Mission Possible: Convince People Being Fat is Worse than the Kimkins Diet

A recurring theme throughout the Kimkins site is the explicit and implicit belief that it is more dangerous to be overweight or obese than the risk of losing weight with a very low calorie diet.

Members are constantly reminded how deadly their obesity is; that diabetes leads to limb amputations, that gastric bypass surgery is expensive, and to avoid these and other deadly conditions, only fast weight loss will reverse the certainty they’ll have complications if they don’t get the weight off pronto!

In a podcast presented earlier this month with Jimmy Moore, Kimmer stated, “What’s dangerous is staying obese and waking up tomorrow with Type II diabetes, or kidney disease, or high blood pressure.”

She later continued with “there’s nothing dangerous about losing vast amounts of weight, what is dangerous is staying obese, developing conditions, not being around for your family, and particularly for men who traditionally, don’t have as much diet experience as women, um, leaving families that need them. Or, moving on down the line and being a burden to your family, which no one wants to be.”

With that, wraps her ideas up neatly by proclaiming that, “I haven’t died yet” as if to convince listeners that her claimed weight loss method is safe and effective, she’s not dead, right?

But how healthy is Heidi Diaz?

Quite honestly, no one knows for sure since she refuses public appearances, will not allow even a trusted friend like Jimmy Moore to, on his own dime, come to her home for a face-to-face interview, and has yet to publish photos of herself that even resemble her own before photos.

Rather than appear or allow someone to verify that she is indeed in good health, at her claimed weight, and actually following her own diet plan, she hides behind words designed to emotionally cripple critical thinking.

She employs fear, an emotion which can lead to decisions because one fears the unknown that the future holds. As someone listening who is overweight or obese, it’s easy to fall into the trap and set your emotions on overdrive to worry you too may get diabetes, heart disease, or have your arms or legs amputated if you don’t lose weight, fast. With your heart pounding, you think, because it’s now been suggested, that if you do not do something extreme and drastic, you might be too sick tomorrow to do something. You better start today. Tomorrow is too uncertain.

She knows this type of fear mongering works. She previously used it when she actively posted on LowCarbFriends.com. One only need look at the thread titled ‘Ask Kimmer’ to really see her in action. Her proverbial paper trail is long and provides a glimpse into her techniques to motivate with fear, loathing any dissent, disdain for any questioning of her advice.

It’s apparent she has one goal, to convince you to starve yourself on a very low calorie diet (vLCD) so that she can continue to promote, loudly, that the diet works and weight loss is fast. That is nothing special, anyone who seeks out the data on very low calorie diets and reads through the findings knows that very low calorie diets make you lose weight, but with a price.

In our next installment, we’ll begin to explore the cost to health when you use a very low calorie diet as your means to an end to lose weight. It’s not pretty or something you’d wish on your worst enemy. But the truth must be told.

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October 5, 2007 at 2:40 pm

Let’s Review Important Information « Kimkins Exposed

[...] Mission Possible: Convince People Being Fat is Worse than the Kimkins Diet [...]

January 21, 2008 at 7:08 am

Kimkins Diet–Is It Better Than Being Fat? « Diary of a Mad Housewife

[...] on January 21, 2008 by BamaGal One of the biggest arguments Heidi had for following her diet was it was better than being fat. Here’s some of her [...]

An Open Letter to Kimmer

An open letter to the woman behind Kimkins, from the site Kimkins Dangers:

Kimmer,

I’d like to speak with you, if I may, about some of the issue raised lately concerning your diet plans. I hope you will take the time to read this and ponder the questions contained herein. You need not reply, as I am simply asking for you to consider what I am writing in a deep and spiritual way.

I am not here to attack you. I will not call you names or berate you in any way. I simply wish to convey a series of thoughts and concerns that I hope you will sincerely contemplate.

When we achieve a level of personal success, it is a wonderful feeling and we wish very strongly to share that success with others, hoping to inspire and aid them on their own quest. We easily become wrapped up in a sort of guru mentality. After all, we have done it! We know it works! We have the answer and we want so badly to share it with everyone else.

When we see success mirrored back to us from those with whom we have shared our secret, we are empowered and validated. We then seek to share the success with more and more people. Not only did it work for us, but look, it worked for others as well! How wonderful!

In that cycle of validation and euphoria, we can easily loose sight of other important matters, such as the fact that our plan for success might not be best suited for everyone. It could involve dangers that we don’t know about or understand. We are loathe to imagine that we could possibly not know something about this as we are convinced that we hold the key. Criticism is not taken kindly and brushed off as jealousy or other negative emotions.

I understand this cycle, I’ve been there, so the saying goes, though thankfully not with anything as dangerous as a diet plan and I have learned my lessons well.

