Why is Heidi Diaz a Lying, Liar that Lies?

The fake After pic that Kimmer used as her photo in her avatar on LCF.

Heidi Diaz became known as Kimmer on LCF when she first began posting her “story” regarding her incredible weight loss. Now, she is known as the lying, liar that lies, after the phrase was coined by Jeanessa, the lead principal on the pending class action lawsuit against Diaz.

During this entire debacle I have not been able to relate to the behavior displayed by Heidi. Her lack of remorse, or how she would become rude when valid questions were asked on LCF, or how she would have others fight her battles in order to defend her and how she would use her own family in her deception. So when a recent poster on LCF named Deedlynn began posting on the FWK thread and I noted the same type of behavior in the evasion of questions, twisting of words, playing the attacked victim in order for others to come to her defense, I began to feel that there was some connection in their similarities. It turned out that Dee was not honest in regards to her weight loss while on Kimkins, nor how she lost the weight.

After the Dee days I began to reflect on Heidi’s lying ways. We know that Heidi Diaz is a lying liar that lies, but why? The characteristics of a sociopath provides some insight as to why she may lie and how she does so, with seemingly no remorse or shame.

A Perfect Target: More on Sociopaths

The following comes from a blogger by the name of Catherine who has dealt with the destruction left behind by a sociopath in her life.

Sociopaths are individuals that lack a sense of responsibility and morality. They may be manipulative but are always consistent liars. Lying is second nature to sociopaths. And they lie just for the fun of it. In ‘Without Conscience’, Dr. Hare says that “lying, deceiving and manipulation are natural talents for psychopaths. When caught in a lie or challenged by the truth, they are seldom perplexed or embarrassed – they simply change their stories or attempt to rework the facts so that they appear to be consistent with the lie. The results are a series of contradictory statements and a thoroughly confused listener”. Sociopaths will lie and cheat to deceive for money, power, control and sex. They seldom stick around to have their lies exposed; instead, they move on to a new neighborhood or city. The lying and deception, the manipulation and conning are pervasive.

Sociopaths are impulsive and don’t spend much time considering the consequences of their actions. According to Dr. Hare “the psychopath carries out his evaluation of a situation – what he will get out of it and at what costs – without the usual anxieties, doubts and concerns about being humiliated, causing pain, sabotaging future plans…” These are the things that people of conscience struggle with when considering possible actions. Sociopaths know the rules but choose which ones to follow. “They have little resistance to temptation and their transgressions elicit no guilt” (Dr. Hare p76). Often times, sociopaths are protected from the consequences of their behavior by family members, friends and colleagues.

Sociopaths are often glib when questioned about their behavior. They are famous for not answering the question asked them or they answer in a way to confuse the questioner. Their answers can often seem unresponsive to the question (Hare p139)

I learned from reading Dr. Stout’s book ‘The Socipath Next Door’, that those without conscience engage in certain techniques to ‘keep us in line’. The techniques that Dr Stout talks about in her book are charm, risk-taking, gaslighting and seduction. Socipaths can instantly recognize someone who is trusting and have the uncanny ability to determine a person’s weak spots very quickly. Those weak spots will be exploited over and over and over again. Susan Forward, PhD. has an entire chapter of her book, ‘When Your Lover Is A Liar’, dedicated to describing sociopaths. In the book, she states ‘don’t forget for a moment that all sociopaths have one vital thing in common: an extraordinary ability to win the loyalty and devotion of the woman they exploit.

Dr. Forward goes on to say in her book “he speaks words of love that sound fabulous, and he seems completely devoted to making you happy. He’s calm, not shifty, and confident – never anxious or guilty. If he makes a blunder, he sounds sincerely sorry, and his promises are just what you want to hear”. Dr. Forward believes that ‘seduction and deception are the twin hallmarks of the sociopath.

Sociopaths don’t see you as a person but as an object. We are a means to an end for a sociopath.

Stamp out carbs and hunger.

Rid your pantry of carbohydrates, while helping rid your community of hunger.

I have recently decided to rededicate myself to making my home lowcarb for the many health benefits, as well as the weight loss benefits. In my effort to cook more lowcarb meals, I have realized that as long as there are the high carb items in the pantry, I am going to have to battle my family in convincing them that chips are not a lowcarb option. I also will have to battle myself when the cravings hit, so I thought why not help others by donating the food, while instilling our families lifestyle change. This way we can reap two benefits with one action- Our pantry will be lowcarb and we will be providing food for those who may have not otherwise had food

While considering my options I found the Stamp out Hunger Food Drive, that is taking place nationwide on Saturday, May 10th, 2008. This food drive is done in conjunction with the US postal carriers, hence the reference to the “stamp”. It is easy to participate and it helps a good cause- hunger. You simply package up your nonperishable food items and your mailman will pick them up to deliver them to a local food bank. That simple.

