Why I Like Kimkins

"Why I Like Kimkins" is the topic for the Kimkins essay contest. Affiliate Scams and Prudentia already wrote their essays. Somehow, I don't think they will be among the winners.

So who could write the winning essay? One of the success stories already featured on the Kimkins website? Someone that lost 144 pounds in a year by eating like this:


This is the boot camp menu that was recommended during the time this success story lost her weight.

This example provides:
Calories: 594
Fat: 26 grams
Carbs: 16 grams
Protein: 74 grams

So who would like to eat like this for a year? This is what she said in her success story:

"Being in ketosis has really helped me not have cravings and be able to pass up temptations. This journey has been so amazing! Many people say they could never do this because they love carbs, breads, sweets, etc. Well, so do I! I eat chicken and eggs almost daily and still love them!"

So where is she today? Trying to maintain, or rather, trying to take off 20 regained pounds.

"I am plugging away, but frustrated that I am sticking to it and working out and the scale is not going down! This is when I want to just give in and eat what I want, but then I do further damage! I must be strong! When I was losing the first time, I didn't let myself have the option of eating something not on Kimkins, I need to think that way now!"

So how can this be given a positive spin for the topic "I Like Kimkins"?

I don't know. I can just find reasons why I do NOT like Kimkins. Like having to stay on starvation level of calories to maintain any weight loss.

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.

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 ...

Weight Loss Success Story

Dee, the latest Kimkins' sockpuppet has a blog post with the title "KIMKINS - the perspective of a success story".

So, is Dee a weight loss "success story"? She has lost 100 pounds in 11 months or so, starting at around 345 pounds in June 2007. Certainly an accomplishment, but does it constitute a weight loss "success story"? In my opinion, it's too early to tell. She is still following a diet that has proven to not be sustainable for many that have tried it. If Dee comes back in a year and reports that she has kept the 100 pounds off, I will consider it a "success story". Until then, the jury is still out.

Remember that Dee's "diet adviser" Kimmer said that she once lost 100 pounds in 6 months. Was that a "success story"? Judging from the picture below, I would say no.



Where is the "success" in losing weight if it's not going to stay off?

Dee seems to have the same opinion as Kimmer when it comes to claiming being an expert on weight loss. I fail to see how many years of unsuccessfully trying to lose weight, or failing to keep weight off make anyone an "expert".

This is what Dee posted on the BBB Kimkins' review:

I have more than 30 years of dieting experience, so I feel more than qualified. If you are interested here is my resume:
1) Weight Watchers....more times than I can count
2) System 7......twice
3) Diet Workshop.....more than 5 times
4) Weigh Down workshop....once
5) LAPBAND....once
6) Do it yourself'ers.....more than a dozen.
7) Hospital based Liquid Diet....twice

And now, Kimkins of course.

Success Rate from a VLCD

The most recent Kimkins sockpuppet, Swalt (Sue), says that she wants to find out if there are any risks with following Kimkins long term. Clearly, she can not ask on Kimkins as there are no long term successful losers there. And asking would probably label her as a Negative Nancy and those are not allowed on Kimkins so she might end up being banned.

Kimmer has no experience in maintenance. She never had a weight loss to maintain.

Kimmer didn't learn maintenance from the people on LCF she answered question for during 8 years as they did not have experience with maintenance either. Read the stats on the posters on the Ask Kimmer thread. Most of them are at a higher weight now than when the question was asked 2 years ago.

Christin has maintained for a year, but with great effort and she is not doing Kimkins any longer. Deni gained weight on 1,200 cals.

Very low calorie diets (VLCD's) are defined as diets that range from 300 to 800 calories per day intake. Long term studies of the use of VLCD's have shown consistent results; patients on VLCD programs regain most or all of the weight lost in the months following the VLCD regime. In fact, one of the most remarkable features of VLCD's is the speed of weight regain following treatment (Garner & Wooley, 1991).

[Isn't that what Kimmer has said. She loses fast (at least used to, not so fast any more) and regains fast. Isn't that a typical yo-yo dieter?]

