So who wouldn’t lose weight eating just 500 calories? Why would you need to pay for expensive HCG injections when the calorie limitation will cause you to lose just as much weight in itself?

The HCG proponents (sock puppets) share their wisdom. The tiny HCG amount supposedly enables you to draw from your fat stores, and the HCG makes you not being hungry.

How funny then that the Kimkins starvation diet produced the same results, without the HCG. Kimmer suggested 500 calories or less. Lean protein, just as the HCG protocol does. People following Kimkins did lose a huge amount of weight, quickly. But they also suffered health complications due to it.

There is no reason to think that HCG would work any different, in my opinion. The dieters starting out on Kimkins didn’t feel hunger initially either. Ketosis does that to you.

Here is a study that shows no difference in weight loss or hunger with or without the HCG:

Our investigation was designed to retest the hypothesis of the efficacy of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) on weight reduction in obese women in a clinic setting. We sought to duplicate the Asher-Harper study (1973) which had found that the combination of 500 cal diet and HCG had a statistically significant benefit over the diet and placebo combination as evidenced by greater weight loss and decrease in hunger. Fifty-one women between the ages of 18 and 60 participated in our 32-day prospective, randomized, double-blind comparison of HCG versus placebo. Each patient was given the same diet (the one prescribed in the Asher-Harper study), was weighed daily Monday through Saturday and was counseled by one of the investigators who administered the injections. Laboratory studies were performed at the time of initial physical examinations and at the end of the study. Twenty of 25 in the HCG and 21 of 26 patients in the placebo groups completed 28 injections. There was no statistically significant difference in the means of the two groups in number of injections received, weight loss, percent of weight loss, hip and waist circumference, weight loss per injections, or in hunger ratings. HCG does not appear to enhance the effectiveness of a rigidly imposed regimen for weight reduction.

[Am J Clin Nutr. 1976 Sep;29(9):940-8. Ineffectiveness of human chorionic gonadotropin in weight reduction: a double-blind study. Stein MR, Julis RE, Peck CC, Hinshaw W, Sawicki JE, Deller JJ Jr.]

Getting calories from body fat doesn’t mean that you get ALL nutrition your body needs. The body fat doesn’t contain vitamins or essential fatty acids. And don’t fool yourself that a vitamin pill will provide what should be gotten from food.

Coincidentally, many Kimkins dieters complained about “excessive” hunger around week 4 – 5. The HCG protocol is following the 500 calorie diet for 3 weeks, when food is added.

But how many of the HCG dieters stop at 3 weeks? Perhaps they, just as the Kimkins dieters, decide to fight the hunger by filling up on non-calorie food such as broth and diet soda? After all, they all want to get to goal as quickly as possible.

And how many of the HCG dieters regain the weight like most of the Kimkins dieters did? A 500 calorie diet teaches you nothing about how to eat to maintain weight loss.

HCG is just another quick fix, in my opinion. A magic pill for a desperate dieter that wants to find an easy way to get the weight off. And of course, HCG is a big money maker for the companies selling it. They most likely use sockpuppets to help promote the product. As with other fad products, support threads on diet boards are populated by people new to the board, that post on that thread only, that have “fantastic success” with the product, and encourage other board members to buy it.

TIPPING THE SCALES TO HEALTH

is now open!

The online world has a wonderful new resource
for desperate dieters and
anybody else who is determined to make health a priority in 2009.

Join old friends and new as we kick the New Year off
with a renewed dedication to health and weight loss!

So what do the Kimkins survivors have to say about the diet and the founder, Heidi Diaz?

A few snippets from Kimkins Survivors:

I began to feel more tired, more worn out then ever. . . I was told this was normal. I wondered when my legs began cramping until I couldn’t even walk or move hardly at all. . . but again this was normal. When I began getting heart palpitations and a serious choking feeling, I began to get worried that something was seriously wrong.

I stayed on the plan for 2 months. After a few weeks, my emotions went flat. I didn’t feel happy, sad, anything. It was really bad. I stopped the plan as I felt I was choosing between being fat or being clinically depressed. After about 2 weeks, my hair began falling out by the hands full.

I was dizzy and my life became sedentary due to the lack of food. My hair also started to fall out.