You can get your friends and family involved too, by sending them an email of the event. Visit the Stamp out Hunger Food Drive website to find out more and to verify that your carrier is participating.

So clean out the carbs and mark your calendar for May 10th and help “Stamp out Hunger”!

-Below is the site generated email you can send others to inform them of the event.

Join me on Saturday, May 10th for Stamp Out Hunger™ — the nation’s largest annual single-day food drive! The more people who help, the more successful we’ll be, so forward this to your friends, too.To learn more, tell a friend or download materials to promote this cause, visit: HelpStampOutHunger.com

ABOUT STAMP OUT HUNGER On Saturday May 10th, letter carriers in more than 10,000 communities will collect food items and deliver them to local food banks to help some of the millions of Americans, including an estimated 13 million children, who face hunger every day. Since 1993, families have donated more than a half-billion pounds of food to Stamp Out Hunger. You can help make this year our most successful ever.

Simply place bags filled with nonperishable food items like canned meats and fish, canned soup, juice, pasta, vegetables, cereal and rice next to your mailbox on Saturday, May 10th. * Your letter carrier will pick up the bags and deliver them to your local food bank. * Please do not include out-of-date items or those in glass containers

pic source -http://www.helpstampouthunger.com

Cleaning Out The Kimkins Dust Bunnies

SPRING CLEANING

Ahhh…For me Spring has arrived when the dogwoods are in bloom and the baby birds are chirping outside, as things start to come alive again. Those things just make it really start to feel like Spring. Well, those things and and a thick covering of pollen on my car.

But along with those joyous signs of Spring, comes the spring cleaning, and that is exactly what Avenue girl has planned for the antiKK bloggers.

Now, you won’t need any Murphy’s oil, Windex, or even a mop, but you will need to take a moment and review the links found in your blogs. The blog dust bunnies come in the form of links going to Kimkins. com. Avenue girl explains how-

“What am I talking about?

Within many of your blogs – the majority being posts created last year – there are still links to Kimkins.com. They are “back links.” There might be only 1, 2, or 3 on your blog, but the accumulation of them from many blogs has added up and they are all pointing to Kimkins.

Why is this a bad thing?

Back links are a huge factor in the ranking and support of a website. Some links, like the ones from news organizations are not in our control. But the ones in our personal blogs are.

I am asking all bloggers to please take some time to do some spring cleaning and gardening today. Please remove direct links to Kimkins off your blog, and replace the link to something you feel really represents what Kimkins is.

I am not going to name any names here. I know you have all been extremely busy and working hard. I just hate to see us sabotaging ourselves.”……. For More check out Avenue Girl’s Blog

Just think- cleaning these dust bunnies won’t even cause you to strain your back!

Happy Cleaning!

What the Duck?

“With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility”
–Uncle Ben to Peter Parker in Spider-Man(2002)

This phrase is the Spider-Man credo, that was first used in the Marvel comics, but the one quoted above is from the Spider-Man 2 movie. The meaning conveyed in this quote has been said in various ways by many different individuals. For example:

• “To whom much is given, much is required.” — John F. Kennedy.

• “It is a sad reflection…that a sense of responsibility which comes with power is the rarest of things.” — Alexander Crummell

• “The Price of Greatness is Responsibility” — Winston Churchill

• “I believe in power; but I believe that responsibility should go with power..” — Theodore Rosevelt

Now, these were all great men of power, but you know, I think Spidey’s uncle said it best……….

With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility!

Wow, now that is really a great line! But this brings me to why, that phrase came to mind, while I was reading Kimkins Exhausted/Yucky’s or what is now known as Mimi’s blog.

Recently, a heated discussion has been on-going in the comments section of Mimi’s blog. It started between Mimi and another blogger Morgan. Now, I will not rehash that here, but I looked at Mimi’s first comments over the CASA thing, like when couples fight over the lid being left off the toothpaste- It ain’t about the toothpaste lid- However, it becomes the catalyst for the discussion that gets to the root of the cause and that was the case here too.

It was difficult to read at times, not only because of all the super, secret, groups and loops, but also because of the hurtful things being said about a person I consider a friend- Mimi. But this comment bothered me the most, because it came from a person, that I and many others admired, because of their pursuit in exposing the lies of Heidi Diaz….. This person known as Ducky.

He replied to Mimi’s comments with–

Mimi: “I. Just. Don’t. Care.”

