personally, I think Heidi Diaz is just plain evil and she doesn't need a reason to hurt people. She does it just because she can. She is a sorry excuse of a human being.

Heidi Diaz, a.k.a. Kimmer, in deposition.

[Note. The Low Carb Show Kimmer refers to is by another podcaster, Marc Sage.]

The Kimkins Diet Does Not Work

At least not for the founder, Kimmer or Heidi Diaz.

After having been exposed as obese instead of the svelte 118 lbs she has claimed for 6 plus years, Heidi Diaz committed to losing weight, starting in November last year. She was updating her weight loss stats (even though those might have been purely fictional) and putting up more or less photoshopped "progress" pictures of herself.


All that stopped a few months ago. No new weight loss announced. No new pictures posted. Despite the "2008 pinky swear" challenge she is participating in where everybody except Kimmer report their weight. Despite having promised "good numbers" to be announced early May.

Nobody at Kimkins questions Heidi's lack of weight loss reports. The few loyal oldtimers know better as they don't want to get banned from the site. And the paid sockpuppets don't care.

It is likely that the Kimkins Diet has failed Kimmer, again. It is likely that she is back at the weight of last summer (350+ lbs?) when the P.I. Robert Charlton took this picture posted on Slamboards:

Kimkins Legal Troubles

Metabolife's former CEO sentenced to 6 months

Ellis pleaded guilty to misleading FDA
By Mike Freeman
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

June 10, 2008

The former chief executive of dietary supplement maker Metabolife International was sentenced to six months in federal prison yesterday for lying to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding an ephedra-based weight-loss product.

Michael J. Ellis, 55, pleaded guilty in November to one count of making false statements to the FDA in 1999 about Metabolife 356. In addition to prison time, U.S. District Judge Napoleon Jones Jr. ordered Ellis to pay a $20,000 fine.

According to prosecutors, Ellis and the company sent letters to the federal agency saying they had “never received a notice from a consumer that any serious adverse health event has occurred because of the ingestion of Metabolife 356.”

Metabolife's own documents showed that it had received many reports from consumers of seizures, heart attacks, strokes, loss of consciousness and other serious illnesses, said the U.S. Attorney's Office.

At the time Metabolife was saying it had a “claims-free history,” the FDA was considering tighter regulations on products containing ephedra. Metabolife was one of the largest dietary supplement companies in the United States, largely based on sales of Metabolife 356.

In 2002, the company turned over reports of 14,000 ephedra-related events that the company had previously not disclosed to the FDA. The FDA eventually banned ephedra, and in 2004, Ellis and Metabolife were indicted on several counts of making false statements.

Metabolife filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in July 2005 in the wake of hundreds of civil lawsuits.
Ellis' lawyer, Charles La Bella, said Ellis is no longer working in the dietary supplement industry.

Ellis chose to plead guilty to close this chapter in his life and move on, La Bella said, because the lawsuits and bankruptcy cases are no longer pending.

“That's why it was important that he get this behind him,” La Bella said. “He's happy this is over and he can get on with the rest of his life.”

The Class Action Lawsuit against Kimkins is for fraud and has nothing to do with adverse health events.

However, legal actions by the FDA might follow. While Kimkins does not sell any supplements, promoting dangerous diet practices might not be all that legal either. Dieters following Kimkins and the advice given by Kimmer (Heidi Diaz) reportedly have suffered hair loss, heart palpitations, dizziness, thrashed thyroid, etc. Not to mention the documented promotion of laxative abuse.

Tippy Toes, a former Admin, has admitted to seeing reports of adverse health events. She didn't believe them, but she did see them. I am sure Heidi Diaz did too. She better not lie to the FDA about it.

Tippy Toes about Kimkins

The previous PR director of Kimkins left the company in December 2007 and started her own diet forum, Camp Carbaway. While the forum initially may have been intended as a business, it is now just another free private bulletin board that only requires invitation.

Tippy has not officially denounced the Kimkins Diet as being unsound. When she first left Kimkins, she supposedly still believed in the diet, with the only change that it should be at least 800 calories (which is still a starvation level but just misses the label VLCD, Very Low Calorie Diet).

Her forum caters primarily to ex-kimkins dieters and Tippy has not made any effort to strongly discourage the Kimkins diet. The closest she came was the other day when she responded to a hard core KK promoter in the Camp, but it's still not saying NOT to do Kimkins.

"Hi XXXX. I can understand your questions, believe me. I too was a KK supporter--so much so I am a former PR Director for the website. There was a time I thought KK was the magic bullet as I could no longer lose weight and was not yet to the half way point on my journey. Now I see other options that could have helped and I am trying to present them all here for KKers. Always more than one road to a destination.

I too showed the original KK plan to my own Doctor. She didn't blink an eye but did write me a list of supplements to buy as I continued KK. The supplements were from vitaminshopp.com and were their brand vitamin C, 1000mg 3x a day, one flax, one country life brand vitamin and 2 country life brand minerals. I believe strongly in these supplements and continue to take them to this day even though I will not use KK diets ever again. I also ate red meats--just leaner cuts.

