Kimkins Soap Opera Story

Ok, so I haven't blogged much, but I've been following this story for months.

It seems everyone in the low carb world in which I currently lurk has an opinion and a blog to share it with.

As far as I know, Kimmer was a member of the Low Carb friends forum.  She said that she lost 198 pounds in 11 months by doing her own version of Atkins, "Kimkins". She had quite a following and started giving advice to everyone and anyone.  She had her basic plan which later evolved into several plans.  From off the top of my head they would consist of:

Basic Kimkins:  All the lean protein you wanted and 20 grams of carbohydrate from a list (smaller than Atkins, but recognizable) with just enough added fat to "make it doable".

K & E:  lean protein and egg whites only (I may be wrong on this, I didn't live it, just read about it a while ago and am too lazy to check facts, will give full links to many blogs and threads at the end.)

Shakes only:  protein shakes only, 4 a day with certain limits on carbs, fat, and protein.

Bootcamp:  500 calorie a day limit with an hour of cardio.  (unfortunately many newbies and people who have never done low carb in their life thought this was the best plan that they should follow.)

Vegetarian Kimkins:  800-1000 calories a day (don't really know the details)

Not only are these plans unsustainable, unhealthy, and downright dangerous, there are so many problems that I don't know where to begin.

(Not in any certain order)

1. If you eat low carb, you must also increase your fat intake to be healthy.  Native Americans knew that eating only lean meat (like rabbits) was totally unsustainable, after 3 days "Rabbit Starvation" would kick in. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_starvation

2. Kimmer advocated a "plan behind the plan" which consisted of encouraging her followers to lose a pound a day, ever decreasing their calories, the use of laxatives, diet coke fasts, and the ever popular term S.N.A.T. which stood for Semi-Nauseas-All-The-TIme.  People would say they were dizzy, nauseas, weak, tired, and sick and Kimmer would congratulate them on having achieved the desirable SNAT.

3. After having some disagreements with LCF  Kimmer left to create her own forum, complete with paid membership.  It started at $14.95 with an e-book supposed to come out.  She had a business partner, Catherine who would handle the technical end of things and Kimmer would give support and personal coaching.  Catherine later was bought out by Kimmer.  You can read her husband's account of business at  Slamboard.  The membership price rose several times until it hit $60 for a "Lifetime Membership".

4. On the Low Carb Friends board and on Kimkins.com there were several fund raisers for Kimmer's foster children.  People would donate a dollar per pound lost for Kimmer's boys.  Not only is this illegal (mail fraud), there is evidence that she didn't have any foster children at the time.  The ones that she had more than 5 years ago were taken away because she allowed under-age drinking.  If she had any foster children later than that it would be a huge scandal for the foster care system in Corona,  CA as she was also receiving disability social security checks for mental illness.

5. Many people were made aware of the Kimkins diet saga from the Woman's World magazine that proudly announced that Kimkins was faster than bypass surgery.

Censoredcover

Picture from slamboard.
Featured were two members of Kimkins, at least one of whom was on the staff of Kimkins.  The diet was "cleaned up" because the truth would have been too horrifying to readers and included string cheese, low carb yogurt, more vegetables and the like.  There was also a photo of "Kimmer" who used the name Heidi Drake.  Some claim that kimkins gained 40,000 members at $60 each from this magazine. 

6. Photo conspiracies abound as Kimmer puts up her before picture on her website:  the woman in the blue shirt with sunglasses, and several questionable "after pictures" to include lounge chair lady, and the woman in the red dress who looks about 20.  Much debate raged as to whether these photos were actually Kimmer.  Several super sleuths tracked down  some of the other photos and named them as actresses and models.

7. Famous low carb spokesman Jimmy Moore of the Livin' La Vida Low Carb  Jimmy's Blog  was an affiliate of Kimkins and had banner ads on his blog (probably the biggest and best known low carb blog).  It was rumored that he was raking in the money from clicks and referrals in which he got to keep a percentage of memberships sold through Jimmy's site.  As more of the controversy raged, Jimmy stuck by his decision to do Kimkins and to support and promote it.  Many concerned people contacted Jimmy with their suspicions and at first he ignored them.  He did a phone interview with Kimmer and he posted it in a series of podcasts.  Some of the low carb community were serious enough that they contacted Jimmy's sponsers and said they would boycott the products if they did not pull their advertising on Jimmy's blog.  Soon after, Jimmy wrote an apology and removed the kimkins links on his blog and ended his affiliation with Kimmer.  Some also say that Jimmy wasn't actually doing Kimkins because of his love of frankenfoods and his blogging about low carb products not allowed on Kimkins.

8. A private investigator is hired to take photos of Heidi Drake, aka, Heidi Kimberly Miller PI Photos. In the photos Heidi appears to be larger than her previous blue shirt photos.  Unconfirmed--the private investigator says that Heidi is actually bald.  It appears she has a medical condition that would account for that aspect, alopecia.

9. Some people would like Woman's World to at least print a retraction.  If they covered the plan behind the plan they'd probably sell many more copies and a tv movie of the week. 

From Kimkins Exposed at wordpress
 "write letters to the magazine to issue a retraction and apology to their readership.

Konnie Wiederholz
Chairman
Bauer Publishing
270 Sylvan Ave.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632-2521

Hubert Boehle
CEO
Bauer Publishing
270 Sylvan Ave.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632-2521

The company may also be contacted via telephone at 201-569-6699.

You may also fax your letters to 201-569-5303"

From Jeanessa:

Lawsuit Reps Needed!!!

I am making an appeal here for more reps!!! You can be a current or former member and participate, all you need is to have paid for the Kimkins.com service! You can be a current or banned member!

Please contact jeanessa at kimkinslawsuit@yahoo.com to participate!

11.  There have been spies and moles....on both sides....the drama continues with private messages being posted for all to read.

12. There have been incredibly long, entertaining and moving threads about the kimmer saga, the survivors, the friends finding themselves on new sites, humorous photoshopped images, movies, and duck avatars.  (Based on reading that Kimmer was suspicious of anyone with a duck avatar.)

Let me share them for anyone with a couple of months of free time to kill ;) 

Anti Kimmer Blogs Emerging  The Kimmer Thread Continues  Kimmer Kimmer Kimmer