People go from “strict” to “even stricter” when they are highly encouraged to go as low in calories as possible…many of the “big” losers hang out around 300-500 calories daily. Also, because the plans don’t have much in the way of fiber to “push things through”…it’s encouraged to take laxatives daily. The owner of the site, Kimmer, even goes as far as to say that people shouldn’t be afraid to do this since recent studies show that they’re perfectly safe and not addictive after all. (omg)

The weight loss made it easy to ignore the dizziness, nausea, and exhaustion. I brushed off the concerns of friends and family about the amount of food I was eating and for my health. I had read many accounts of other members experiencing the same side effects that I was having and the responses explaining them away as normal, signs they were doing the diet correctly.

In no time at all, I became weak, fainting, angry, shakey, dizzy. My hair fell out. I was still overweight but was sick as hell. I stopped low carb all together. I have been seeing Drs ever since with complications with blood sugar and kidneys ect…

Within 15 minutes of my ER admission, I was rapidly being set up to check for a stroke or a brain tumor. I was so sick and I simply couldnt believe this was happening. At NO time did I suspect the KK diet. I still feel so stupid. MRI’s, Neurologists, CAT scans, IV medication to try to stop the spinning. 5 days of laying on my side with a wet towel over my eyes, they finally got the vertigo under control enough that I could walk slowly. They did find my electrolytes were all out of whack and my liver enzymes a little elevated….

While I did lose weight, I also began to experience significant hair loss, nausea, bouts of dizziness and was freezing all the time.

…some days my calorie intake was lower then 500 calories. My hair thinned out too…but I am older and thought that was due to age, dizzyness or light headed sometimes too. I lost fast, lost alot, and gained it back just as fast too.

I can only hope that some day I’ll find my metabolism again.

I joined in July hoping to put my low carb lifestyle back on the right track. All I accomplished was further derailment. I got off the train when the dizzy spells crept up on me. One call to the Dr. and he said STOP! Healthy lower carb is ok, but this isn’t healthy. This is disordered eating.

I am losing hair in clumps, awful joint pains and dizzy/nauseous frequently.

I was one of those who kimmer told to take a full dose (laxatives) the first day and then take 1/2 dose everyday after.

I have lost tons of weight. But guess what…at a price. I went to the DR not feeling well. My blood levels are all off . My thyroid is shot . Know what the DR asked me…..She said..you are not starving yourself are you? I have such bad blood work that I need to have some injections to fix it..such as Vit . I also have to have scans to see if my thryiod can even be saved. This all got started because I was having dizzy spells and bad pain in my bones.

My hair was falling out, I couldn’t potty, I couldn’t stay awake, I had no energy, I felt waves of nausea and dizziness every time I changed positions…and worst of all, I was becoming completely obsessed b/c I was trying to keep up with everything on there–you know–low, low calories, very small portions, etc.

…..losing handfuls of hair, having heart palpitations, a strange tingling down my left arm, a total loss of energy, I went and got blood test because I had lost my short term memory, I could not remember my sons birthday even and it was scary, I was suffering from insomnia and all kinds of different things. When I got my blood test back, everything was screwed up, all my female hormones, it put me into early menopause, I am 37 years old, my human growth hormone was at the age of a 97 yr old woman…

These testimonials for the Kimkins Diet are just from the first few pages on the Survivor blog. There are a lot more. Over 100 “survivors” have shared their experiences.

Who in their right mind would try the Kimkins Diet after reading these?

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.

She went from this

to this

And that was when she according to herself was an “expert” dieter:

I’ve studied weight loss plans for a lifetime, noting what worked. What didn’t. And, most importantly, why. Not only from personal experience, but from the feedback of hundreds of unhappy, overweight folks. By combining basic thermogenic body principles the turbo fast Kimkins Diet was created!

We now know that not a word of it was true. The “feedback” was from faked success stories, illustrated with stolen pictures from a Russian bride website. Her “personal experience” included WLS, but not even that produced any lasting weight loss.

While Kimmer might not be typical, I still think very few people manage to maintain a weight loss following a starvation diet like Kimkins. Assuming that they manage to stick to it without any major health problems, the long term deprivation of nutrition often backfire in the form of binges and major weight regain.

Beware of quick fixes! A huge misconception is that something you do short term will have a long term effect. Only a life style change will work for lasting weight loss.

Isn’t that what we all want?

The fad diet industry is banking on it. Lose 10 pounds in a week! Lose 100 pounds in 5 months! No faster diet, none! Better than gastric bypass!

Sounds good? Apparently, as we keep on paying for new diet fads all the time. Looking for the magic diet/pill/supplement that will take the weight off once and for all.

Why is “quick” weight loss so important? Because we know that we can not stay on the diet forever!