While at KK as PR I did hear stories... And I really thought they were just stories. I heard of hair loss. What I didn't realize was that it was not just normal hair shedding...

(Tippy shares some details about members that I hope she had their permission to do. I will not repeat them here.)

And there is Christin, the first PR Director who made the cover of Women's World Mag with her amazing 100lb loss in 5 months. You bet she starved it off. I followed her old posts around KK and I was mad at her for teaching others to starve, drinking water to make the hunger go away, ect. I know NOW she was following the directions provided by her boss--Kimmer. Christin is hanging in there but she has been hospitalized for heart palpatations, lost more hair than many, her menstral cycles were messed up and here is the really bad part which has carried over with her--she cannot consume over 1200 calories a day without regaining. And this has been under medical supervision, with help from a Nutritionist even. Her weight management is a daily struggle and she is unsure how her health will hold up later. She has two small children to raise and I know she is scared to death of what time may bring. We are all hoping for the best for her, of course.

Now, about the plan... Yes it does lack nutrients we need and yes supplements can help with that. But I am not convinced they can provide all of the missing pieces. And my experience with KK was hitting a lot of miserable stalls. I would cycle to Atkins and just maintain for a while rather than continue on. It was too hard to not see results. However, I saw advice given to others at KK to keep going--try cutting this and that out (usually fats somewhere)... Now, if we start on the highest 800 calorie side (which I added to the plan when I was PR, BTW--calories were 500 a day prior to my arrival) and we begin to subtract as we progress and slow down we are simply going back to the old ways of KK--and most do. Maybe not you and I hope not. That is what is called the dangerous "plan behind the plan". There is a blogger, 2big4mysize (link added by me) who has written of the nutrients lacking. Her blog is worth reading and I have posted some of her info here.

Back in the day over at LCF Kimmer came on the scene with Kimkins. She claimed to be 118lbs and said she had maintained her 198lb weight loss for 5 years. She gave people her plan to try, which I know now was her "experiment". As folks would stall she would tell them to cut back lower and lower and she did promote daily laxitive use to "keep things going". She also advocated fasting for very long periods of time including her infamous diet coke fast which she claimed "If I had to do it all again I would lose all the weight doing a diet coke fast...". Clearly she was fishing for her next guinie pig to try it. I hope no one did! And some were using her plan under her direction and were under 500 calories a day in many cases. The head admin, Cheri, from LCF stepped in and told Kimmer that was not enough calories and to please direct them to eat more and she said no--the calories were fine.

Then the private investigator stuff came out and it was discovered that Kimmer was not 118lbs at all. In fact, in a recent depo given by her son, he says Kimmer has never lost weight--ever. You can find the PI pics of her at LCF and in many anti KK blogs.

My conculsion here is that this is a plan written by a liar and a scammer who didn't really care about anyone's health at all. She wanted to see her plan as a success is all--at any expense to others. Keep in mind after all, she was not following KK herself as she was telling everyone. For her it was all about conditioning desperate overweight women who would eventually pay her for her bad advice.

Now, here is some facts I have gathered. If a person does Atkins, the basic guidelines for induction are 60%fats, 30% protein and 10% carbs. The ongoing weight loss phase is a 50/30/20 %. Maintenance is 40/30/30. Run your figures in fitday and see where you really are to these figures. If you are doing the updated KK plan, you may not be so far off. And I am curious. So if you will post your % I will be interested in seeing them.

How many calories are you getting in a day? What % of fats, carbs and proteins do you average? These are figures your Doctor needs to see. Yes the diet looks pretty good on paper until you dig in deeper.

All that said, you may still stay here and continue to use your KK plan. We don't want you to feel you are the only one here following KK--many still do. My hopes is for everyone to stay safe. And I am not trying to lecture anyone as I have been there and done that too. I hope to find a balance that is healthier for everyone that works as well. Some say Atkins is too high in fats but looking at the % given to me by Atkins Center, not really after induction. If lowering most fats produces rapid weight loss at first, moderate and slow weight loss later, than what would happen if we just reduced fats by a little instead of so much? The menus would be much more enjoyable, we would learn a way to eat that we can keep forever and perhaps keep our health. I am working on this and doing an experiement with Atkins myself. See my journal if you get a chance."

Tippy, I am still waiting for you to officially declare the Kimkins Diet being nutritionally bankrupt and that you don't encourage anyone to follow it. And, that you are sorry you ever did.

Kimkins Fraud Continues

So much for Heidi Diaz cleaning up her act. An old blog of hers was revived a few days ago, sporting not only pictures of Christin and Deni but also the photoshopped picture of Lindsay Lohan, suggesting that she endorses the Kimkins Diet.