Kimmer, or Heidi, or whatever you prefer to be called by, is it not possible, even remotely, that perhaps there are risks and dangers associated with your plan that you are not aware of? There is a wealth of information clearly showing that some aspects of your diet plans are indeed, extremely dangerous for certain individuals. Is your desire to be RIGHT stronger than your desire to see others flourish with good health and safety?

I know you often reply that being overweight is more dangerous than any diet plan, but that is simply not the case. Can you admit for one moment that there are some things more dangerous than fat? Or even admit that perhaps you do not know if there is anything more dangerous, but there could be?

I know you have been reading many of the blogs, articles and forums wherein the risks and dangers associated with your plans has clearly been explained. I’m sure you feel that everyone else is wrong and they are simply too weak to follow your tough plan and are therefore making excuses and citing erroneous information to try to convince others that it is ok to be weak and not strong enough for your tough plan. Kimkins is not for sissies, is has been said. You yourself have said that only the most dedicated and motivated people can succeed on your plan. Have you ever considered that perhaps, just perhaps, you are wrong?

You probably don’t believe in the laws of Karma which state that everything you do ultimately returns unto you, some say three times as good or bad as your original action. For example, if you give someone who is hungry $10 to eat, sometime in the future you will be gifted $30 from a different source. It all returns unto you eventually. Even Christianity has a saying that encompasses this thought, quoted by Ezekiel. It is not a mysterious esoteric philosphy.

I would ask you to consider this for a moment, quite sincerely. You are steaming ahead, forging this diet empire, advertising, recruiting, challenging. You are utterly convinced that you are correct and everyone else is wrong. You have success stories! You have others on your plan that have success stories! You cannot possibly be wrong! You’ll show everyone who is right in the end! They’ll thank you for it.

But Kimmer, there are those that are not thanking you for it. There are those who are currently suffering from your plan. There are those who know, without doubt, that you are not correct. Can you not simply consider that they may have a point?

Your plan of fasting, laxatives, very low calories, low fat, low carb, low everything may have worked for you – though we don’t know that for sure, we only have your word to go by, which is quickly losing its power. That does not mean that it is safe for everyone else, can you not possibly understand that?

I ask you to stop, just for a few moments. Step away from the computer, away from the glossy magazine covers, away from the adoration of your fans and sit by yourself and look into a mirror. As you look at yourself sitting there, feeling rather smug. Ask yourself if you are really and honestly convinced that you, and only you, hold all the answers. Is it not possible that there is someone else who may know more than you do?

Is the money or the adoration you receive on a daily basis REALLY worth the risk of harming someone or perhaps even ending their life? Don’t respond by saying that they would die anyway of being overweight – that is a cop out and does not answer the question. Do YOU want to be the instrument of another’s death? Are you THAT certain that you are truly correct that you are willing to take that risk?

What proof can you offer that you are truly correct?

What medical studies have been done to show that your plan is safe for everyone?

What proof is there that the medical studies that prove your plan is incorrect, are themselves incorrect?

What can you say to those who HAVE been and who ARE being harmed by your plan right now?

Please, please, please Kimmer. Sit with these thoughts in your head and contemplate them. Try to be honest with yourself, at least and then perhaps, you can shift your focus away from you and place it onto those you would “save”.

2 comments

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July 31, 2007 at 8:42 pm

‘Sup

Thank you for writing this.

July 31, 2007 at 10:27 pm

Healthy LCer

I totally agree..It was an excellent letter.

Kimkins Manipulation: One Diet Fits All Dietary Patterns

It takes a clever mind to design a diet that appeals to every segment of the population.

Do you believe since fat has more calories per gram than protein or carbohydrate one should limit fat in a weight loss diet?

Kimkins resonates with you; her plan is low fat.

Do you believe that a calorie is a calorie and calories need to be strictly accounted for in a weight loss diet?

Kimkins resonates with you; her plan is a very low calorie diet (vLCD) by design.

Do you believe that fatty meats, red meat and even dark meat poultry has too many calories and needs to be limited in a diet to lose weight?

Kimkins resonates with you; her plan is lean protein only.

Do you think eggs are high in cholesterol and contribute to high cholesterol?

Kimkins resonates with you, her plans recommend consuming only the egg white, free of cholesterol.

Do you believe that a vegetarian dietary pattern is healthier and a better diet to lose weight?

Kimkins resonates with you; her diet site offers a vegetarian option too!

Do you believe that dairy products should be limited in a healthful diet?

Kimkins resonates with you, her plans limit or restrict consumption of dairy.

Do you believe that there are good carbs and bad carbs and that restricting carbohydrate is important in a diet to lose weight?

Once again, Kimkins resonates with you, her diet is touted as a low carbohydrate diet too!

Imagine that! A diet that encompasses all the various theories about weight loss and healthful eating all wrapped up into one plan.