Just Ducky: “Yet, despite your self-acknowledged inability to recall what really happened with any reliable clarity, you insist on continuing to beat dead horses, denigrate individuals whom were instrumental from the beginning and play the martyr, the victim, the innocent?

Ducky strongly suggests you step back and take leave to seek some professional help. Self-righteous, self-serving, victim-mentality tantrums have no place in bringing Kimmer (Heidi Diaz) to justice.”

I find it highly irresponsible, for someone who is well regarded in this fight against kimkins, to come out and make such a hurtful statement against a person, without properly, referencing the information, or stating the facts as they occurred. Not, only that, but then to cast doubt on one’s mental ability is about as low as it gets in my opinion.

Now, we all have given our opinions on individuals involved in this kimkins saga, but it has been based on findings or presented facts, while stating our opinions. In those previous situations, such as a blog post, the reader or anti-Kimkins activist have been able to review the facts presented and interpret them in their own way.

But in this case we are not given any information- because of the excuse of -how it was all done in the secret group, therefore the reader is left with only the weight of the words by the comments left.
I think Ducky should have considered the weight of his words, because those who respected him certainly did.

Here is Ducky, who set an example in presenting the facts for us all to review, in order to reach our own conclusions about someone- like Heidi and her staff- would then *not* at least do the same for Mimi? Now, that makes me wonder why.

It couldn’t be to save Mimi any embarrassment, has some have implied, because I would have found the comment left as embarrassing- myself, so who is trying to save face in this situation and where is Spider-man when you need him?

– Don’t fret Mimi… if you think you are being held responsible for Ducky leaving, at least you can also be held responsible for bringing him back too! I know you will find the irony and humor in that, because I know I do!

Also I don’t want circumvent comments about “pot meet kettle,” or any of that BS about how I have made character statements or doubted the mental capacity of other people; because that is just missing the whole point of my post. If that is your comment then you best reference where I did that without offering the facts at hand, without screen shots, or without links and quotes as to what had formed my opinion, because the lack of any of those is what I am finding fault with here….not someone having an opinion!

Fawn Without Kimkins or The Smilies.

Definition- Fawn v.- try to gain favor by cringing or flattering;

Synonyms: fawn¹, apple-polish, bootlick, kowtow, slaver¹, toady, truckle-These verbs mean to curry favor by behaving obsequiously and submissively:

I had always found Fawn’s posts at kimkins to be over the top. They were long posts, with various colors, fonts and more glitter and smilies than one of those terrible obligatory, souvenir t-shirts , but I thought if that is her style- then so be it. But then, when the random outbursts of cussing and head spinning rants started, it made be wonder what happened to all the rainbows and butterflies! So I really shouldn’t have been surprised when I found her profile in an alternative lifestyle website….could this be agentlefawn? Yes! There she was without a smilie in sight!

Now, when I began to search for a connection between Heidi Diaz and other potential internet businesses she may be involved in, I automatically thought of pornography and drugs. I mean where else do most criminals decide to invest their money to watch it grow? I was guessing that most cons don’t put their illegal gains into a savings account or an IRA.

The first odd link that came up was with the words “Jeannie Baitinger florida”. I posted about on LCF on Nov 29, 2007 and it was clear from the placement of the terms, that this was random, and didn’t have anything to do with the website.

It would seemed that someone had added Jeannie’s name throughout some websites that promoted porn and some that sold pharmaceutical drugs on the internet. The timing of the word placement, being right before Jeannie was to appear on national TV, narrowed down the possibilities of who would know there would be an increase search of her name in the near future. To me all evidence made Kimmer/Heidi Diaz suspect of being the one behind the act. This seemed to confirm my suspicions of Heidi’s other business interests.

After being told that a general search of “agentlefawn” turned up a board that discussed the lifestyle of Domination and submission (BDSM) -I thought this could be the link to Heidi Diaz and the pornography industry. Fawn had always been such a Devout follower of Kimmer, that I didn’t find it too off course to believe that Kimmer was in the domination role and Fawn in the submissive role in that relationship.

I began to search Fawn’s information because I felt at this point Heidi Diaz knew better than to be out there on the internet using the screen name “Kimmer” or any other variation, and the only way to track her down was through other means. In this case I was looking at Fawn as being the way to find any businesses that Heidi could own in the BDSM or porn world. Then about a month ago I found Fawn’s profile as Ebony2006.

I had this information but hadn’t posted it or blogged about it. But then when I read the ambiguous post on Fawn’s blog regarding a “Criminal Investigation” and then her reply to Medusa’s comments, it seemed that something was amiss. Here is an excerpt of their exchange, but you can view the now deleted blog post of Fawn’s at Medusa’s as well as the comments between them in full.