Lindsay's photo is gone today, but this is how the blog looked yesterday:



Christin's and Deni's photos are still there, despite Heidi no longer having the right to use them.

Kimmer Admits WLS

While it has been known for quite some time that Heidi Diaz had weight loss surgery, she has never said anything about it herself, as far as I know.

I was surprised to hear today that she openly referred to her WLS in a post on Kimkins:

"Particularly after weight loss surgery I was unhappy. It worked great at first since I followed Kimkins once I could add back solid food, but eventually old eating habits returned and weight crept back up."

The WLS could have taken place in 1993. Do you remember this post on curezone that was posted on the blogs last year?


Kimkins is sold as "Better than gastric bypass!" Kimkins didn't even work for Kimmer after WLS. As it has failed to work for her all other times she has tried it. Again and again.

When is Heidi Diaz going to realize that Kimkins is not a sustainable diet? Why keep on promoting something that she knows from her own experience does not work. It is not a matter of willpower. The diet is wrong.

Kimkins Sockpuppets

I wrote a post a while back where I voiced my suspicion that many posters on Kimkins are in fact sockpuppets.

That suspicion was based on the unrealistic avatars they are using. Clearly, if you are not trying to lose weight, or the picture is not of you in the first place, you don't care that the proportions make you look heavier.

In addition to the avatars, there are also many posts by "newbies" and they all have in common that not only are they enthusiastic about the Kimkins diet, but they are also born cheerleaders from the get-go. They just don't sound like "real" people to me. I have spent 4 years on diet boards, and I just don't recognize this type of posts.

Some time back, someone found this ad on GetAFfreelancer:

Description: I'm trying to drum up some action at a weight loss/dieting forum that I am running.

Please only bid on this project if you are knowledgeable with weight/loss dieting because I don't want a lot of nonsensical posts!

1. Sign Up Under 5 Different Names

2. Average about 2 posts per day for each name.

3. The Different Names Should Be Talking To Each Other (yes you get to talk to yourself!)

4. Only Post On Topic. Weight/Loss/Exercise/Diet. (The Forum has different sections, make sure you are posting in the right section.)

5. If You See People Posting Who Are NOT YOU (I may hire more people to post and there may be other "real" posters as well.) Talk To Them Before Talking To Yourself.

6. Never Post Links.

7. Never Copy/Paste From Other Sites.

8. Each Post Should Be At Least One Sentence Long. And Each Day You Should Make At Least Two Long Posts (4 sentences or more.)

9. Make It Look Natural!

10. Make a total of 10 posts per day. At the end of the project each user name should have approximately (but not exactly) 60 posts each. For example one name may be 65 and another 55. You can make 5 posts in one day with one name and 3 on another and 2 on another. It's up to you. But you have to have 5 total names and a total of 300 posts between them. You have to use at least 3 different names per day. And do not go more than 3 days without using a name.

11. English only.

12. I recommend using the same password for all 5 names so you do not forget it. When you win this project I will send you the forum address and then you can sign up your 5 user names - Once you have done so - Please email me with the 5 user names so I can keep track of your work.

This is a 30 day project. So in total there will be 300 posts (10 x 30 = 300) ... But keep in mind when bidding that many of the posts will be short. You should not have to spend more than 15 to 20 minutes a day to complete this project.

If this works well and you do a good job - I will possibly hire you for another month of the same work.

This particular ad was not for Kimkins, but another unrelated diet board. But isn't it likely that Heidi Diaz has done the same? It's easy to put up an ad on craigslist or a Work-At-Home board. Not very expensive either.

While employing sockpuppets is surely unethical, I do not know if it's illegal. Not really important as Heidi Diaz has other more serious legal problems to worry about.

However, I feel sad for the REAL people at Kimkins that are interacting with sockpuppets. I would feel very betrayed if I found out that someone I had a long term relationship with on the internet was a "fictional character". Just as I feel betrayed by Heidi Diaz from her misrepresentation of herself as a successful dieter, even though I had little interaction with her myself.

Gary - Update

I had found the picture of the Gary Fontaine a while ago but as I wasn't convinced it had anything to do with Kimkins' Admin Gary, I didn't want to post a picture of an innocent person.

It wasn't until I found the article about the Southbridge Gary possibly being a less than honest person (which are still nothing more than allegations as far as I know) that I decided that that Gary was already a public person, so, why not?

However, looking at people search, the Southbridge Gary does not fit with what Admin Gary has posted about himself on Kimkins as Gary E of Southbridge is 53 years old.

There is a Gary R in Willimantic, CT that fits the bill. 56 years old with a 91 year old father. Lived previously in FL, which has also been mentioned by Admin Gary.

Another candidate that was brought up on LCF, was a Gary R in Longmeadow, MA, but he is only 42 years old.

While the Gary R Fontaine in Willimantic fits what Admin Gary has said about himself, this is no "proof" that it actually is him. Anybody can find the information on people search (like I did) and adopt an identity for an online persona.