Kimkins Dieter in Danger

Recently, a member of the Kimkins diet website complained of mental fogginess while doing the VLCD - very low calorie diet. And what did founder of Kimkins and self-proclaimed dieting expert Kimmer - Heidi Diaz - tell this person? Well, it was a typically snarky Kimmer response with none of the "expert" advice this dieter paid for when she joined Kimkins.

Here's the post exchange from inside Kimkins:

XXXX - Hi everyone. I have been doing well now on my weight loss. I only
have one concern. In the last couple of days I have been really forgetful. I
understand that before this I was excessively eating carbs. However since I have
reduced my carbs it seems like at times my brain is not functioning properly.
Something awful happened today. I was running around the shopping centre with my daughter to run a few errands. I bought an aftershave for my husband. As we
walking through the shops I realised I did not have the shopping bag in my hand.
I had left it somewhere and I was devastated. It was a present for my hubby and
it cost me $100. I have had to forget about it now because things happen and I
cant change it. My 7 year old daughter told me to stop dieting because I am not
concentrating properly. Before the incident occurred I had a protein shake in
the morning. It was 12pm in the afternoon, and I just grabbed a low carb protein
bar for convenience. Around 2pm I noticed the bag missing. Later we sat down and
I had some chicken with salad and I was upset that I had allowed to this to
happen because I hadnt eaten either enough but was running around the shopping
centre like a mad woman. After I had the chicken I felt much better. I would
like to ask if this has happened to anyone in terms of losing their memory or
concentration a bit. How do you combat that you have enough carbs for your brain
but still lose weight. I do not want to give up with my weight loss but I want
to ensure I am having normal brain function. Thank you for any responses.

Kimmer responds: According to your Personal Journal, the last few days your
carbs have actually been rather high. Maybe close to 100 grams per day because
you're eating protein bars and low carb chocolate. If you have medical concerns,
please contact your physician immediately. When you're ready to commit to
Kimkins, we'll be here to help.

Did you get that? This woman is exhibiting a sign of dangerously low blood sugar and Kimmer accuses her of "eating too many carbs" and says "when you're ready to commit...we'll be here to help."

Unbelieveable! Honestly, reading that makes me want to slap the taste out of Heidi Diaz' mouth. This paying customer of hers is SO committed to her horrible and dangerous diet that she's having trouble concentrating. Yet Kimmer insinuates that she is "uncommitted." Oh, and the "if you have medical concerns" was a nice touch, don't you think? Heidi knows very well that her diet is dangerous and impossible for many to stick to it. Afterall, she is still about 300 lbs. herself. Who the hell is she to be selling diet advice to anyone?

Here's what one of MANY credible website sources has to say on low blood sugar, which can be the result of too few calories, and mental clarity:

In order to prevent type 2 diabetes, it is vital to understand that blood sugar problems travel along a continuum. A lot of people initially develop signs such as low blood sugar (reactive hypoglycemia), which can manifest as afternoon fatigue, mood changes, and mental fogginess. Abdominal weight gain is a key finding in insulin resistance. When blood sugars are severely elevated, the classic symptoms of diabetes – excessive thirst and urination - ensue. Source: http://www.thecenterforoptimalhealth.org/services/endocrinology/diabetes.php

If you are still doing Kimkins, or any diet that encourages calorie levels of 500-1000 per day without direct doctor supervision, you are putting your health at serious risk! When I did Kimkins, I ate about 700 calories per day and soon started having mental fogginess, sudden and severe dizzy spells and my hair started falling out in clumps. I believed the lie that Heidi tells: the excess calories one needs will easily come from the weight you need to lose. Don't let Heidi Diaz talk you into starving yourself! Your body will begin eating it's own muscle tissue (and your heart is a muscle!) in an effort to prevent starvation.

Heidi Diaz created Kimkins by combining parts of the Atkins diet - which is safe and doctor approved - with Stillman's which is an extreme diet meant only to be used on a very short-term basis. This woman has NO MEDICAL APPROVAL for her diet and NO TRAINING as a nutritionist or dietician. She has no expertise whatsoever to advise anyone on losing weight.

