Exercise or Diet?
Kimmer, the creator of the starvation diet Kimkins, insists that exercise is not helpful for weight loss. “No Exercise” seems to be a good selling point, or at least she thinks so. It is boldly stated in all the newsletters she sends out and frequently repeated on her blog. That Kimmer so strongly opposes exercise is, to me, evidence of how little concern she has for her members’ health.
While it is possible to lose weight without exercise it might not be all that healthy. Especially not if the weight loss is achieved by starvation level of calories. There are “Kimkins Survivors” that can testify to that.
Kimmer justifies her recommendation by referencing calorie calculators to point out how little we burn by exercising.
I can agree that calories burned during light or moderate exercise is not going to make much of a difference. This is also commonly repeated on diet boards where they typically say that weight loss is 90% diet and 10% exercise.
Gary Taubes (Good Calories, Bad Calories) is often incorrectly quoted as saying that exercise has no effect on weight loss. That’s not really what he said. Gary Taubes said that there are no studies that support that exercise makes any difference. But what subjects would the studies have been made on? Morbidly obese people on a weight loss program, I’m sure. So, to me, it is more correct to say that exercise does not make a difference for the weight loss of morbidly obese people. That doesn’t mean that the same is necessarily true for people closer to their goal weight.
Kimmer wouldn’t know as I doubt she has ever been anywhere near goal weight. She doesn’t know anything about the challenge to take off the remaining 10 pounds. This is where I think exercise makes a huge impact.
Speaking from my own, anecdotal, experience, exercise makes all the difference in the world. The scale wouldn’t budge at all until I added exercise. Granted, I didn’t follow a starvation diet. I do eat lowcarb but without any restriction of the amount of food I eat.
All slim people I know at my age are exercisers. Every single one of them. Exercise is also pointed out as an important factor for the maintainers reporting to the National Weight Loss Registry. To keep the weight off, they had to exercise.
So should you exercise or diet? In my opinion, both. Perhaps exercise is not required, or even practical, when starting out but for reaching goal it will be necessary. For staying at goal, even more so.
Marketing Diets
A google search for “diet” returns close to 20 million hits. The vast majority of these are web sites and blogs selling something. A diet book, a diet plan or a diet product.
What makes the diet niche so attractive for marketing?
I just received this email with tips of how to find your niche for online marketing. Very good advice if you want to make money by advertising on the internet, I think. Sound marketing principles.
- Discretionary income - does your market have money to spend? It sure is easier if they do. This might seem like a dumb item, but most people don’t actually ask this question.
- Ease of Communication - how easily can you target your prospects? Are there forums where they hang out? What are the common search terms for this market? What other “water coolers” does this community hang out around?
- Customer Avatar (this is huge) - how well do you know the main customer identity of your market? Can you identify with them, speak or learn their language, and understand their pain and desires?
- Market Vitality - how much “new blood” does your market get each year? How many new prospects can you realistically get into your pipeline every day?
- Size of the market - how big is the market? Bigger is not always better, but it’s important to know how much you can expect to make given your estimated success level.
- Buying Tendencies - Is your market ready to buy? What is the venue through which they buy? Some markets are still filled with prospects uncomfortable purchasing online.
I can’t think of any other single market that would fit these requirements as much as the diet niche does.
- Dieters have money to spend. They are mainly adults with a job, and a relatively low cost product is affordable for them. Desperate to lose weight, cost for a diet also takes priority.
- Dieters often hang out on online forums. Sock puppet type of interaction is not only possible, it’s often welcome (provided you don’t let on that you are a sock puppet, of course). It is so easy to start a thread and claim great results from a product or diet plan. Who is going to contradict you? These forums typically do not allow anybody to argue with you, as posts are supposed to be “positive” and “supportive”.
- Almost anybody could identify with a dieter, as most of us has dieted as some point in our lives. Often tried more than one diet. Understanding the desperation of an overweight person. Knowing how they look for a magic pill.
- No lack of new customers for diets. With the so common failure, or regain, the promise of a new diet is always welcome. It will work this time!
