Kimkins Controversy - Kimkins Scam

Kimkins Scam Exposed on National Television

Fox’s national morning show, The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet, profiled Kimkins as part of their diet scam expose series yesterday.  The Morning Show brought a doctor and nutritionist on for their opinions.  Former administrators Christin and Deni told their stories about the fraud and their issues with the diet.  Jeannie Baitinger (TippyToes) and Delaney (Singinglass at Kimkins, an admin who has done most of the banning when people have asked questions about Kimmer) also appeared.  The biggest bombshell is that Jeannie announced that Heidi is, indeed, Kimmer.  After hearing the thinly-veiled disgust in Tippy’s voice when viewing the Heidi Diaz surveillance tape (”look at the woman”) don’t you wonder how long Tippy will be employed by Heidi?

Jimmy Moore recorded the segment and uploaded it to YouTube.  Watch it now:

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Kimkins, Real Harm to Real People

Kimkins Dangers has a round-up of some of the Kimkins craziness that can be found on the web:

Kimmer,
When water fasting I start to feel bad/weak. I eat 2 sticks of celery or a Lc yogurt and feel better. Do you thinkby doing that I am defeating the purpose of the fast? Will I not lose as fast as I could eating 1 cup Lc yogurt and 2 sticks of celery

Kimkins Petition Update

The Kimkins petition is continuing to gather steam. Addressed to the Federal Trade Commission, Better Business Bureau, California Attorney General, it requests a full investigation of Kimkins and “Kimmer” (Heidi Diaz). Over 150 people have signed the petition, and many of them have left comments:

