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.

Of course, I point this out as I do not want anyone to start a diet like Kimkins. In no way do I wish that anybody that has followed the Kimkins diet regain their weight.

That this isn’t obvious was made clear to me from a great post on Kimkins Diet Truth: We’re all on the same side, right?

Yes, we are on the same side. I just want people to give up the Kimkins diet not to damage their health. I do not want them to regain any weight lost.

So what to do when leaving Kimkins and realizing that the diet is not a good way to lose weight? Of course, I’m no more expert in diets than Heidi Diaz but I will share my opinions.

First, read the very informative thread Atkins Nutritional Interview (Repairing your metabolism and more) on LCF.

Be prepared to have a lot of patience, and expect a scale increase initially. Don’t panic. It’s most likely water weight and not fat regain. If possible, put away the scale for a while. Use a pair of pants that fit well as your measuring tape. You might be surprised to find that a scale increase does not reflect on your size. Nobody sees your scale number, just your size.

Exercise. I have been at a “maintenance” range in all of my weight loss and every time I stop exercising I regain weight. For me, I don’t think it’s the number of calories I burn (cardio) but building muscle (weight training) that makes a difference. Weight training is known to increase metabolism. Again, patience is needed. I don’t see any effect from starting an exercise regimen until after 4 - 6 weeks.

What about the diet? How to increase calories? In my opinion, there has to be a slow change, and done step by step. I know it must be tempting to go hog wild which is the natural reaction after deprivation on a low calorie diet. Clearly, that will not work.

My suggestion would be to increase by slowly adding one food item at a time. For a week or two. Then one more until a reasonable amount of calories is achieved with no size gain (again, the scale shows water weight and is not a reliable measure of fat loss).

Or to borrow from 2big4mysize’s advice to AmyB:

I’d suggest all Kimkinettes stop weight loss, see their docs and be honest about portion size with copies of your menus for the last month. Saying “I’m eating low glycemic veggies and lean proteins” sounds a lot healthier than those 800 cal Kimkins’ limited menus you have been eating of those lean proteins and veggies.

Repair any and all metabolic issues with more carbs, proteins and fats. Now don’t go nuts and slur a 44 ouncer of bacon grease through a straw while eating refined white foods or HFCS as your carbs, but do drizzle your veggies with EEOV or any other healthy fat you like. Roast or saute them as part of your meal prep and you will be having a healthy transitional meal.

Please remember y’all are going to be adding back lean body tissues too so do not panic if the scale goes up a few pounds. You may even replenish some of your glycogen stores but remember that is about 3 to 1 water by weight which is why it comes off so fast when you jump back to Kimkins or induction.

Please use your tape measure and see that if you switch to Atkins those added pounds are lean tissue and you are still small.

UConn did a study on folk eating Atkins at MAINTENANCE levels vs folk eating USDA high carb diets. Neither group was trying to lose weight. Each group was allowed to eat as much as they wanted. Neither group exercised. The Atkins group lost body fat and added muscle tissues just by eating according to the plan. Just as your body will be replenishing its protein stores when you give it more protein and fat in the diet.

Will you ever be able to eat the way you used to when you were heavier? Nobody can correctly answer that for you. But you will be healtheir growing old with your loved ones if you take the time right now to fix your metabolism and get off the road to an ED kimkins has placed y’all on.

Professional help like Christen is getting would be best but since I know most folk aren’t there is a free repairing your metabolism topic stickied at the top of most LCFS forums. And an excellent discussion on altering Kimkins and how to make it healthy on LCF’s Building a Healthy WOE if possible based on Kimkins

I tried to think of all the possible ways a Kimkinette could misinterpret the facts so all your questions should be answered. Except the one all of us have and that is what limits to place on total amount of carbs y’all should be eating.

I wish y’all would use the DANDR OWL carb ladder as that allows each person to discover what type of carb foods they can and can’t tolerate in a very controlled manner with immediate corrective steps should a food or carb food group have a negative impact on your craving control or weight loss.

Amy I wish you and all the other transitioning kimkinettes much success as you take the first steps on that scary journey to recovery and away from the ED many are heading for.

I, like 2big4mysize, wish ex-Kimkins dieters success with finding a healthy woe that will maintain their weight loss and/or help with continued weight loss.

We are on the same side.

Singing Lass has since made some posts on FWK, in support of Kimkins. But on March 16, Singing Lass chose to create a sockpuppet on LCF, LittleSina, drawing attention to the (Warning: Do not click on the AOL link. IP tracker on the site) AOL member page that hosts Singing Lass’ old pictures and songs.

Perhaps Singing Lass wanted to show herself in a positive light, before the less flattering post would come up on AmyB’s blog. Surely Singing Lass knew of what was to come. She is a psychic after all.

As Singing Lass wants attention, let’s provide the links to other places where she has an online presence as well:

She is posting as MagicSong on the Work At Home Moms’ Psychic Reader Forum where she is a member since 07/17/2006. I don’t have the time (nor the interest) to wade through her 1000+ posts on this forum. However, I found it interesting that a year ago she “made fun” of how much more she was earning compared to her sister’s “regular” job, but in March this year (2008) she was complaining that the payment in March would be a week later and that caused problems for her to pay her bills.

Singing Lass has a profile up on Kasamba where she uses the name PsychicMagicSong. She charges $9.99 per minute and claims to be an expert in “Soulmate Connections”. She further says:

“I can provide readings on most any topic, however my personal favorite and strong area is with relationship issues. As a very strong empath/ borderline telepath I am able to look into people and discover who they are, and how they feel and see–and why.”

Wow! Why would she then need to use sockpuppets on kimkins if she can “read” the members directly? No need for any disguise.

She continues:
“I can do readings on future circumstances–as well as present and past. I also can provide timelines for when things should happen. I estimate length of time much like judging the length of a piece of ribbon..I go from the present point and feel outwards along the “thread” to when the event will occur.”

So can we get an accurate prediction for when Kimkins.com will close?

And lastly:
“Free will means that our lives are based off of the choices we make…and yes, impacted by the choices and actions of others as well.”

Singing Lass might want to consider where her “free will” is presently leading her.

ETA: Thanks to MrsM for the LittleSina tip! (see comment on my earlier post)