If I can lose my 100 pounds in 5 months, I might have a chance to stick to it. It’s such a short time; surely I can make it that long. Just be determined and suffer through it. Then I can go back to eating, huh, normally? Whatever. I’ll deal with it when I get there.

So I start a starvation diet like Kimkins. Enthusiastically. The first couple of days are hard and I’m hungry, but the scale number drops so fast that it’s easy to fight through it. Sure, it’s water weight but who cares? It’s quick and I weigh less!

The diet is easier that I thought. I lose my appetite and it is not that difficult to just eat 500-600 calories per day. I gain self confidence. I can do this. Yes, I’m fat but I’m doing something about it. I’m in control.

Soon, “excessive” hunger and cravings appear. What do I do? Most people quit the diet at this time. Often with a binge. Berating themselves for being weak, a failure.

Too many return to the diet after the binge. It did work after all. I did lose weight on it. I just wasn’t strong enough last time. I’ll do better this time. Try to remember that it’s only for a short period of time. When I have reached goal, I can eat normally again.

Did it ever occur to you that there is a reason for the binge? The irresistible cravings? That is not psychological? That it’s not your “fault”? That you are not “weak”? Could your body be trying to tell you something?

The lack of food and especially the lack of fat cause a “starvation” response. The body does not get the required nutrition and this results in cravings. Normally cravings for sweets, but high fat sweets. It’s a natural reaction and has nothing to do with being “weak”. It has to do with survival.

A very obvious example of how the body objects to Kimkins diet abuse is when dieters that follow K/E start craving salads and vegetables. K/E (Kimmer’s Experiment) consists of lean meat and eggs only. Who would have thought that they ever would crave a salad? But many K/E dieters report just that. Isn’t it obvious that the diet lacks some essential nutrition? That the body is trying to tell you so?

And no, a daily multi-vitamin will not help.

If you can not stick to a diet, there is nothing wrong with YOU. Don’t blame yourself, blame the diet. And find a diet/woe (way of eating) that you can live with for life. Healthy food. I recommend Atkins. According to the book, not at induction levels as a quick fix.

The “quick weight loss to reach goal and then I can go back to eating whatever” is an unrealistic dream. Think about it. Does it even make sense?

The Kimkins Diet website was launched in June 2006 but had a rather obscure existence until an article in Women’s World magazine caused a large influx of customers one year later.

Many people tried the diet but rightly decided that the diet was not sustainable and disappeared. The $59.95 membership fee was written off as yet another waste of money on a fad diet gimmick. There are plenty of those around, and most of us have tried more than one.

These were the lucky ones. They left before they were harmed; physically or psychologically. The not so lucky ones stayed around a little longer, but eventually most of these abandoned the diet as well. The Kimkins starvation diet can not be followed for a longer period of time and the most natural reaction is binges.

Not surprisingly, the weight comes back on. Often as fast as it came off with starvation level of calories. The months of sacrifice and counting every morsel ended up with no results, or very little lasting weight loss to show for it.

So what do these dieters do? They return to Kimkins for another starvation cycle. Expecting a different result this time. Why? What has changed? The diet is still nutritionally bankrupt and the deprivation will lead to the same binges as last time. Why wouldn’t it?

But, the diet works, they say.

No it doesn’t. A diet you can not stick to does not work. What’s the point in keeping losing the same pounds over and over again?

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein

I do hope that all the exposure the Kimkins Diet is getting on the blogs is brought to the re-starters attention. This information was not available a year ago, and hopefully it will make a difference. Their life might depend on it, or at the minimum, their health.

One consolation is that Kimmer, a.k.a. Heidi Diaz, does not get any more money from the returning dieters. They already paid their “lifetime” membership fee. I’m sure Heidi is kicking herself for not making it a monthly fee instead.

Kimmer, the founder of the Kimkins Diet, has always insisted that starvation mode does not exist as long as there is body fat to burn for energy. Her diet suggested a daily calorie limit of 500 or less, later adjusted upwards to 710. The rest of the body’s needs would be taken from body fat.

For example:

“I don’t believe in starvation mode. I cannot and will not say anything about minimum calories. A grilled chicken breast and a 1 cup USDA serving of mixed greens is 200 calories. It just is. Adding fats or starches isn’t “healthier” to up the calories.”

“Don’t panic about low calories. . . . Bottom line, as long as you have sufficient body fat you don’t need to eat calories — you’re carrying them with you.”

“I don’t think we can fight the “1200 calorie a day mentality”. Some people cannot understand that your body takes the calories it needs from body fat if the calories you eat are too low to sustain current weight. If you need 2500 calories (250 lb person) and eat 500 (number picked for easy math), the other 2000 are taken from body fat.”