Medusa- “what is happening?”
Fawn- “Let’s just say someone used something of mines without permission.”

Fawn’s Summary – “Summary: A situation came up that something that belongs to me was used elsewhere on the net without my knowledge or consent and it was investigated in a matter of hours, shut down and handled with legal proceedings swiftly cause if it was left up to me, I would have been done something because I have a short temper but my people had to calm me down and sh-t “

Ok, so this got me to thinking – Talk about timing! How is it that Fawn has suddenly now be informed that her image is out there in the internet world?… OR…. Did she realize she had been seen on various websites?…Since I point blank asked her recently on her blog -if she had met Heidi Diaz on an alternative adult website.

Then she has this post about criminal investigation and how someone used something that was hers (pictures) and how she got them removed quickly. I agree- The pictures were removed quickly, but I have to consider the timing here. If Fawn didn’t put those images up then she certainly found them fast, because there are a lot of alternative adult BDSM sites out there to have to peruse.

And if Fawn wasn’t the one that put them up then how odd that her profile there showed the user online as of 10am today EST!

Click on the thumbnail below to see the profile as it appeared prior to editing –

I will leave you with a quote from Fawn- “Ebony people do NOT play around..well most don’t and I am one of the Most”

Ummmmmm………..I beg to differ there Fawn it looks like Ebony2006 likes to play A LOT.

Kimkins Lawsuit Review-

Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime–

Proud’hon Pierre Paul (1808, Paris, Musйe du Louvre)

The Attorney Handling the Case

From the kimkins lawsuit blog –The attorney who is investigating this case is John E. Tiedt, a great consumer fraud attorney based in Riverside, CA, who can be reached via the following:

www.tiedtlaw.com

jtiedt@tiedtlaw.com

951-343-3320

Former Kimkins Members in San Diego County

A fellow blogger, Wildangel at Say No to Kimkins, had the following message:

If you are a former Kimkins member and you reside in San Diego County,

John Tiedt would like to hear from you.

Please email John.

Thank you very much for your help.

~*~*~*~

I do hope that all former Kimkins members will consider joining the Kimkins Class Action Lawsuit. There is strength in numbers. If you have already joined the Lawsuit, please be sure that you get your affidavit to John as soon as possible.

Remember, if you need any help with this, be sure to watch the helpful video.

Thank you!

Where are we now in the lawsuit?

from Jeanessa at the Kimkins lawsuit blog

Lawsuit Update

February 22, 2008 by kimkinslawsuit

• 1) John Tiedt has now officially taken 2 depositions of Heidi Diaz.

• 2) John Tiedt has now officially taken 1 deposition of Brandon Diaz

• 3) We have learned that while Heidi Diaz was profiting from Kimkins through the Women’s World surge et al, she was also still accepting payments and income from SSDI and Medicare.

• 4) Heidi Diaz is still currently making money and still in business, however we have acquired new information that affirms the belief towards her concealment of assets.

• 5) We have uncovered evidence of more fraud and false advertising.

• 6) Brian Pugh is not an attorney, but he is an employee of Bert Cottle, and Brian formed Sharp Plumbing LLC, Halcyon Web LLC and the Beauchamp Trust for Heidi Diaz. John Tiedt plans to complete a deposition of Brian Pugh in the near future.

• 7) Bert Cottle has filed a demurrer that we are confident will fail. In addition, Bert Cottle has put in a motion to set aside the writ of attachment that is in place on Heidi Diaz’s assets. It is entirely up to the judge and she will hand down her decision after she has reviewed all of the court documents on 3/21/2008.

To Keep An Eye On The Case

All the current court documents can be viewed at the Riverside Court docs

Case watch

Edit- Jeanessa did an update on the lawsuit blog-

To Heidi, the Principals, my Fellow Duckies and all who are interested…

First of all, I’m angry.  So, this probably won’t carry the polite tone I try to keep in my normal, everyday interactions with everybody.  Forgive me now and let’s keep it moving.

I can’t thank the principals and others enough for being brave enough to put their names and faces on the fight against Kimkins and I can’t thank the Duck Squad (of which I am proud, card-carrying member!) enough for working hard and never letting up on revealing the lies and providing the information that has been needed to get this case off the ground. That being said, it has come to my attention that at least one of the principal representatives in the consumer fraud class action lawsuit against Kimkins.com and Heidi Diaz has been potentially scrutinized by Heidi and, possibly, her defense team.

I was well aware of the potential for this type of thing and did try to warn anyone who was interested in standing up against Heidi that this might be the case as the court proceedings progressed.  So, rest assured, none of us has gone into this with our eyes closed.