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (1994) published a policy paper on VLCD's in which it was strongly stated that VLCD's should only be prescribed and supervised by specially trained physicians. The College was clear in its position that VLCD's should only be used on morbidly obese patients (over 300 pounds) and that the prolonged use of VLCD's is dangerous and potentially lethal. Despite this, VLCD's are widely advertised using prominent actors or models who clearly give the impression that liquid diets are easy, successful and safe for any amount of desired weight loss.

• VLCD should only be attemped when supervised by specially trained physicians (this is not your family doctor).
  
• VLCD gives quick weigh loss and even quicker regain of lost weight.
• Prolonged use of VLCD's is dangerous and potentially lethal.
  

Kimkins Starvation Diet

Remember Jimmy Moore's phone interview with Kimmer last summer? The part where she said "The purpose of Kimkins is for very quick weight loss. You can take a fiber hit for a few months to get to goal."

She was talking about a fiber "hit" but forgot to say anything about all the other "hits" that strike Kimkins dieters; hair loss, trashed thyroid, heart palpitations with possible permanent heart damage, muscle loss and bone loss.

Is it worth it? Is fast weight loss worth risking your health for? When there are safe alternatives? Like Atkins? No starvation necessary.

[Tippy Toes said this in a comment recently: "I have done many things to lose weight before. I was actually mad when they pulled Phen Fen from the market as I was almost at goal. Yes, I knew it was killing people but I also knew I would gladly pay the price to be thin at all costs."
I have to believe it was just a badly chosen expression, but it shows the desperation that drives people to try Kimkins.]

And when you have lost weight on Kimkins, what do you do then? To maintain? Or lose a few more pounds if you didn't make it all the way to goal? Continue to starve or see the scale go back up?

What's the point in losing weight if it's not going to stay off? And if your health is going to suffer in the process?

We seem to have a whole new diet community with ex-kimkins dieters that are trying to repair their metabolism. They are finding it very hard to maintain and even harder to lose.

Christin, the WW cover girl, has admitted struggling. Deni, also featured in WW, regained 20 pounds while eating 1200 cals per day. Tippy Toes doesn't really know what she is doing and is getting help from an Atkins expert, 2big4mysize. AmyB will be starting Atkins as well.

Is there any true Kimkins success story? I have yet to see one.

"The biggest misconception is that doing something in the short term will have long-term results"
[Elaine Magee, the "Recipe Doctor" for the WebMD Weight Loss Clinic]

Kimkins Yo-Yo Diet

Yo-Yo Diet (Wikipedia):
The reasons for yo-yo dieting are varied but often include embarking upon a diet that was initially too extreme. At first the dieter may experience elation at the thought of loss and pride of their rejection of food. Over time, however, the limits imposed by such extreme diets cause effects such as depression or fatigue that make the diet impossible to sustain. The dieter reverts to their old eating habits, and with the added emotional effects begins to rapidly regain weight.

To me, "extreme diet" is a perfect description of Kimkins. Pushing 500 - 800 calories, low fat and low carb, it is a starvation diet. Will you lose weight? Yes, of course. How could you not? Can you maintain your weight loss? Probably not.

I was reading through some of the old Kimmer threads at LCF, starting in early 2004 when the name "Kimkins" was born. Many people jumped on board and enthusiastically reported quick weight loss. However, when looking at the stats of these dieters it is obvious that:

• None had reached goal (there might be exceptions, but I didn't see one)

• All had regained weight (possibly not up to their starting weight but it's hard to tell as many stopped posting on LCF)

• Many had restarted at a later date

So what's the point of doing Kimkins in the first place? What's the point of suffering through a starvation diet to just regain the pounds lost? Feeling like a failure because you are not "strong enough to stick with it"?

It is obvious that Kimkins is not a sustainable diet, and that a transition to maintenance would be very hard (provided you even reached goal in the first place).

Just look at Kimmer. She might have done Kimkins at some time (or possibly several times) but she did not reach goal, and certainly did not maintain any weight loss she might have had.

Tippy Toes Admits Acting as a Kimmer Sockpuppet

Tippy has still not publicly denounced the Kimkins Diet, and has not apologized for her role as a PR person and admin at Kimkins. Perhaps she is still of the same opinion she voiced when she tried to sign up at Amy's Eating Low forum that Medusa reported on:

"I suppose I am expected to make some sort of apology but really I am not sure what I am supposed to say."