- The size of the market is practically unlimited. I really can’t think of any other market that could equal it. At least not on on the internet.
- People that spend time online and join online diet forums generally have no problem making purchases over the internet. Selling over the internet to this group is probably an advantage as compared to conventional methods.
Seems like a gold mine, doesn’t it? It’s just a matter of finding something new or different so that you will stand out from the competition. And hope that customers don’t get savvy and actually do some research before parting with their money.
Colon Cleanse
There are thousands and thousands blogs and web sites that deal with colon cleansing. They claim that we build up toxins, and even have parasites and critters, in the colon that need to be removed. Of course, these sites sell products to help us do so. Plus claiming that cleansing is beneficial for weight loss.
So, who got the idea that our colon needs cleaning in the first place? I mean, why would it? It’s clearly designed as a waste disposal system so what suggests that it needs help to be “cleaned”?
It seems that it originated with a book written by a Richard Anderson, N.D., in 1988; “Cleanse and Purify Thyself”. Anderson went on to develop cleansing products that produces what the product is supposed to cleanse.
Anderson invented the term “mucoid plaque”.
The phrase, “mucoid plaque,” is a coined term that I use to describe various conditions found throughout the body, especially in hollow organs and the alimentary canal. It is a substance that the body naturally creates under unnatural conditions, such as attack from acids, drugs, heavy metals, and toxic chemicals. I have always attempted to make it clear that the “Mucoid Plaque” found in the bowel is not equivalent to the natural healthy gastric and intestinal mucosa. The natural mucosa serves as a necessary buffer for the gastrointestinal wall and as a lubricant for intestinal motility. “Mucoid plaque” of any description is unnatural and is found only after the body has moved towards diseased states. Medical science has many words to describe each of these conditions, but to my knowledge, there are no effective terms that describe them under one category.
I agree with him that “mucoid plaque of any description is unnatural”. It is caused by the cleansing product!
The cleansing procedure involves taking some more or less defined substance in pills or powder form in the morning with a lot of liquid. Then followed by a strong laxative at night. The bowel then expels this mucoid plaque. There are a million of pictures of the expelled matter on the internet. Just google “colon cleanse” images. They are disgusting.
What nobody tells you is that the pills or powder are what produce this mucoid plaque. From my understanding, one of the original formulas consisted of clay. CLAY! The clay powder expanded with the help of liquid and when expelled, had the form of the colon.
Psyllium is the main ingredient today, and produces a similar result.
When Anderson was asked why medical doctors didn’t see any of this mucoid plaque, he dismissed the question with that “they didn’t know what they were looking for”.
How can anybody believe that medical doctors have never, ever, found any evidence of “mucoid plaque” in our colon? From the “evidence” shown in the pictures, it shouldn’t be that hard to see if it were actually there.
Anderson didn’t jump on the weight loss train, but the present marketing of colon cleanse products has. While most people might not care whether their colon is “clean” or not, there are many, many potential customers for weight loss products.
So does it produce weight loss? Temporarily, it does. When the laxative empties your colon from any fecal matter, your scale weight will go down. Until you eat and your colon fills back up.
It is scary how affiliate marketing is making these types of scams explode on the internet. It is so easy to set up a website, fill it with some ludicrous copied claims, add some pictures of slim models, fake some testimonials and then sit down to wait for the money to roll in.
Just the huge number of web sites with the same claims makes these types of sites look convincing. Please do not fall for another online scam without making your research. Just because the same information is repeated on a thousand web sites doesn’t make it true.
Wu Yi Tea or Acai Berry
Seems that these people don’t know what they used for their weight loss.
Here they credit Acai Berry:
And here they credit Wu Yi tea:
In my previous post, I wrote about how I had been unable to find any studies that supported the claims for Acai Berry having anything to do with weight loss, or “cleansing of built-up toxins”. I have been even less successful to find anything suggesting that Wu Yi tea helps getting rid of unwanted pounds.