 Still, I have a few things to say…..MORE

HoneyBee’s Blog

I Am Not Ready To Make Nice with Kimkins

Kimmer Needs To Go On A Fat Rant.

Kimmer should give-up the photoshopping software and learn some self acceptance. But instead she is using pictures, that appear to be manipulated in order to demonstrate that she is losing weight. She posts images such as those shown below on her Kimkins.com homepage in an effort to prove how her diet works.

Here is an example of her most recent picture from 2-24-08

Here is another view:

I say it is time for Kimmer to go on a Fat Rant! Not the normal Kimmer fat rant, where she criticizes those who use salad dressing instead of spray or spritzer type dressings, but a fat rant-that says- Hey I am fat, so what?

Someone on youtube has done just that in a very light-hearted way and I think Kimmer could use a few pointers , so here it is…………

Some self- acceptance Kimmer, would do you a world of good.

ConsumerAffairs Reports On The Kimkins Diet and Kimmer

Heidi Diaz has been attempting to get her pseudo-name Kimmer, and the name of her diet Kimkins, in the main stream public, since the conception of her website. One of her main tactics has been to use viral web marketing to spread her internet propaganda, so how ironic that it is the journey to her ruin that is now making Kimmer and Kimkins a hot topic.

The story has been covered in the media by several local news agencies, then the Fox Morning show with Mike & Juliet, and more recently the Good Morning America segment. Now, MSN has picked up the story, in thanks to writer David Wood from ConsumerAffairs.com, whose compelling review of the Kimkins saga, was quoted in MSN Smart Spending yesterday.

Yes, the hands of irony seem to be shaping this story. But as Kimmer continues to dole out her diet advice and carry-on her charade, it would seem that dramatic irony is a more accurate description-in where the irony of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play. So it appears Kimmer plans to stay in character until the final curtain call, which in a likelihood will take place in a court of law, because like they say- it ain’t over until the fat lady sings.

The following was a posted at ConsumerAffairs.com

Kimkins Diet Rolls On Despite Founder’s Excess Poundage

No starvation diet for “the Kimmer”

By David Wood
ConsumerAffairs.Com

February 25, 2008

Kimkins Diet The Kimkins story … The real story … • Kimkins Diet Rolls On Despite Founder’s Excess Poundage • Consumer Complaints about Kimkins • More Weight Loss News … — Photo by AllianceAgent.com

Waiting in line at your favorite grocery store is a guaranteed way to see the covers of magazines targeted toward women. It’s a real challenge to find just one week of a year where the cover of at least one check-out tabloid doesn’t have blaring headlines about weight loss or the most recent diet sensation.

“Better than gastric bypass!” “Kim lost 200 lbs in 11 months!” “Christin lost 100 lbs in 5 months!”

Those very comments appeared on the cover of the June 12, 2007 issue of Woman’s World Magazine. The story was a fascinating look at a weight loss diet known as Kimkins, created by Kim Drake, also known as the “Kimmer.”

The Woman’s World story begins by saying they sent out their spies to gather intelligence about Kimkins. The Kimkins website included numerous before-and-after pictures of not only the “Kimmer, but also happy members that had shed massive amounts of weight.

Woman’s World describes Kim as “smiling” when responding to questions. This implies that the Woman’s World interviewer was personally watching the response of Kim Drake. So, you would think that Woman’s World would have noticed that “Kim” was in fact a 300-pound woman.

Kimkins before & after, according to Woman’s World

The Kimkins website saw a huge increase in memberships due to the flattering Woman’s World cover story. Records introduced in connection with a class action lawsuit against Kimkins show that for the month of June, 2007, Kimkins pulled in over $1,200,000 in membership fees.

Mouthpiece needed

So great was the response that Kimkins needed to hire a public relations spokesperson — and there was no one better suited for the job than Christin Sherburne.

Christin’s picture had been featured on the Woman’s World cover, holding a pair of old jeans next to the headline: “Christin lost 100 lbs in 5 months!”

“I was excited about it,” said Christin. “I’ve been overweight all my life, and even though I had never met Kim Drake in person, I wanted to tell others how they could finally lose the weight as I did.”

Soon the Kimkins machine was in full throttle. Members were reporting faster weight loss than they had ever experienced on other diets, and Christin was in P.R. mode in her new role as spokeswoman for Kimkins. But little did Christin know what would happen next.

Job & hair loss

The job of a spokesperson is to represent your company and answer any questions that might be thrown your way, including those from the media. One day, Christin found herself facing questions that she couldn’t honestly answer … questions concerning medical claims and health issues related to the Kimkins diet.

“As a spokeswoman, people would ask me questions that I couldn’t answer, especially related to the medical safety of the diet,” said Christin.