The fact is her diet plans are actually only one of the above, a very low calorie diet (vLCD).

By design, each and every plan offered at Kimkins, is strict and very low calorie. This glaring fact is obliterated by the careful wording in the marketing of the diet that screams ‘fast weight loss’; it is the exact message someone desperate to lose weight wants to hear; they can lose weight fast, without exercise, without supplements, without diet pills, without surgery, without pre-packaged foods.

All you must do is leave your common sense at the door.

You know there is no one diet that fits every single dietary theory, yet you’re expected to believe it’s true with Kimkins.

Use your common sense. It’s not true. You know it, so move along and find a weight loss diet that can provide documented safety data, encourages you to ask and seek answers, and that does not expect you to starve yourself willingly!

4 comments

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July 31, 2007 at 3:59 pm

Kimkins Controversy » Kimkins Manipulation at Kimkins Exposed

[...] close look at the manipulative Kimkins diet sales pitch — lots of promises, but where’s the [...]

August 7, 2007 at 10:45 pm

tc hunt

I don’t know your qualifications to be writing such an article. I’m sure after writing this you will reply with a list of your wonderful degrees or qualifications. But have you done the Kimkins diet ? How many participants in the kimkins diet have you interviewed ? Have you done a study on the effect of the thousands who have lost weight with kimkins ? How has it affected them, I mean besides losing the weight that kept them fat, unhealthly chained to the american idea of eating. Your diet controversy is no controversy for me. I’ve lost 50 pounds in a just a few months. Kimkins is about support, motivation, encouragement and yes, diet. Why don’t you do something with your time that matters besides trying to convince people who are desperate to lose weight that they have no hope than to follow your government approved idea of 1 or 2 pounds a week. What kind of hope do that give to someone a couple hundred pounds overweight ? NONE ! Come on – you got a better plan ? Why not just promote that instead of tearing down someone else ? People like you seem to thrive on the negative. How sad for you. Don’t bother writing a scathing response. I’ll never be back to your site.

August 19, 2007 at 2:54 am

Sue

tc hunt, As opposed to Kimmer’s qualifications?
Yes – there’s a better plan – the low carb diet.

October 5, 2007 at 2:16 pm

Let’s Review Important Information « Kimkins Exposed

[...] Kimkins Manipulation: One Diet Fits All Dietary Patterns [...]
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Kimkins Sells Potentially Deadly Very Low Calorie Diet

It’s exactly the message that resonates with millions of overweight and obese Americans: there is a diet that offers fast weight loss without gastric surgery, diet pills, special foods, exercise or supplements. The clincher is the claim that “there is no faster diet out there! None!”The carefully crafted message is tantalizing because it speaks to the yearning for instant gratification, a base natural desire in people.

Consider the cunning words chosen by Kimmer to persuade visitors to her homepage her diet is better than all the rest:

Millions of overweight people think fast, permanent weight loss is completely out of their reach. They’ve been told their entire lives they should be happy with slow 1-2 lb a week weight loss. How depressing and untrue!

What if I told you that you could lose weight at turbo speed? Experience natural appetite suppression? Would you be interested?

Don’t worry! No awful prepackaged foods. Forget about diet pills or risky surgery. The plan I’m talking about is all natural with everyday food.

It’s called Kimkins and was developed by me, Kimmer, in 2000 when I weighed a morbidly obese 318 pounds! In less than a year I lost 198 pounds and kept it off!

Are you getting excited yet? You should be!

…

Sure, there are other popular diets out there like Weight Watchers, Atkins, Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig and South Beach, but they only work up to a point before you quit in frustration with the slow weight loss and complicated rules. But not Kimkins!

…

So what do you think? Are you ready to experience for yourself what Kimkins can do for you? Now it’s your chance to be a weight loss success story!

Persuasive!

But, the big question is, is it true?

Let’s first begin with the serious problems with her line of reasoning to influence visitors and encourage them to join the site.

The underlying implication is that Kimkins is the best way to resolve what is one of our nation’s most serious health problems, obesity; faster than any other weight loss program.

If this were true, there would be a persuasive arguement using supportive evidence and endorsements from healthcare professionals.

The site and ‘Kimmer’ cite no supporting evidence, have no researchers or healthcare professionals to endorse her plan, and no one recommeding it as a healthful way to lose weight from within the medical or scientific community.

In both the pages which are publicly available, and those accessible by logging in, she carefully avoids any reference to hundreds of scientific studies published during the last three decades; all of which contradict her position. She could not pull even a single useful quote supportive of her diet, so the use of research is completely avoided.

Instead she relies on the trustfulness of those desperate to lose weight; she sets the stage for blind faith by not encouraging anyone to review evidence or to ask hard questions. In fact you will not be allowed to demand scientific evidence that her diet has merit or health benefit if you do join.