The one study I found had been done on rats, and concluded:
April 20, 2005 — Both black tea and green tea are good for diabetes, a rat study shows. They also prevent diabetic
animals from developing cataracts.The findings appear in the May 4 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
“Black and green tea represent a potentially inexpensive, nontoxic, and, in fact, pleasurable [blood-sugar-lowering] agent,” the researchers write.
“Tea may be a simple, inexpensive means of preventing or retarding human diabetes and the ensuing complications.”In the study, the researchers gave green and black teas to diabetic rats for three months.
They found both kinds of tea inhibited diabetic cataracts. The teas also had a blood-sugar-lowering effect.
To get the same dose of tea given to the rats, a 143-pound person would have to drink 4.5 8-ounce cups of tea every day.
The researchers recommend that tea — black and green — should be studied for an antidiabetes effect in humans.
Tea may help prevent diabetes and cataracts
I don’t see anything about weight loss in this study. But of course, claiming that Wu Yi tea helps rats not to develop cataracts might not be such a good selling point as to claim some unsubstantiated weight loss from it. Who is going to check anyway? The people in the ad lost weight, didn’t they?
I really wish there was a way to regulate these weight loss scams on the internet. Preying on people desperate to lose weight. People looking for a magic pill. Ending up just losing money instead of weight.
Acai Berry and Kimkins
What do they have in common? Nothing as far as I know. But how come all these Akai Berry blogs and sites use Kimkins as a tag? Is this Heidi Diaz’ new venture? The next internet scam?
Acai Berry is native to Brazil and is presently marketed as the new magic supplement here in the US. So what is it supposed to do? The blogs and sites using Kimkins as a tag are claiming weight loss and cleansing properties. For example:
Acai Berries (pronounced ah-sigh-ee) is an all natural diet Superfood - packed full of antioxidants. You could have POUNDS and POUNDS of excess waste built up in your system right now! This precise buildup of toxins can be the cause of your noticeable daily lower energy levels, bloating, constipation, aches & cramps, and even excess gastric discomfort. This buildup can be a severe breeding ground for harmful bacteria’s that live inside your body, increasing your chances of potentially harmful health problems. Extreme Acai Berry can help you Look Better and Feel Better by flushing your body of all that excess waste, that is weighing you down. Cleansing your system will give you Increased Energy, help you Fight Fatigue, reduce Water Retension, and help you get a Firmer Flatter Belly. Try it Risk Free, just pay S&H!!!
The only thing I have found verified by any studies in the quote above is the antioxidant claim. There has been a study where they found that Acai Berry has a high content of antioxidants. There has also been a study that shows that Acai Berry is absorbed by our body.
I have found no other study for Acai Berry. Just a lot of speculation that studies may show benefits. Any cleansing effect is not even mentioned in the two studies. On the contrary, they state that one of the traditional uses in Brazil is to cure diarrhea.
Any weight loss benefits are also not mentioned in the two studies. I think this claim was added just because weight loss products are easy to sell to desperate dieters that are willing to try anything.
So is it then even worth while to buy this supplement for its antioxidant qualities? No, not in my opinion. I haven’t been able to find any studies that show that antioxidants are beneficial either. Just some accepted mantra that 5 daily servings of antioxidant-rich fruit prevent cancer. However, after reading Gary Taubes I do not trust studies much. What else did the “fruit group” eat or not eat that resulted in lower incident of cancer?
So what is then the benefit of the Acai Berry? Just lining the pockets of the people that sell it, it seems.
There is no magic pill! Lasting weight loss can only be achieved by finding a healthy eating plan that you can live with the rest of your life. Quick fixes, may it be acai berry or starving on Kimkins, will not do it.
Zero Carb when Pregnant
Kimkins’ K/E (Kimmer’s Experiment) is technically a zero carb diet. Just meat, eggs, fish and no vegetables. But K/E is lean meat only, and I hope nobody is desperate enough to even attempt such a restrictive diet when pregnant. Not even Kimmer herself recommends it.
But what about the “Zero Carb Path” diet? Also no vegetables but high fat? Does that make is safe for pregnancy?