Christin did the logical thing. She contacted Kim Drake, the founder of Kimkins. Christin sent a letter to the “Kimmer” in which Christin asked about medical claims of the diet.

Is the diet safe? Are medical authorities backing the diet? All reasonable questions that any spokesperson needs to be able to answer.

To Christin’s dismay, instead of getting answers to her questions, she received a pink slip. Kim Drake had removed Christin from her public relations job and offered her a much reduced role moderating the Kimkins forums.

While Christin might have been upset about losing her job, what was really upsetting was the fact she was losing her hair…….[………..]… MORE

Photo by AllianceAgent.c

Russian brides

“She (Heidi) went on this false advertising campaign. I think I lost count at 35 false testimonials and false weight loss stories,” said John E. Tiedt, an attorney and a member of the California Health Fraud Task Force.

“We now know that many of these pictures came from Russian bride websites. Even the so-called Kimkins website administrator was a fake, all created by Heidi,” Tiedt said.

“She had already made close to $2 million, but when she heard litigation was heading her way, she began an elaborate plan that would make it appear her business would be bankrupt by the time litigation occurred. In reality, she had over a million setting in a bank account,” Tiedt said.

ConsumerAffairs.com contacted Heidi Diaz but she said she could not comment due to pending litigation. A few hours later, she e-mailed us a complimentary member pass to the Kimkins website………To Read MORE
or the story in its entirety go to ConsumerAffairs.com *************************************************************************

Getting At The Heart Of The Matter- Kimkins Cardio Risks.

There have been some changes going on over at kimkin’s homepage, these began right before the court matters earlier in the week. Heidi Diaz, the Kimmer, is no longer on the frontpage doing her diet challenge for everyone to view. I believe one reason she decided to remove her pictures was the fact that they appeared to have been manipulated with photoshop, and why would this be done? Well, one explanation could be that it was necessary in order to shave off the pounds that Kimmer is claiming to have lost….yet again! The other reason she may have stepped down is the fact that she had a perfect member to take her place and that is the purpose of my post today, new showcased member- Laurala

This new showcased member is one who actually lost weight and looks great. My first reaction when seeing the member Laurala on the frontpage was what a beautiful person, who must be so proud of their weight loss. The member was a new name to me, so I had to research who was this person who magically appeared on the homepage. I mean after the Russian Brides, let’s just say believing a success story doesn’t come easily to me.

But what I found was much worse than a Russian bride filling in as a fake member. I found a real member, whose posts made me very concerned for her well-being.

Laurala’s post are full of enthusiasm for life and support of the other KK members. Her words gave me the impression that she is truly a kind person and one that has faced many recent challenges in her life. As I read more I truly became concerned for the member, so I posted the following at LCF to see if others had some feedback or maybe someone who knew her could reach the member and verify the situation.

My Post-

….What came as a huge, I mean huge shock to me, was the posts I read about the new member on the front page. The member looks wonder and I think she truly has lost the weight. She appears to be a real success in losing the weight. However, I was distressed when I read that the member had started KK on 1-25-07 and 6 months later became ill in August of that year.

She was having breathing difficulties and thought she had asthma, but then ended up in the hospital.
The diagnosis- CHF -CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE!

She posted about this diagnosis on 8-23-07 or so and then was gone from kimkins. She returned in 12-27-07 and started back posting about doing kimkins. Her plan was to do bootcamp for a week, K/E for a week and then get right back into Kimkins. She is doing KK with exercising/weight lifting and to say the least I am deeply concerned that she is doing more harm to her already struggling heart.” Why the fascination with Kimmer? #14 – Page 36 – Low Carb Friends

So now you can understand why I was deeply concerned for the KK member. The negative health side-effects, that can result from doing a very low calorie diet (vLCD), have been discussed on the blogs and forums, but the fact that the patient was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure after being on Kimkins for 6 months alarmed me. But then to read she came back…well, my by jaw hit the floor! WTH?

A person with a perfect heart and no history of CHF, is risking their heart health by doing a vLCD like Kimkins, but then factor in the difficulties when dealing with CHF and a precarious situation begins to emerge.

A diet that is classified as a very low calorie diet (<800 calories a day) can damage the heart or cause cardiac problems due to some of the following reasons:

• A breakdown of the heart muscle occurs, if the calories of a diet are too low or the protein is not adequate to cover the energy expenditure of the body.
• Electrolyte problems can emerge in those who drastically reduce calories and then have “refeed days” or increase their calorie intake quickly.
• The QT wave of the heart can also become altered based on electrolyte imbalance and that will result in arrhythmias

Those risks do not even take into account the difficult time CHF patients have regulating their electrolytes in general. Doing Kimkins- as a congestive heart failure patient- is like throwing gasoline on a fire. Things can get out of hand, FAST!

