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.