A moderator, Charles, at Jimmy Moore’s forum certainly thinks so. Even more, he claims that it is perfectly fine to eat store bought ground beef (hamburger) and nothing else!
So who is this Charles? What qualifications does he have to give out prenatal nutritional advice? Well, there seems to be none. None. He has no nutritional or medical credentials. Instead, he relies on “facts” as interpreted (by him) from essays describing carnivorous tribes.
When being challenged that these tribes were not 100% meat eaters, he backpedaled until he finally was left with the one example he thinks proves his point; the Mackenzie Eskimos. He claims that they just ate the muscle meat of the caribou and therefore it is exactly the same as eating store bought beef and nothing else.
This fact is extracted from selective reading of Stefansson. However, he totally disregards other Stefansson’s writings where he mentions eating fish and fish liver and caribou brain (has a lot of vitamins and minerals lacking in muscle meat). Not to mention whale oil, seal, seal blubber and even carbs in the form of berries and caribou stomach content.
I fail to see how commercially raised beef has any similarities to a traditional Inuit diet.
I also don’t understand why Charles would keep on insisting that this diet is safe for pregnant women. What is the purpose? To prove his point? At the risk of the health or life of an unborn child?
This is what Charles said yesterday on the forum, with regards to the ongoing debate:
I just need one of you ladies to look great enough so that your husbands will impregnate you and I can end this zero-carb and pregnancy nonsense.
I’m sure he intended this to be funny. It isn’t to me. We are talking about the life of an unborn child!
Please, please, if you are pregnant, do not listen to any advice given on the internet by unscrupulous people that just are interested in feeding their own ego.
Note. While Jimmy Moore is still housing this individual on his forum, Jimmy announced today that the Zero Carb threads will be moved to Charles’ own forum shortly. Will there be a “lifetime” fee?
Faster than Kimkins
I have lost 5 pounds the last week. From 128.8 lbs to 123.8 lbs.
My calories were 1600 - 1800 per day. And no, I didn’t exercise a lot. I did go to the gym 4 times but burned no more than perhaps 200 calories per time.
So what did I eat? Pork spareribs, beef stew, egg salad, hamburger, bacon, salami, egg salad, cheese, and nuts. Even peanut butter. About 70% fat. Less than 20 carbs from veggies (cauliflower, broccoli, celery). Not as strict as Atkins induction (which does not allow nuts and peanut butter, plus I ate more cheese than allowed).
Sure, the weight lost is mostly water, but so is Kimkins when starting out. But the point is that I did not have to restrict calories at all. I did not have to go hungry (appetite suppression from ketosis has never worked for me, possibly due to lower bodyfat?).
Why would you even consider Kimkins (lean meat, just enough fat to make your menu work) when you can lose better doing Atkins and not feel deprived at all?
So why did I need to lose the weight in the first place? I, that have successfully maintained at 124 - 126 lbs for 4 years. Without counting carbs or calories. Without thinking about what I’m eating (or not eating). Well, every Fall I gain some weight, 4-5 pounds. Generally in October, it just came early this year. I then maintain (over the Holidays!) at a higher weight until late January or so when I effortlessly drop down to my normal range.
To me it seems to be a seasonal cycle my body likes, but if I had tracked my food I could possibly find the explanation there as well. Fall is a busy work period for me with a lot of traveling. This year there wasn’t any down period during the summer so perhaps that’s why the gain occurred earlier than usual.
It will be interesting to see if October brings with it the normal weight gain, or if I have already gone through this year’s cycle. Leaving for another business trip today so I will know soon enough.
Kimkins Maintenance Plan Published
My previous post was about Kimmer’s musings how to create a maintenance plan. So what did she come up with?
MAINTENANCE GUIDELINES
Maintenance is an art requiring experimentation and practice
Begin with a 1200 calorie minimum. Add additional calories depending on your CCE (Carb & Calorie Equilibrium). Older or sedentary people may need to stay around 1200 indefinitely.Your CCE will depend on your maintenance weight, age, sex, height, activity level, fitness level and personal metabolism. After age 40 we burn approximately 10% less calories each decade due to aging.