An article in the CMAJ describes the risks to the heart while on a vLCD-

The heart is not spared in malnutrition. The decrease in cardiac output in the starved patient is matched by various compensatory mechanisms such that cardiac failure is unusual. With refeeding, reversal of these mechanisms occurs and congestive heart failure may be precipitated before the reversal of myocardial atrophy, even in the absence of other cardiac disease.
The malnourished patient is at increased risk during major surgery, and preoperative nutritional therapy may be indicated. Chronic cardiac failure often results in a malnourished state and, hence, relative myocardial atrophy. Cardiac cachexia and associated cardiac dysfunction may be improved with better nutrition.

Rapid weight loss and malnutrition may also be associated with a syndrome of myocardialatrophy, a prolonged QT interval, ventricular arrhythmias and sudden death. Both protein-calorie malnutrition and refeeding have significant implications for the heart.

As I said earlier during refeedings, following a vLCD or following starvation, there is a risk that the process can precipitate cardiac failure and congestive heart failure . This occurrence and mechanism is discussed in the article Malnutrition and the heart- CMAJ-JAMC

Although congestive cardiac failure is rare in malnutrition, it is common during refeeding of the starved patient. “Refeeding edema” and cardiac failure are well known with oral refeeding of severely malnourished patients……[….]……

Starvation is associated with a fall in heart rate, blood pressure and blood volume; however, refeeding is associated with a sudden reversal of these compensatory factors. Further, since severe malnutrition may result in interstitial myocardial edema, cardiac compliance may decrease. The malnourished patient may not cope well with increased salt, water and energy loads. Carbohydrate and fat are potent stimuli for the release of catecholamines and activation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis.
This further increases blood volume and pressure. Energy intake reverses the natriuresis of the fasting state. Furthermore, catecholamines augment the shift ofpotassium, magnesium and phosphate into cells, with potentially deleterious effects on cardiac function and rhythm.

Below are 17 cases of death in a group of individuals who died suddenly, due to cardiac changes, following a vLCD.

While reviewing the study, it is important to keep in mind the points surrounding the individuals that did die: The median age was 35 years old, they had been on the diet from 2 to 8 months, had lost a substantial amount of weight (86lbs), that was stated to be at a rapid rate which computed to 4.6 pounds a week. The level of physician monitoring range from very thorough to infrequent and 11 of the17 were not taking any other medications- besides vitamins/supplements for the diet.
It appears that the rate of weight loss in those patients who died suddenly is comparable to the fast weight loss noted by kimkins members and so was the low calorie level in these cases approximately 300 to 400 calories a day. The patients in the study also took a prenatal vitamin daily, potassium in different dosages, and some also took calcium supplements.

The take away point is that, these people who died, were in better nutritional and monitoring situations, than the average kimkins dieter.

 

The following are 17 cases of death in a group of individuals who died suddenly, due to cardiac changes, following a vLCD .-Sudden death associated with very low calorie weight reduction regimens

ABSTRACT We studied the cases of 17 individuals who died suddenly of ventricular arrhythmia after prolonged use (median 5 months) of very low calorie weight reduction regimens consisting entirely or largely of protein. The deaths appeared to be independent of type of medical supervision received during the diet, daily dosage of potassium supplementation, and biological quality of the protein product used. Factors common to all cases were marked obesity at the onset of dieting,prolonged use of extremely low calorie diets (approximately 300 to 400 kcal daily), and significant and rapid weight loss. Our review of available electrocardiograms and pathological specimens revealed a pattern of cardiac changes previously described in starvation. We conclude that use of very low calorie weight reduction regimens should be curtailed until further studies determine what modifications, if any, can insure their safety. Am. J. Cliii. Nutr. 34: 453-461, 1981.

Now, to relate that to a person following a very low calorie diet, like Kimkins, we should consider one example of how damage to the heart could occur. One way could be following “refeedings” scenarios.

We can use a hypothetical situation, let’s say a KK member-“Cardia” has been doing the kimkins bootcamp plan for 2 weeks (which is less than 800 calories), then go into doing K/E with a decreased appetite, due to ketosis. They do K/E for 4 weeks, but weight loss stalls so back to bootcamp to kick the weight loss up a notch. At this point the member has been consuming less than 800 calories/day for 6 weeks. “Cardia” makes it through bootcamp for 2 more weeks, but finds her resolve is waning or as Kimmer would say, “they are not tough enough” to stick with the program. The weekend approaches and the member decides a cheat will not hurt, so she has the pasta with the family and dessert. The cheat ends up being an off kimkins weekend, but the stress of trying to move into a new house, made following the diet impossible. Then while picking up boxes and walking up a set of stairs “Cardia” notices she can hardly catch their breath. She decides to rest, since she must be overdoing it too much and on the verge of a cold or something. I mean who would have thought it was your body telling you that you are destroying your heart. The odd fluttering in her chest stops and it only happens once in awhile anyway.