Why is it then that so many of the Kimkins Dieters experience starvation symptoms, such as:

• Feeling cold and having a lower-than-normal body temperature.
• Hair loss, brittle nails, and dry skin.
• Muscle weakness and muscle wasting.
• Constipation, slow emptying of the stomach, and belly pain.
• Sleep problems, hyperactivity, or extreme fatigue.
• Difficulty concentrating and solving problems or poor judgment.
• Dizziness, fainting spells, low blood pressure, slow heartbeat, heart palpitations.
• Frequent colds and other infections.
• Bruising.

You can find the individual accounts on Kimkins Survivors.

All these people were told to take a daily multivitamin, as if that would solve the problem. Obviously, it didn’t. Neither did the excess body fat they had. All of them were still overweight.

There are other obvious problems with a starvation diet. While ketosis initially may curb appetite, eventually hunger will reappear. Kimmer always claimed that hunger is not present as long as carbs are low enough. How she knew this, I have no idea. Certainly not from her own experience, considering that she is still obese.

I know for a fact that you can be in deep ketosis and still be hungry, and I am not alone to have experienced this. I read many accounts on Kimkins where people complained about hunger and cravings appearing around week 4 – 5 of the diet. Some of them followed K/E at the time; just eggs and meat.

Of course, the advice was to curb hunger by ignoring it, drinking water, soda or fat free broth. I am sure many people fell off the diet at this point (luckily for them) and never returned.

A diet you can not stick to is not a good diet. Your body is trying to tell you something. Listen to it.

Another issue is how to maintain the weight loss. If the above problems do not make the dieter stop the diet, eventually calories need to be increased. Nobody can live on 500 calories for life. The previous successful dieter now finds that she can not add anything without gaining weight. Even an extra cup of salad will cause the scale to go up.

The typical result is the start of a yo-yo diet. Eat more a few days and then back to starvation for a week or two. The lucky ones put in a lot of hard work to slowly increase their calories, ignoring the scale for a while, to raise their metabolism and have thus managed, with difficulty, to transition to a healthy weight loss regimen.

Why would anyone even consider starting a diet where there is a blog dedicated to SURVIVORS of the diet? With some 100 accounts of severe problems from it.

I do hope that anyone that happens to find the now year old article in the Woman’s World magazine takes a minute to google Kimkins before they go to the Kimkins.con website where Kimmer a.k.a. Heidi Diaz promises “Join today for only $79.95. That’s it. Not another penny.” That one time membership fee doesn’t include ER costs, medical bills or any compensation for long term health problems.

Edited to add: After I wrote this article, I came across this comment by a survivor that was made just two days ago:

KK has left me bald, wounded, sick and recovering from surgery and fear of food……no please don’t try Heidi’s Diet of Death!

Please take her advice. She knows what she is talking about. Unfortunately.

One of the main concerns for people starting a low carb diet is the apparent lack of fiber in the diet. I say “apparent” because it’s really a misconception. One of those accepted “truths” that keeps on being repeated over and over again.

The FDA recommends 28 grams of fiber for a 2,000 cal diet. Using their other recommendations for servings, I fall just short of that. For example:

• 4 servings of fruit (2 cups)
• 5 servings of vegetables (2.5 cups)
• 6 oz grain (6 slices of bread)
• 5 oz meat
• 3 cups milk

add up to only 24 grams of fiber. And this is only because I used “100% whole grain wheat” for the grain servings. Whole grain bread was introduced to help increase fiber intake so it can really be compared to a fiber supplement in my opinion. If I replace it with white bread, the total fiber ends up being 15 grams.

On a low carb diet, staying at induction level carbs (<20 when subtracting fiber) I can easily achieve the same 15 grams of fiber as on the “normal” diet. My sample menu included 2 cups cooked cabbage, 1 cup cooked green beans, three cups lettuce and one tomato.

So do I need to be worried about just getting half the recommended daily fiber intake? No, I do not. Why would I need more fiber?

The FDA fiber myth claims:

• Lack of fiber causes colon cancer. This “fact” was never proved in the first place and has been shown not to be true.
• Lack of fiber causes constipation. This is just not true. Lack of fat causes constipation.

But, IF you don’t want to try a low carb diet with just these 15 grams of fiber, the problem is easily solved by fiber supplements that do not add much to your net carb count. I routinely eat Wasa rye crackers and the Bran Crispbread I order from Netrition. But that isn’t because I think I need more fiber. I just happen to like them. Actually, I have to be careful with the bran crispbread as too much fiber will give me diarrhea.