For these calorie examples we used a 10-12X multiplier for women and 12-14X for men:
Susie, 34, 5′5″, 125 lbs — Maintenance Calories about 1250-1500 depending on CCE (add 115 calories for walking 2 miles daily)
Barbara, 62, 5′2″, 110 lbs — Maintenance Calories about 1000-1100 depending on CCE (add 100 calories for walking 2 miles daily)
John, 48, 6′0″, 190 lbs — Maintenance Calories about 2300-2500 depending on CCE (add 200+ calories for walking 2 miles daily)
Harold, 62, 5′8″, 165 lbs — Maintenance Calories about 1600-1900 depending on CCE (add 100+ calories for walking 2 miles daily)
Fiber may be subtracted from total carbs. Do not subtract fiber alcohols (all sugar alcohol calories are eventually used by the body).
Aim for 30 grams of fiber daily as recommended by the USDA. Some highest fiber foods include artichoke hearts and beans. Beans are also an incomplete protein. Whole wheat products are better choices for carb items, but check labels to ensure you’re aware of net carbs. Typically they don’t have as much fiber as we might think.
For successful maintenance make the best food choices possible. Everyone will have a fast food burger at some point, but that shouldn’t be a diet staple. Vegetables, whole grains and low fat dairy should be chosen ahead of junk food, sugar and alcohol.
CCE (Carb & Calorie Equilibrium)? What is it? How do you determine it? Of course, it has been copied from Atkins ACE (Atkins Carbohydrate Equilibrium). But Atkins was looking at carbs only. Not calories.
Then she goes on to list the well known 10-12 multiplier. However, typically this multiplier is used for weight loss and not maintenance. But then, if you have been following the Kimkins Diet, you have to stay low calorie or the pounds will start to come back.
Fiber may be subtracted from total carbs? What total carbs? There are no carbs mentioned in the maintenance plan. Except as part of CCE. Which is not explained.
Aim for 30 grams of fiber daily as recommended by the USDA? Should we also eat 45-65% carbs as recommended by the USDA?
And then the self-proclaimed diet guru ends with the very profound recommendation: “For successful maintenance, make the best food choices possible”.
My recommendation for anybody that has followed the Kimkins Diet, in maintenance or not yet to goal, would be to start Atkins and follow it by the book. Atkins induction as a transition from Kimkins and then follow the book as written, climbing the carb ladder towards maintenance.
Kimkins Maintenance Plan
Is there such a thing? Not to my knowledge. The very few people that have followed Kimkins to goal seem to maintain the weight by still doing Kimkins. Experimenting with adding a few carbs, then cutting back again to take off any weight regain. A typical yo-yo approach that will work as long as you manage to stay ON the diet longer than you are OFF the diet. Gets very difficult to do for longer any longer time period as you tend to have to stay ON for increasingly longer time than OFF.
To my understanding, the diet was never intended to include a maintenance plan. It was to be used as a crash diet and as the vast majority of people couldn’t stick to the diet all the way to goal, a maintenance plan was never needed.
For sure, Heidi Diaz never needed a maintenance plan herself. I doubt that the “thousands of people” she has “helped” on the boards and via email during “more than 10 years” have needed it either. Reading the Ask Kimmer thread at Low Carb Friends it is obvious that the diet provided only short term weight loss.
But following a request from a dieter on Kimkins, Heidi took a shot at starting to formulate a Kimkins Maintenance Plan. Not a very good shot, in my opinion. Actually, I was surprised at how bad it was considering that while Heidi never followed her own plan, she did a lot of reading about diets and has never been shy of stealing ideas from someone else. Surely she could have come up with something better than this:
Designing a Maintenance Plan - Feedback!