Such questioning is simply not tolerated.The claims made should make anyone suspicious, even those who have barely scraped through high school biology. Kimmer goes well beyond that level and not only implies her experience overrides scientific data, but even asserts that her plan is suitable for anyone, including all diabetics. [Exceptions in the site disclaimer include pregnant and lactating women and those with impaired kidney function]

Kimmer effectively shoves aside decades of published, controlled, randomized clinical trials comparing caloric intakes, macronutrient ratios, weight loss and risks associated with severe calorie restriction. Her justification for this omission is that she claims she culled out the ‘best of’ from Dr. Robert C. Atkins and Dr. Irwin Maxwell Stillman, both physicians and authors of popular diets.

But that’s nothing but sheer nihilism. Good recommendations are based on science, they’re cautious and skeptical, not permanently fixed based on an ‘n of 1’ proposition that ignores the fact that there is considerable evidence against Kimkins-like very low calorie diets being followed by free-living medically unsupervised individuals.

In fact, the evidence against using such an approach to losing weight is crushing in its abundance. By circumventing this mass of peer-reviewed literature readily open to public scrutiny in libraries and online, Kimmer insists you accept her personal experience, an experience which remains unverified.

It’s her word and you’re expected to take it and swallow it as if it were fact.

You are expected to accept without question the veracity of her statements, assertions or claims.

You are expected to look the other way and not seek data in your decision.

You are expected to buy into her claims and website with only your desire to believe that there is a diet that will work better than anything else out there today.

Like any other ‘fast weight loss’ scam, it’s no different in the claims made, no different in the emotional buttons Kimmer tries to hit in you.

But, unlike other diet plans sold to the overweight and obese, Kimkins comes with the added potential to maim or kill the unsuspecting and desperate who are ready to do anything to lose weight.

Don’t fall for the clever, crafty message! You’re smarter than that!

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July 31, 2007 at 3:40 pm

anon

Thanks for your blog.

Any time an issue is raised, the response is “it works” or “you’re jealous!” Firmly, confidently, angrily, soothingly, repeatedly this is stressed. I hope you plan to address the notion that it can work (depending on your definition!) and still be a scam.

July 31, 2007 at 3:56 pm

Kimkins Controversy » Kimkins Sells Potentially Deadly Very Calorie Diet

[…] Kimkins Exposed takes a critical look at Kimkins’ too-good-to-be-true sales pitch. […]

October 5, 2007 at 7:40 pm

Let’s Review Important Information « Kimkins Exposed

[…] Kimkins Sells Potentially Deadly Very Low Calorie Diet […]

‘Kimkins Exposed’ Getting to Know Us

We are a group of concerned individuals, working together under the collective pen-name ‘Just Ducky’.

With no illusion of grandeur, we share what we know and then write & publish here without any compensation or support from outside sources. There is no grand conspiracy, there is no organized attack, there is no naked or wrinkled Oz behind the curtain.

No, here we simply lay out the facts and leave it to you, our intelligent readers, to understand the danger that is the Kimkins Diet.

Unlike Kimmer, we do not want your money.

Unlike Kimmer, we do not need fame nor attention to feel real.

Unlike Kimmer, we have no desire to have anyone obey our commands, lest they fear our disdain and banishment.

Unlike Kimmer, we take no particular pleasure encouraging anyone starve to lose weight, nor do we enjoy watching her revel in such behavior on her site.

We want and need the truth to prevail, therefore we shall continue to provide what we know about the Kimkins Diet and the woman behind its creation, Kimmer. The diet and the woman are dangerous.

We will show you why.

We will implore you to tell your friends and family to beware of this and other diets like it.

We will provide resources you can use to make a difference and educate others too.

Any and all comments are welcome and will be published, save for those which are profane or blatantly untrue.

Please share with us and the world what you know; only by working together to expose the dangerous diet Kimkins, can we hope to banish it from existence.

We know you’re out there, dear readers. Our traffic yesterday was phenomenal without any announcement from us that we launched the blog. That was to be done today, but is now unnecessary thanks to the 5,000+ of you clicked over here!

We’d like to keep that momentum, so please feel free to share a link so others know we are here. The more we reach and educate, the more likely our success to educate the unaware about the dangers of Kimkins Diet. Together we are stronger than one woman or one dangerous diet.

Exposing the Kimkins Diet and Kimmer

This blog will be an expose of the Kimkins Diet website and its founder, Kimmer.

Because Jimmy Moore recently took appropriate action to disassociate himself from the Kimkins Diet Affiliate Program and promotion of the dangerous diet, he is no longer a target of our exposing the truth about Kimkins.

If you thought we dug deep to provide background on Jimmy Moore, you ain’t seen nothing yet! Come along for the ride with us as we expose the truth behind the Kimkins.com website, the Kimkins Diet and the woman behind it all, Kimmer.