There are wonderful diet websites and support available on the internet for FREE! Low Carb Friends is a great place to get help and support on your weightloss journey.

Kimkins is DANGEROUS to your health. Don't do it!!

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!

Haunted: The Lasting Effects of Kimkins

I'm struggling right now.

I'm stalled.

No longer losing weight, but not gaining either.

I'm frustrated, and wondering what I can do to get the scale moving down again.

But, I'm not just struggling with the scale. I'm struggling with my thoughts. I'm haunted by the things Heidi Diaz taught me during my 3 months on the Kimkins diet program. I constantly struggle to eat fat. I feel guilty when I put butter on something. I question using half and half in my coffee. Maybe 1400-1500 calories a day is too much?

Maybe not.

I'm trying to follow the Protein Power Lifeplan which encourages eating enough fat, protein and calories to keep your metabolism going. But, still that old Kimkins mentality sets in. Am I eating too much? Maybe I could be a little stricter about measuring? Do I really need to eat so much?

I've learned so much about eating disorders by going on this "Kimkins is very dangerous" journey. It scares the hell out of me when I realize that I was in the beginning stages of developing anorexia nervosa due to this diet. I was proud of how few calories I could eat and get by. So, why did I hide it from my family? The same reason I hid my dizzy spells and hair loss. I knew they'd freak out. Plus, I LOVED feeling in control of my appetite for the first time in my life.

You may be thinking - but didn't you already have an eating disorder at 100 lbs overweight? No, I don't really think so. What I had was a severe lack of knowledge over how my body works. I was never one to eat multiple meals at one sitting, full containers of ice cream, or nosh on junk food all the time. I was just eating way too many carbs - mostly in the form of whole grains and brown rice - which kept my appetite roaring all day, every day.

So, I continue my journey to lose my last 50 lbs. But, I'm not in search of skinny. I'm in search of a healthy, slender, attractive body. That's why I'm not tempted to return to Kimkins, no matter how many times some of that mentality slides through my brain. I know I cannot get healthy, slender and attactive by doing Kimkins.

And, trust me, you can't reach your goals doing Kimkins either.

Keep on learning to lose weight

Over the past 4-5 months I've been on a serious, and successful quest to lose weight. I've taken off close to 50 lbs. and have about 50 more to lose. What I've learned may help you. That is what I hope to do here.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say that I foolishly began losing weight using the Kimkin's diet plan. Please, DO NOT make the same mistake! It is nutritionally bankrupt, can harm your health, and bring on the symptoms of starvation and eating disorders before you know what is happening to you.

Kimkins is a scam. Pure. And. Simple.

The so-called creator of this plan, a.k.a. Heidi Kimberly "Kimmer" Diaz is a con artist and a fraud. Please. Research this online and don't just accept my words for this. This woman is an obese person who made up her own weightloss success story and others to sell memberships to her website. If nothing else, search for the blog of her "poster girl" Christin whose blog is called "The Journey" and see what first-hand information she has on the Kimkins diet scam, er, plan.

So, I did Kimkins for about 3 months, give or take a week. As I began experiencing hairloss and dizzy spells, I wanted to understand what was happening to me and if these were just temporary or if my body was trying to tell me something. I now know I was starving myself. I was eating far less than 1000 calories per day, and about 10-12 grams each of carbs and fats. All of this was encouraged at Kimkins.

Can you safely low-carb diet? You betcha! Protein Power is now my program of choice because it is doctor-created and has the science to back up their claims. Unlike Kimkins! Atkins is another good choice. Just make sure whatever plan you use has medical backing and encourages healthy weightloss!

The sad truth behind Kimkins is that, while you DO lose quickly at first, the loss usually slows or stops altogether at about 2 months in. It's called starvation mode and your body is hanging on to every ounce it can. Quick weightloss isn't worth permanently damaging your health. It just isn't. If you kill your thyroid, losing weight will be virtually impossible.

Diet safely! Educate yourself. Never give up!