OK, let’s take a look at “maintenance”. Let me jot down a few ideas and you all let me know what you’re thinking. My vision of a successful Kimkins Maintenance Plan should be focused on high nutrient whole foods. Brown rice instead of instant white rice, whole fruit instead of juice drinks, 7 grain bread instead of white, lower calorie higher carb choices (fresh fruit or winter squash) over high calorie lower carb (faux cheesecake). Kimkins Maintenance should be as simple as Kimkins. A few easy to remember rules that you’ll always have with you. Nobody is going to drag a diet sheet in their purse or wallet for eternity or whip out a calculator at a restaurant — not for long anyway.
After 10 years as a self-proclaimed diet guru, and “30 years of diet experience”, a maintenance plan is still just a “vision” for Heidi? Isn’t that proof enough that the Kimkins Diet doesn’t lead to goal? No maintenance strategy is needed.
Kimkins Maintenance must be very simple. I think regular Kimkins is ultra simple, but some newbies have problems at the beginning figuring it out. Maintenance will more complicated, but it needs to be simple.
Yes, the regular Kimkins is simple. Just eat at starvation level calories and the weight will come off. Newbies are getting confused when they follow the new rules (unlimited protein, 3 cups of veggies) and don’t see the weight coming off as fast as promised.
I don’t see why maintenance has to be complicated. It isn’t for me. However, it might be complicated for Kimmer to put a plan together as she has no clue what she is talking about. Has no clue what amount of carbs or calories would be required on maintenance.
Should Kimkins Maintenance be calorie or carb oriented? If a combination, what limits? The accepted definition of “low carb” is 100 carbs or less per day. To us that sounds very generous until we realize that much fast food, fruits, grains and carb snacks can easily meet that limit with 1 serving. If a limit of 300 carbs is chosen, then any maintenance plan fits the bill including Weight Watchers.
What a dilemma. Kimkins is marketed as low carb, low fat, low calorie. So what to increase in maintenance? The answer is really that after following the Kimkins Diet, maintenance is still low carb, low fat, low calorie. Or, why not suggest that any maintainers find another plan, like WW? After having provided Heidi with “before” and “after” pictures, they have served their purpose. She has no use for them. She will get no more money from them and they are just using up bandwidth on kimkins.con.
How do we add back junk food? Few people are willing to give up cheeseburgers (on buns), pizza, spaghetti & garlic bread, beer, Grandma’s fudge, Hot Pockets, mashed potatoes & gravy, Girl Scout cookies, or nachos for the rest of their life. My vote would be that they not be included in Kimkins Maintenance choices, but I don’t think that’s realistic.
Junk food is now defined as higher carbs items? What happened with the 300 carbs WW plan?
What about restaurants? Would a good solution for Maintenance to state a calorie limit and advice to check the restaurant website in advance?
Hey, Kimmer! Don’t you remember when you recently spammed the internet with an article with diet advice for eating out? Perhaps you didn’t read the borrowed article before submitting it. Seems that there were some practical ideas in there that you could have adopted as your own. Which you did.
I’m reminded of Dr. Atkins research. A criticism of Dr. A was that high fat went hand in hand with heart disease and other conditions. Dr. Atkins’ research over 30+ years showed that it is high fat WITH high carb that triggers heart disease and poor cholesterol profiles. If Kimkins Maintenance leans toward typical American diet aren’t we leaning toward typical American health problems?
??? Is she really suggesting that Kimkins maintenance should be high fat, high carb? Or is she just rambling?
If we suggest a calorie limit will people be shocked to realize that they can’t eat as much as they think? Permanently? I’ve talked with thousands of people about low carb and weight loss over the past 10 years. One of the top 3 questions people have (or want to argue) is calories. Particularly for people who once weighed 300+ pounds (eating maybe 3500 calories a day or more) it’s a shock to learn that at 125 pounds they’re looking at 1300-1500 calories for life — and 1500 calories might require 30-60 minutes of exercise a day.
No Heidi. It’s not a shock and if you had ever been 125 lbs you would know this. 1500 calories might not sound much when you are 300+ pounds (as you are, or at least you look as if you are). For a 125 lbs person (like myself) it is plenty of food. When making healthy choices.