In a statement by Tippy made on Mayberryfan's blog the other day she says:

"I feel extremely guilty for what I said to Christin and Deni on TV. Not that it makes it right but I was scripted by Heidi as to what to say to them."

Is this an apology? Blaming Kimmer? Didn't you say this on National TV? Even worse, if you didn't agree with it, you lied. Was the money worth it?

And then Tippy goes on to say that she didn't believe anything that Christin, Deni and Becky said until AmyB complained about the same problems:

"I do think back about Kimkins members complaining of being so cold all the time and I wonder now if their thyroids were screaming out to stop. But at the time I was cold losing weight too and thought it was just the way it was. I didn't believe what was being said about hair loss as I have mine BUT when AmyB started complaining I began to question her privatly. It was Amy who made me see the truth. And the truth is there are some serious side effects to Kimkins. I thought it was from doing the plan behind the plan, and that may well be but upon further digging I now see the plan behind the plan was THE plan for a long time as preached by "Kimmer". I apologize to those whom I didn't believe. Kimmer assured me it wasn't true, the Ducks were making these things up, and well, since I didn't suffer hair loss, I believed her--until I heard it from AmyB."

We did see the rant on LCF about the "Ducks" all being created by Catherine, the former business partner. What I can not understand is why it was easier to believe Kimmer, at the time a confirmed liar, than the former admins, Cutie, Kiki and all the people on LCF that you have known for years. Were we all liars, being orchestrated by Catherine? Was it the money that made Kimmer more believable than the rest of us?

With regards to Kimmer's sockpuppets on Kimkins, Tippy says:

"She asked me to take over for "Danielle" in the Bootcamp forum as "Danielle" was away. She later causually mentioned she was Danielle, as if I had know it all along."

Kimmer probably thought it was so obvious that "Danielle" was a sockpuppet so she couldn't believe you didn't know. The rest of us don't have much problem identifying sockpuppets over there. So what happened when you found out? Did you leave Kimkins? Demand that she stop using sockpuppets?

In an additional comment, Tippy says that the Ducks are "making fun of, bashing and exploiting posts of Campers". Where are these posts? I haven't seen them. (Well, with the exception of the huggiessssssss Fawn).

If Tippy refers to the post I made about maintenance, I actually thought she would be flattered to be mentioned together with Christin and Deni. I was mistaken. Tippy did not want to blame Kimkins for her problems to find a maintenance plan.

I especially love how Tippy talks about the Ducks. Still referring to us as if another species, she is now saying:

"I am starting to understand Ducks are not bad people."

Starting to understand? Bad people? So the hundreds of people posting on LCF with the combined goal of removing kimkins.com from the internet and bring Heidi to justice were considered bad people?

And as a reason for not speaking out Tippy claims:

"I have been silenced due to a bann from LCF. And I got banned from Eating Low too, as you may recall. I tried the blog but I was bombed with so much meanness and I found myself reacting very unkindly as a result. I can't allow myself to become that so I pulled the blog down and decided to just stay within Camp."

While I agree that the blog attempt didn't work out well, I would suggest you try it again. I, for one, really want to hear what you have to say. Not having access to the Camp, I can not see what you are saying there, unless it gets reported to me. Perhaps not accepting comments on your blog would allow you peace to write down what you want to say.

Magically Crazy Chicken

The Magic Chicken Diet site that was made into a Kimkins clone has been a source of mystery since it was found a couple of months back. A few days ago, someone that is intimately familiar with the Chicken Lady, Bonnie Luper, made a number of disturbing posts on the "sister site", magicchicken.net. What the purpose of this is, I have no idea.

The posts are made to look as if they were written by Bonnie's husband, David. David, or whoever poses as him, indicates that we bloggers think that Bonnie should have stayed fat and that we are trying to prevent her from selling her diet and making a success of her site.

