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 ...