Kimkins Experience Part II

Altho I still have misgivings I joined Kimkins on 7/30. But I really didn't do Kimkins or if I did I did Kimkins my way . . . . I was doing what I thought was Kimkins but it was more Atkins but counting calories.

In the past, the most I had ever lost was 34 lbs 3 years ago when I did Atkins and it came off over 5 months. I regained all but 3 lbs over the last 3 years.

The weight started "melting" off with Kimkins/Atkins. I started a couple of small group challenges. I set up a Fitday account to track my calories, fat, carbs, and protein. I changed to The Daily Plate because it was more user friendly (for me at least.) I started reading posts where laxatives were recommended and lower calories were suggested as a way to get past a stall or to continue losing more weight. I read posts about hair loss, constipation, and cheat free days. I set up a cheat free ticker from the beginning to track my cheat free days. I did not cheat once during my short stay at Kimkins. Until I found out the cheating meant eating anything that was not on the Kimkins WOE . . . . it wasn't to track the days you were cheat free from processed carbs, sugar, etc.

I quickly lost my appetite and thought to myself, "This has never happened before that I go for hours and don't think about eating." But as time went by I really started feeling tired alot, no energy, not hungry, couldn't sleep, etc.

And then I found out that Becky had left, then Christin and Deni. The 3 most recognized people on the site . . . . . almost more so than Kimmer. They definitely posted more and supported more than Kimmer. Then I found a link to their blogs and started reading. And questioning and reading more. I am not the kind of person who can bury their head in the sand and go on as if nothing has happened. Nor am I a person who rushes to judgement. But the more I read the more I started feeling betrayed by Kimkins and Kimmer. What I thought was a real person who had lost a lot of weight and maintained that weight loss for several years was all smoke and mirrors.

For more on this:

Deni’s blog: http://www.openbench.blogspot.com/
Christin's blog: http://the-journey-on.blogspot.com/
Becky's blog: http://winningweight.blogspot.com/

One of her most ardent supporters, Jimmy Moore, of http://www.lowcarbdiscussion.com/ and http://livinlavidalocarb.blogspot.com/ broke ties with Kimmer/Kimkins.

Low Carb Friends has hundreds of posts attacking Kimkins and Kimmer. So many that I had to quit going there because it was so negative, not only against Kimmer and Kimkins but against everyone who was still on the Kimkins site; even tho many of them were former Kimkinites. Other websites came to light such as:

http://kimkinssurvivors.wordpress.com/ and
http://kimkinsexposed.wordpress.com/

It became clear from the few posts that Kimkins did post that there was something not quite right. She made some odd statements, she wouldn't refute any of the rumors, claims, etc. A legitimate business person, an honest person would have stepped forward to put her members at ease. She continued to refuse and continued to ban members. It quickly because apparent that her sole interest in Kimkins was financial. The WW cover and article probably brought her over $2 million (minimum) in revenue with very little expenses to diminish the amount.

I felt saddened and betrayed . . . . but I am a big girl, I made the decision to do Kimkins by overriding the many doubts that I had. Freedom of choice . . . . one of the great things about being American. As is Freedom of Speech . . . . . . (anywhere except Kimkins.com that is.)

I came to the conclusion that Kimkins did work . . . . . but a what expense? If the person who founded Kimkins couldn't keep from regaining the weight she had lost . . . . . and there didn't seem to be a maintenance plan in place . . . . then how could I or anyone else maintain the loss. It became apparent pretty quickly that maintenance wasn't a real priority to Kimkins. Selling new lifetime memberships was . . . . . . as long as you didn't have an opinion of your own that you freely expressed on the Kimkins forums. Selling new "Lifetime" memberships was more profitable . . . . after all current members had already paid for lifetime memberships . . . . in order to keep reaping the cash rewards from Kimkins she had to continually recruit new people.

My experience was much less than so many others. I was only there for 5 weeks. I felt betrayed on one hand and extremely lucky on the other. I couldn't even begin to imagine what Becky, Deni, and Christin felt as well as many others who had been with Kimkins a long time.