What are we interfering with? There has been no marketing at all of the Magic Chicken Diet, unless you count what has been written on our blogs. Nobody can find the site unless they would happen to stumble over it on a google search, and it would be buried pretty deep unless you were specifically looking for Magic Chicken. And when finding the site, what would convince you to part with your money? Bonnie's success certainly seems real, but she is just one person without any credentials and can only offer advice based on her own experience, which mainly seems to be eating chicken for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Is there a maintenance plan? Anybody can lose weight by starving herself, but how is the weight loss going to be sustained? Is Bonnie still eating as she did when she lost the weight? I would think so. Seems like a miserable, and unhealthy, way of life to me.

And, our problem is not with Bonnie, it's with Bonnie's diet. It's eerily similar to the Kimkins starvation diet, and while people have the right to eat how they choose, should they not at least be informed of what they are getting before they pay the $59.95 membership fee for this site?

Here is an example of a day's menu:
Breakfast: 1 boiled egg, 1 turkey sausage
snack: 1 plum (2")
Lunch: 1 can of tuna with 2 pickle spears
Dinner: 1 can of chicken, broccoli, mushrooms, cheese with a small side salad
Snack: 1 SF jello (The menu called for 1 SF popsicle but I couldn't make myself buy it. The sugar alcohols from just one would have me in agony in the bathroom for hours.)

There is a recipe for the dinner casserole:
Drain chicken and mushrooms
Arrange everthing on a plate, put cheese on top (less than 1 carb) and microwave until hot.
(I didn't cook it as just the thought of canned chicken makes me nauseous. I'll feed the can to the dog. My cat likely would refuse it.)

Totals for one day:
Calories 612
Fat 18
Carbs 24
Protein 77

According to Bonnie, the diet guidelines are 800 - 1200 calories per day. This suggested menu is very specific in amounts, and only provides 612 calories.

This is just another starvation diet, just like Kimkins.

Maintaining Weight Loss

Any VLDC (Very Low Calorie Diet) such as Kimkins will cause you to lose weight. How could it not? Eating 500, or even 800, calories per day has to result in weight loss. Your body is burning calories whether they come from food or your stored fat/muscle.

If you start at a high weight, the first week's losses is probably going to be astounding; perhaps 10 pounds. But that is common for any low carb diet, Atkins for example, and is mostly water from the body depleting its glycogen stores and the water tied to them. Nevertheless, it's thrilling to see the scale go down so quickly, and seeing the big losses becomes addictive. You are not too hungry either, at least not in the beginning, due to ketosis.

The fast weight loss is very motivating for continuing the starvation diet, despite feeling tired, nauseous, dizziness, dry skin, hair loss, menstrual changes and other issues that are soon showing up. As Kimmer herself has said, you have to take a "hit" during the weight loss period as it, in her mind, is more dangerous to stay fat. (I do wonder why she never thought that was valid for herself, but that is a different post all together.)

When serious hunger start to develop, typically around week 5-6, you are already addicted to seeing a daily loss, so you forge ahead, ignoring that the body is demanding nutrition.

Many people drop out, giving in to the body's demands for FOOD, and end up feeling like a failure (see their stories at Kimkins Survivors). Others manage to "ride it out" by filling their stomach with no, or low, calorie foods such as diet soda, broth or egg whites. It will not stave off the hunger, but at least fills the stomach for a while.

A few of the Kimkins dieters manage to stay with the diet all the way to GOAL! Their body might not look exactly as they had envisioned, especially if they followed Kimmer's advice not to exercise during the weight loss period. But hey, they are SKINNY.

So what now? WHAT NOW? How and what will you eat to stay at goal, to stay slim?

Maintenance. Hmm, there is no maintenance plan. Kimmer said, when asked by Jimmy Moore:

Jimmy: One of the questions, Kimmer, that I’m getting from a lot of people is, alright Jimmy you’re doing this, and you’re doing your own little tweaks with it as everybody should (K: Mmm hmm.), what are you gonna do once you lose the weight, for long-term weight maintenance? And that’s a question they wanna hear, how do you transition from Kimkins the weight loss plan to Kimkins the maintenance plan?