A few days pass and Cardia continues to have some labored breathing, so she decides to go visit the family physician. Here she fails to mention that she is doing the Kimkins diet, because the physician never asks about her nutrition. Although, the check-in nurse mentions the weight loss when weighing her and comments by saying “good job, how are you doing it”? Cardia only says, “With Kimkins, a low carb diet”, but nothing else is said about the diet. The patient is told they may be reacting to an allergen from their new home, because she has had a runny nose and has had a history of seasonal allergies. She is told to increase her fluids, her antihistamine is changed and a nasal spray is added to her medications. After a couple of days of rest, the kk member is still feeling weak, but decides it is the allergies still bringing her down. She is determined to push through this and not let a little setback throw her off track. She will not give into her body just wanting her to go back to her bad habits, and that is probably why she even got sick, she thinks to herself, now remembering her weakness and giving in to the temptation of food that weekend. She becomes upset and reminds herself, that she just has to succeed this time. They are having that big house warming party in a month and she is going to fit into that little black dress!

She is determined to stick it out! She has changed her WOE and doesn’t want to go back to her old eating habits. Kimkins is helping her lose weight and she decides she is in control now. She will not stop kimkins if she has anything to do with it…..but the problem is she is right or at least partly right. She also gets to wear that black dress, it isn’t to the house warming party as she had planned, but everyone commented on how wonderful she looked as they bid their final farewell.

The above was a hypothetical situation but it doesn’t change the risks involved with the kimkins diet. Laurla, I hope you will take the time to read the concerns that others have for you and research the cardio risks involved with a vLCD. I do understand that you are under doctor’s care, but if you are truly following Kimkins, then I must urge you to take in an exact menu of what you eat, so an evaluation on your actual diet can be made. I do wish you the best in your journey.

-kimkins graphic courtesy of squeakie from LCF
Kimkins Diet
HoneyBee’s Blog
I Am Not Ready To Make Nice with Kimkins

Is Bobaraba the Next Potential Scam Of Heidi Diaz?

While on the LCF board tonight, member SMP mentioned a new dance craze called Bobaraba, which means “Big Bottom”. Now, you can’t mention a thing like a big bottom dance and not provide a dancing baby, a youtube video, or at least a link.

After twisting her arm, ok asking nicely, for details she pointed me in the direction of a BBC News link- “Ivory Coast’s Big Bottom Craze”

While the dance has been embraced by both sexes, DJ Mix says it was inspired by women.

“We made it as a tribute to women, because African women are defined by the shape of their bottoms,” he says.

“Move your bottom, jump, you see, it’s alive.”

Kady Meite, one of his dancers, says the song is a message for women.

“There are women today with large bottoms who are embarrassed, so it’s to say don’t be ashamed – be comfortable,” she says.

It appears that the Bobaraba would be right down Heidi Diaz’s alley for two reasons. Obviously, the meaning big bottom would fit her true physical appearance. Then couple that with the fact that this new craze is resulting in a black market of injections, sold as medications that can increase you bottom’s size, and voila you have a potential scam, with Heidi Diaz, the Kimmer, stamped all over it!

The women vendors at a local market are now selling syringes filled with liquid and labeled “Bottom Enhancers”. The BBC article goes on to say…

“You need to inject this liquid into your bottom once a day,” says a market trader, showing a vial of coloured liquid labelled “Vitamin B12”.

Each vial costs $2. The label claims it is made in China.

If you do not like the sound of injections, the same amount of money will also get you a small tub of cream.

There is no description of what the product contains or how to apply it; just the words “Big bottoms and big breasts”, and two illustrating pictures.

This new scam is no doubt a tempting venture for Kimmer, because it would be a way to scam women, yet again out of their money, and this time she could use her own pictures. No messy loose ends, like the Russian brides and no photoshopping, like she has had to do recently. In Heidi Diaz’s world it would be a win-win proposition!

Heidi is schedule to be in court tomorrow, to try to tie up those messy loose ends, so I have taken the liberty to show her how easily she could market the Bobaraba concept now!

Check out the marketing images for Heidi’s Bee Bopping Bobaraba

And you can’t mentioned big bottoms without adding some Sir-mix-a-lot, so thanks Nady for mentioning the perfect hook for the marketing concept.