However, a NO fiber diet that is also LOW FAT is bound to cause constipation. Look at the K/E menu below. The plate has the food for ONE FULL DAY, i.e. 3 meals.

K/E is short for Kimmer’s Experiment. It was a diet devised by Kimmer/Kimkins to produce heavy ketosis (or as she calls it, “real” ketosis) and quick weight loss. Lean meats and eggs only. No vegetables. Originally suggested for 3 days to jump start weight loss, the time limit was soon removed and it was recommended for long term use.

The problem with this diet is not really related to fiber. It is LOW calorie and LOW fat. This particular menu, based on Kimkins recommendations, provides just 376 cals (only 12 grams of fat) for ONE DAY!

Kimmer, or Heidi Diaz, does not recommend fiber supplements. They are bulking and a negative reflection on scale weight before the “bulk” has been eliminated is to be avoided. Instead, she suggests laxatives. On a daily basis.

Beware of the Kimkins Diet! Don’t be fooled by its claim to be a low carb diet. It’s low everything. Low carb, low fat, low calorie.

Why would I listen to this person? For advice that concerns my health? To PAY for advice that I have no proof worked for anybody?

I have no way of verifying that the information is true. While the pictures may be convincing (or not), there is no proof that the diet expert followed the diet she prescribes. There is no proof that she keeps it off by following the diet she prescribes. There is no proof that the diet is good for long term use, and to maintain the weight loss. There is no proof that the diet will not damage my health.

I can understand that anybody that loses a lot of weight is very enthusiastic about it and wants to share her success with other people. I see plenty of them on the FREE forums where they willingly share their experience without charging a dime.

But even there it’s hard to tell how honest they are. I have seen many examples where a successful maintainer eventually confessed to having regained weight, or confessed to unhealthy diet methods like laxative abuse. In the meantime though, they continued to give out diet advice as if they never had any problems of their own. It’s unfortunate, but understandable. Nobody wants to be a failure, and it’s probably so much harder when they have acquired a status as a role model.

Then we have all the self-made weight loss gurus that believe that just because they lost weight, they are now entitled to charge money for their “expert” advice. The only diet knowledge they have is how ONE person lost weight, and whatever information they have picked up along the way. They typically have no nutritional training and no long term track record.

The ones that try to turn their weight loss into a business could be even more prone to dishonesty. If you are selling a program solely based on YOUR success, you can not admit any failure in the form of weight regain or need to modify the recommended diet in any way.

[Edited. See Note below.]

And then we have what is probably the worst example in recent history; Heidi Diaz with the Kimkins Diet. She stands out among these self proclaimed diet gurus as she knows from her own experience that the starvation diet she is promoting and charging money for DOES NOT WORK. She sold it on the premises that she had lost 200 lbs and kept it off for more than 5 years. None of it was true. She never lost the weight, and even less kept anything off. And she still thinks she is qualified to charge money for diet advice?

Putting up fake pictures will just take you so far.

Photoshop doesn’t help much either when there is no real weight loss. And rumor has it that Heidi Diaz has failed (again) on the Kimkins Diet and is gaining weight.

If I would pay money for diet advice (and I have), I would spend it on books written by doctors or nutritionists that have worked with weigh loss for many years and that have accumulated knowledge from many people. One example is Dr. Atkins. Not only did he follow his own advice but he had feedback from thousands of patients that he had treated over the years. There are also books written by nutritionists at weight loss centers that are based on a large population and have good advice that is valid for more than ONE individual.

[Note. I originally had a paragraph in this post about Jimmy Moore. I realized that what I said was unfair, and I apologize to Jimmy. I had stated that Jimmy had not shared his struggles with regain, and it seems that I was incorrect. Jimmy sent me a very gracious email pointing out my error, and I'm more than happy to edit my post and remove the paragraph. (FYI. Jimmy did not even suggest removal or editing. He just wanted to set the record straight.)

I had based my initial assumption on information gathered from a bulletin board, but failed to properly do my own research. Ironically, it proves my point. Just because something is mentioned and repeated many times on the internet doesn't make it true.

I am using this blog to share information that is of interest to me, and everything I say is only my opinion. But, I will refrain from any type of character assassination based on rumors. Again, I apologize to Jimmy for my bad judgment.

However, that restriction does not apply to Heidi Diaz and her associates. I have no problems sharing information that is based on rumors only when it comes to the Kimkins Diet Scam.]