• Kimkins AKA Heidi Diaz is a charlatan (n. A person who makes elaborate, fraudulent, and often voluble claims to skill or knowledge; a quack or fraud. ) needs to be stopped.
• Encourages laxative use and basic starvation. This website has a cult-like mentality.
• Please Please act on this dreadfull plan
• telling a 14 year old that 500 calories is ok is shocking!!!
• I tried this crazy plan after being seduced by incredibly quick weight loss and after 3 weeks, my hair started falling out, dramatically; AND I started to get aches in my hip joints. Never having experienced these symptoms before, I didn’t know what it was or that it could even be related to a WOE!
• Dangerous Diet.
• She fooled me. Glad I smartened up. After almost three weeks trying it “Kimmers” way, I was fatigued, weak, dizzy. Took me at least four weeks to start feeling better. The marketing scam is attractive to people desperate to lose weight. People, including me, get lulled into the attraction of fast loss and buy into “Kimmers” explanations out of that same desperation. This is an unhealthy way of eating. I know this first hand and feel foolish that I was taken in by the marketing. Shame on Woman’s World for writing a story - that’s how I was realed in. Never again will I read magazines like that again. Good luck in pursuing this petition. We need smart weight loss, not hype about doing it super fast.
• It has been reported that the Kimkins website is encouraging a 14 year old girl as she eats an average of 400 calories a day. Another report states that a young woman is in the hospital with the Kimkins diet as a major contributor to her heart disease. Please investigate this diet!
• Any chance we can get our money back???
• This “diet” is going to kill someone! It is nothing more than an eating disorder in the making. And the mind games and cult mentality? Scary!
• The truth needs to get out. This diet is dangerous.
• Kimmer is just another internet marketer out to get desperate people’s money. The difference here is that the advice Kimmer is selling is going to hurt someone. She’ll tell you there is no calorie restriction, but that’s wrong. Very low calories are encouraged. Laxative use is suggested. People complaining of dangerous side effects are told to just tough it out and it will pass. Someone should definitely shut this operation down.
• This is just a pro-ana plan. It’s just a matter of time before people die. Besides that, it’s a fraud taking advantage of desperate people.
• This so called “diet” is extremely dangerous. Thank God, I was a lucky one who realized it’s dangers. But there are desperate people out there who will stick with it, and I’m afraid they are going to pay dearly with their health or worse.
• My doctor advised diet is dangerous. I requested refund and was denied.
• There’s no room for this type of scam when people are desperate to lose weight.
• This con artist needs to be stop before someone dies
• Numerous FTC violations; unsound diet; dangerous health claims; breach of contract to members
• Im more worried that she says laxitives are ok every week to “flush out” your system and is promoting this as a healthy way of life.
• Let’s get to work on this pronto. Quit dragging your heels. Do your job - okay?
• The insanity needs to be investigated and stopped before she causes such severe health problems for people, that they are not reversible, including death. She allows MINORS on her site, and gives them the same advise as she gives the adults, to CUT calories, not to mention the carbs and fat right a long with that. All inclusive. This is the same thing that those who belong to Pro ANA sites do and are so proud of. Kimmer is not alone in dispensing medical advice on this site. And none of them have any background in the medical field! She refuses to come forward and prove what she says. She uses ‘faked’ before an after pictures, [most noteably trying to pass a model off as one of the afters] and her own are easliy discerned as faked [not even the same person] and/or very old ones, used as current.. She is a fraud!
  The site contains numerous FTC violations, substantial unqualified health claims and Kimmer/Heidi Diaz uses a plethora of unethical business practices to sell her site
• Its an absolutely alarming plan and should be thoroughly investigated
• This is a fraudulent site praying on unsuspecting people looking for a quick fix. The advice is in keeping with eating disorder behaviors, which the founder herself exhibits. Quick action needs to be taken to investigate. Fraud runs rampant.
• This diet is dangerous. It MUST be stopped!
• never received the promised ebook with your paid subscription for life
• I want a $60 refund from this scammer!
• Please investigate this potentialy deadly “diet”
• unsafe is what this is. Please investigate.
• Potentially deadly - please intervene!!
• Please help
• This woman is a fraud the before and after pictures on her site are fake.
• Please investigate this woman’s business!
• Dangerous diet advice-please investigate
• Please let consumers know that Kimkins success stories are NOT typical (in fact, MOST people are unable to lose weight so quickly without serious negative physical consequences), and that Kimkins is an extremely Low calorie starvation diet that is only suitable if advised by their doctor!!! Please investigate the advice that she has given that has led people towards eating disorder-like behavior.
• Very unsafe and potentially dangerous diet recommended by uncertified “unknown person”. This “unknown person” is also charging membership of $60.00 for this diet and refuses to meet anyone in person.
• “Kimmer” is a fraud and needs to be outed as such. Haven’t people been lied to long enough?
• FRAUD and a scam artist
• In my opinion, kimkins diet is potentially dangerous for anyone but what is more worrying is the fact that she has members who are MINORS….
• Please investigate this woman - she is not a medical profession and is encouraging disorded eating behaviour (not to mention the fraud side of things).
• I think Kimkins needs to be investigated, and required to refund money to those who were banned for no good reason!
• Please stop this craziness.
• Never delivered E-Book, unethical business practices–needs investigating NOW!
• SHES A FRAUD
• Dangerous Starvation Diet
• She promised people personal coaching, but how would that have been possible without limiting the membership? Her whole business is a scam.
• Thiis looks like a potentially dangerous weight-loss plan, pomoted by a person with no discernable credentials, to assess the poteintail health risks. It also seems that a lack of real evidence of it’s efficacy by “Kimmer” could make it a less than ethical buisness venture
• She promotes unhealthy eating and has never been forthright about her before and after pics as well as the ones on her website. Plus, she charges a fortune for info that can be found for free elsewhere. She needs to go.
• Investigation should be made into the practices of: dispensing questionable medical and nutritional advice without training or licensing; claims that the diet is suitable for ALL diabetics including Type I; fraudulent use of faked before/after photos to promote memberships (including stock photographic images, images of models, and poor photoshops); conducting business in the state of California and interstate via the Internet where terms of contract were not fulfilled and/or were changed unilaterally without consent of consumer.
• Since she uses her own experience as a basis to sell memeberships, I think it is important to find out if she is, indeed, a real person.
• This diet is dangerous, and Kimmer has no medical backgroung!
• Kimmer is a fraud and must be stopped!!!
• Fraudulent practices
• Please investigate this potentially fatal diet being aggressively hawked by a mysterious & elusive woman who has no medical background.
• I paid $14.95 for an ebook that was not delivered
• this diet is dangerous, please investigate.
• There are significan health risks, mental risks, and dangers with this plan that should be investigated. Anyone with a pre-existing type of any Eating Disorder should be WARNED! This diet is promotes extreme calorie reduction and laxative abuse.
• Considering the increasing popularity of this diet and the fact the creator has no medical expertise, I believe it should be investigated for the sake of the public’s health.
• This is a very dangerous low calorie diet that is being targeted to everyone..including children. The “author” of the diet, Heidi Diaz, refuses to meet with anyone face to face and is responsible for giving advice that people should take daily laxatives to lose weight. Many ladies have gotten sick from doing her recommended very low calorie diet. She is NOT a trained nutritionist or doctor..she just made this up without any medical knowledge at all.

Please Support These Kimkins Dieters

Every day we see Kimkins dieters (many of them newbies) and we try to at least alert them to the fact that there are many concerns and unanswered questions about the Kimkins diet.

Discussion about the controversy surrounding Kimkins and Heidi Diaz (Kimmer) is usually silenced on the Kimkins.com site, and members have been banned for questioning the veracity of Heidi’s claims.
Please stop by these Kimkins members’ blogs to lend support and help sound a warning:

Fat Brat Candee Candee Vickie Nonnie Tinkerbell Tarvos HappyFatSkinnyGirl Pattigreenbean Elaine Cyn Mr. B Stephanie HarmonyNote

Christin Dispenses Diet Advice Online Without Qualifications

Kimkins Exposed takes a close look at Kimkins’ new public relations staffer, covergirl Christin:

From her FitDay records it’s clear she starved herself to lose the weight. Now in her My Daily Plate food journal it’s clear her diet is now filled with mostly packaged products and her calorie intake, which is up and down, is still below what should be normal for a woman her age, weight and height. But she is the face of Kimkins and now representing the company too as Director of Media and Public Relations. While Christin may indeed be a good person, and we have no reason to believe she’s not, one cannot distance the fact that she has been a paid affiliate all along, thus has had a vested interest in promoting Kimkins. Now is a paid staff member who is a corporate officer. When people read her words encouraging them and others to starve themself, they need to be aware of this conflict-of-interest.

