A little knowledge is truly a dangerous thing

Have you ever questioned conventional wisdom? I'm beginning to think it's an oxy-moron. Of course, truth, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder...or is that beer holder?

Like most everyone else, I'm a busy person. So, when hearing about the Kimkins diet, I thought - hey, sounds good to me. I didn't really think about it. I just did it. Big mistake?

Huge mistake.

Did I lose weight? Yes! As so many people involved in this controversy have pointed out, starvation does work. But, the arguments Heidi "Kimmer" Diaz made for her diet sounded soooooo good, so logical, so almost-true-enough, I believed them.

Here's a quick refresher or a Kimkins 101 for those who need it:

1. Fat people cannot starve. You can live off your stored fat until you are no longer overweight.

Wouldn't it be nice if this were true? The problem is, it's easier for your body to convert protein to fuel than fat, so guess what? You will lose fat, but you'll lose more muscle and damage your bodily processes that convert food to fuel making it harder and harder and harder to lose.

2. Nausea and dizziness are normal by-products of using your body fat stores for fuel.

Uh...no. Nausea and dizziness are normal by-products of starving yourself, just ask your nearest supermodel. Just eating a low-carb diet should not make you feel sick. In fact, it makes me more alert, more energized, and less hungry than I've ever, ever been. Just remember, healthy feels good. No pain, no gain is outdated.

3. Low fat combined with low carb is the perfect weightloss formula.

Before I knew better, this sounded so logical to me. We've been literally fed the low-fat nonsense for so long, it's ingrained in our freakin' DNA. I constantly catch myself thinking - oooo, I don't want that - too much fat! Bleh. The trouble with the Kimkins low-carb, low-fat mantra is that you cannot possibly get enough calories in your system by eating this way. Of course, Kimmer thinks 500-800 calories a day is okay for all us lard-asses out there. But, this is actually something known as "Rabbit Starvation" and you can Google it for some eye-opening reading. And really, who wants the rabbit to die, am I right?

4. Eat only when you are really hungry.

Maybe it's just me, but if I let my appetite guide me on when and how much to eat, I'd be as lost as Jessica Simpson taking an advanced Calculus course. Some days, I could eat non-stop. Other days, now that I'm low-carbing, I have to make myself eat. That's what made Kimkins so seductive. Having control over my appetite for the first time ever, was so thrilling. And addictive.

5. There's no such thing as starvation mode.

This is just plain wrong. Not eating enough to meet your body's basic metabolic needs will eventually cause your metabolism to shut down, hold on to your fat stores and do harm, possibly irrepairable harm, to your body. People who starve themselves, or who starve because of famine or other disasters get to a point where they cannot process food. Their bodies can't handle it. Doing a diet like Kimkins can cause this kind of reaction in a person.

6. No pills and no exercise are required to lose weight on Kimkins.

Okay, so Heidi and I can agree on the no pills part. And, who COULD exercise while consuming only 500-800 calories per day? Not me, that's for sure. In this case, Kimmer was really telling me what I wanted to hear. Unfortunately, I have to admit that I don't like exercising all that much. Truthfully, I hate it. But, I'm getting better at doing some strength and toning exercises so I can have a satisfying weightloss success story. Do you have to run marathons? No. But, just starving yourself won't work either. It's not about just getting skinny. It's about gettng healthy!

Thanks to a great number of dieting pro's, I saw the light about Kimkins before I did real damage to myself. Eating and losing weight by following a low-carb eating plan requires you to educate yourself in order to stay healthy. Dr. Atkins, Dr.'s Eades, and so many other sound, safe low-carb programs are out there to offer you real weightloss success. Don't fall for quick, easy and painless weightloss.

Kimkins is like winning a foreign lottery or finding out you have a long-lost relative in Nigeria that died and left you millions. Don't believe the hype!