Will people “modify” Kimkins Maintenance? If so, is it really Kimkins?
Modify how? There is no “Kimkins Maintenance” to modify. Didn’t Heidi suggest WW?
Should we design our ideal “Kimkins Maintenance” as the official plan and those who find it too healthy or strict can follow other plans? Do people really want a “low carb” maintenance plan?
An “ideal” Kimkins maintenance plan would have to be the Kimkins Diet so I can see that it would be too strict. But anything else would result in weight regain. So she just wants the “other plans” to blame when people find it impossible to maintain?
What do you think? The perfect maintenance plan for me won’t necessarily be what’s best for others. As an example I would look forward to adding back fruit, yogurt and milk — but others can’t wait to add back spaghetti, rice, tortillas and Sara Lee.
Heidi “looks forward to adding back fruit, yogurt and milk”? Did she ever cut them out? The latest photos certainly don’t suggest that she has been on any diet lately.
[Kimmer's quotes copied from fellow blogger Mayberryfan, who also provides an excellent commentary to Heidi's "maintenance plan". Kimmer's picture copied from another fellow blogger; AmyB.]
As someone that has maintained for several years, my maintenance approach is very simple: Avoid white stuff, limit carbs (fruits and grains but unlimited non-starchy veggies). I never count anything. I don’t limit fats but don’t go out of my way to add any either. I eat desserts and higher carb items on rare occasions but I don’t make a habit of it. Most importantly, I do not let myself feel deprived, ever. I can have one cookie but I don’t need an entire box. Why would I? I can have another cookie another day.
What Makes Kimkins Dangerous
It’s not really that it’s an extreme low carb, low fat, low calorie diet.
After all, there are other low calorie diets out there. Just look at the latest issue of Women’s World or some other women’s magazine and I can guarantee that the recommended diet is low calorie. It may not be announced as such but adding up the suggested foods end up with 1000 cals or less. For example, egg white omelet for breakfast, 3 oz chicken for lunch, 6 oz salmon for dinner plus the rest fat free or low fat. Salads (with fat free dressing of course), a slice of whole wheat bread and half a cup of brown rice will not increase the calorie count by much.
So why is the Kimkins Diet so much worse? Especially now when there supposedly is no calorie limit on it any longer? Not that the recommended 70-90 gram protein, 3 cups salad veggies, with minimal fat easily add up to more than 500-600 cals.
What I see as the main danger with the kimkins diet is not the diet in itself. It’s the cult-like atmosphere on Kimkins “support” forum. Where people are encouraged to starve themselves. Where feeling icky is applauded.
Other crazy, fad, diets might produce the same physical ill effects (and quick weight loss), but there is nothing to motivate you to keep on doing them. You just abandon them as not doable. Another failed diet attempt.
Not so with Kimkins. When struggling to stick to the diet (and who wouldn’t?) you just log on to Kimkins.con to get support for why you shouldn’t give in to your body’s demand for nutrition. Hear people saying KUTGW (keep up the good work). Look at you! You have lost so much! Keep going! Don’t be weak!
You get inspired by the success stories on the site. Big losers. Real or not, who cares? They have pictures! They look pretty and skinny in the “after” photos.
No negativity at all on the site. Just upbeat posts. Friendly challenges where you get to know people. Checking in daily to say hello and read about your friends’ overnight whooshes. How many pounds they dropped. Hoping to do the same.
To me, that is really the danger with Kimkins. Not the diet, but the website. Without the brainwashing that goes on there, nobody could stick to the diet long enough for it to do much harm. Without the forum and people posting there (even if they are mostly sockpuppets by now) there wouldn’t be a Kimkins.con.
I have great hope that Kimkins.con will soon be gone from the internet. The site was funded by members that signed up based on fraudulent weight loss claims (Kimmer’s 198 pounds) and an article in Women’s World that had fake pictures (Kimmer’s Russian bride photo). The Class Action Lawsuit may force the shut down. Or, Heidi Diaz might decide to shut it down due to lack of new members. Sockpuppets don’t bring in any money.