Kimkins Diet Review - Laxative Addiction from Bad Kimkins Advice

Kimkins member Gloria was advised by Kimmer to take a daily dose of Epsom salts, a strong laxative:

I thought well, maybe I will try it. Well blow me away (quite literally) I was hooked. I was feeling light, the scale would drop and that is when I became obsessive. I started doing epsom salt shooters at least once a week sometimes two when I thought my calories were over 1000 or my carbs were over 10 grams. So I continue taking epsom salt shooters, and then starting popping ex-laxs. When the epsom salts stopped working, I just would had more to the glass. I was taking up to 5 tbsp of epsom salts in one dose. That is an extreme amount.

In approximately February I was having extreme abdominal pain and couldn’t figure it out. I broke out in a sweat and thought I was going to die. This continued to happen on and off. I thought I must be blocked, so I took some epsom salt. I felt better and figured I had just relieved some pressure. Well at the end of July it happened again. This time much much worse and I ended up in the hospital having ultrasounds and blood work done. I knew what was wrong. I was addicted to laxatives. I am an adult and accept responsibility for what I did. But I never ever used laxatives or Epsom salts until I read about it on the Kimkins boards.

I was desperate to reach 160. I was frustrated at myself for not reaching goal in four months and felt like a failure. I stopped doing Kimkins in May but still did Epsom salts and laxatives. That is how I ended up in the hospital. I am now taking probiotic vitamins to replace the good bacteria that I stripped out of my body from abusing laxatives. I feel so much better, I am not so tired and as grumpy as I was when I was eating barely anything and taking laxatives.

Kimkins Diet Review by About.com

Laura Dolson, the About.com guide to low carb diets, has written an excellent review of the Kimkins diet — required reading for anybody interested in this plan! She says:

Kimkins is certainly a potentially dangerous diet, and I would warn anyone tempted by it to stay away. In addition, “Kimmer’s” claims of extensive weight loss maintained for five years with the maintenance diet she has described (in at least one interview) seems extremely unlikely to me. In science, there is a saying: “Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof.” Beyond short term weight loss, Kimmer has not produced any proof that her diet has even helped one person — not even herself.

Dr. Atkins Nurse: “Kimkins is not Atkins”

Jacqueline A. Eberstein, an RN who spent over 20 years working with Dr. Atkins, creator of the Atkins diet, cautions dieters against the dangerous Kimkins diet:

As I read the blogs, I have become increasingly concerned about what people are apparently doing to try to keep up the pound-a-day promise that Kimkins claims is possible and appropriate. Some people are using laxatives regularly and decreasing calorie intake to as low as 400 or 500 calories a day. Certainly less than 1200 calories daily seems to be common.

More Starvation at Kimkins

The Kimkins Exposed secret agent exposes more of the truth of what really goes on in the member forum at Kimkins.com. Interestingly, it looks like Kimmer is not even around “helping” members anymore?

Kimkins members insist no one is suggesting starvation level calorie intake. Yet, we find again and again members asking for help who are consuming starvation level calories.With Kimmer missing in action to answer questions to her members, we thought we’d look at another member who recently asked for help.

Melodie, a Kimkins Survivor

Kimkins Survivor Melodie writes:

I will not address these health issues because that information is already available on this site. What I’d like to talk about is the psychology behind the diet. I initially did not buy into the Kimkins bashing that was going on throughout the cyber world. I thought it was born out of jealousy and pettiness, and in retrospect, it may have initially done more harm than good. It was not important to me how much money Kimmer made or if her pictures were authentic, all I knew was that the diet worked, and all my “Short Girl” friends were living proof. But the bad press made me think and soon became a resounding alarm that finally brought me out of my Jonestown trance. It made me revisit some things that my gut had ignored, and it literally took the blush off the rose. I began to see the laxative use, the ultra low calories, and the abuse that was promoted from within and then parroted by well meaning support groups who were only trying to help. So ironically, these wonderful people on these wonderful forums promoted the “dream” in a cult sort of way. Many people stopped thinking for themselves and continued down the path to self -destruction. In all fairness, I think there are a lot of people out there who “secretly” practice a more Atkins approach, but stay around for the support. These are people who have not followed blindly, who think for themselves, and have not fallen prey to the hysteria. These are people who needed to feel a sense of community, and that is what they got at Kimkins I have heard from a lot of them since starting my new support group.