K: ‘K, well in the simplest sense, you can transition to any lowcarb plan, if that’s easier for you. (J: Yeah.) My struggle with coming up with a maintenance plan is coming up with something that is super simple. What I have found from studying the website is that even the Kimkins diet, which I think is ultra-simple, that people still have problems deciphering what the rules are, and interpreting what they should do in, in different situations. I’m working with different people now, that we can come up with something, and it’s something that you could write on the back of your hand and you would know always, how to maintain your weight, without — I can’t even follow Dr. Atkins’ plan of 5-carb increments, because there’s 5 carbs in a serving of asparagus, and there’s 5 carbs in a half a cup of cream cheese. The calories are wildly different, weight maintenance will be wildly different. (J: Yeah.) So it’s, it’s in progress.

There is still no maintenance plan posted on Kimkins. Of course, we now know that Kimmer never needed one herself as she has never lost weight and didn't have to bother about maintenance.

There was a maintenance plan in the works, by Christin, before she left Kimkins. (Her thread has since been removed.) It's been almost a year since the Women's World cover girl, Christin, reached goal. So where is she today?
This is what she said yesterday on her blog post My Confession:
It is time for me to share something with you. I am coming clean about the excruciating difficulty that I have had in maintaining my weight loss that I obtained utilizing a Very Low Calorie Diet such as Kimkins. The road has been far from an easy transition. We think when we are on the road to losing weight that once we attain our goal that life will somehow magically get easier.

And the other Women's World cover girl, Deni, said this on December 19th:
I have not maintained well since Kimkins. I am up almost 20 pounds from my low and struggling daily to get some of them off. I instantly gained the 5.. and have slowly yo-yo'd the other 15 pounds ever since.
I have been open about this in my journal and in my challenge thread.

And, finally, the staunch Kimkins supporter, Tippy Toes, that went on the Mike&Juliet show to promote Kimkins said yesterday:
I don't know what I am doing anymore. My weight seems to have decided to be 153 as a new set point. 5 lbs over where it once was.
I mentioned in my journal (I think) that according to my calender I did maintain 147 for 3 months. But in taking a second look, I realized this was the 3 months I worked for Kimkins. I maintained at 147 BUT I was buckling down like crazy doing various K plans trying to reach 145 which never happened.
So, if all that did was maintain me at 147, well, that's not good as I don't want Kimkins to ever be THE maintenance plan!
Shocked.
Am wondering if this is my natural, true weight. I will continue with clean eating and see what the sunday weigh in (which I will record) will bring.
I know I could probably lose it again, either doing a short K round, Stillman's or perhaps just limiting calories to 1000 a day. But, if I cannot easily maintain it why bother? lol
I just don't know what to do, or for that matter, if I need to do anything at all. I guess it's that 5lb span that has me so worried as now I have NO SPAN left. Course I could change it. Maybe my body is OK and my head is the problem. I just don't know.

And I reported recently that another "successful" Kimkins dieter, Gary, is maintaining since 3 months on 800 calories. He is a 230lbs, 6'3" man!

When you reach your goal weight on a VLDC calorie diet, you will have problems finding a maintenance level. Eating like a "normal" person? Not a chance! Any increase of calories will inevitably end up in a weight gain. Are you prepared to continue on a starvation diet for the rest of your life, just to stay slim?

If you have fallen into the Kimkins trap, please read this thread on LCF: Repairing your metabolism.
"The good news is that any damage you did by messing around with your metabolism can be corrected with exercise and the Atkins lifestyle. How long it takes e will depend on how far down the path you have traveled, and for how long. Just know it can and has been done successfully by all of us. "

There is hope, but unfortunately it's not an easy process to get back to healthy eating, or healthy weight loss, after having followed Kimkins.

Do yourself a favor and chose a diet like Atkins. You can lose weight just as fast on Atkins as on Kimkins without deprivation and gradually ease into maintenance that you can stay on for life.

From Repairing your metabolism:
Reaching your goal weight is not—or should not be—about dieting. It's about changing your body, and your mind-set, permanently and for the better. It is—or should be—actually just the opposite of the start-and-stop process that most people consider a diet. I tell my patients that they should plan not just on losing weight, but also on restoring energy and feeling their physical best. All they have to do is exercise regularly, start an intelligent nutritional supplementation plan and eat the healthiest foods imaginable. Sound like a lot? Hardly. In fact, it sounds like a cinch.