A very good synopsis of the Kimkins fraud timeline

Confused by the long convoluted history that is the Kimkins diet scam story?


This site has an excellent synopsis of the time line.

Have a look and beware of Kimkins.

From Laura Dolson,
Your Guide to Low Carb Diets.
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2002 to December 2007

2002 - Heidi Diaz, under the screen name "Kimmer", develops her version of a low-carb diet on the Low Carb Friends diet discussion boards. She reports dramatic weight loss. Some people try her diet and discuss it on the boards. This goes on for several years, with a fair amount of controversy.

2006 - Amid much negativity, in June 2006 Heidi left Low Carb Friends and with a partner who later left, founded Kimkins a fee-based Web site.

January 2007 - An issue of People magazine features people who have lost a lot of weight. One of them credits Kimkins along with another diet. This is the beginning of attention to Kimkins from outside the low-carb community.

June 2007 - Woman's World magazine features Kimkins on the cover.

At this point, the Kimkins Web site explodes with new members, taking in over a million dollars in the month of June alone.

July 2007 - Controversy in the low carb community outside of Low Carb Friends builds quickly. Heidi does a public interview on Jimmy Moore's Livin' La Vida Low Carb Podcast, which brings her further exposure. Inside Low Carb Friends, a dedicated group of members has been working hard for some time to expose Kimkins as a scam and a fraud.

August 2007 - Anti-Kimkins material (mainly blogs) on the net are now spreading like wildfire. People are beginning to report serious side-effects of the diet, and controversy has ramped to a fever-pitch. Kimkins hires a PR director to help deal with the problems. Behind the scenes, we later learn that key administrators are seriously questioning the diet. This leads to them quitting or being fired in early September.

September 2007 - Kimkins administrators leave, including PR director Christin Sherburne, who later reports many symptoms including chest pains and low heart rate. A private investigator was hired to determine the true identity of Kimkins "Kimmer and photos are posted. A lawsuit is organized.

October 2007 - The story is broken on KTLA-TV (more details here, including links to video). Photos are exposed as fraudulent.

Also, as I had a guest membership on Kimkins I responded when Kimmer posted something false about my review. In that message, I warned members to be careful about their health (copy of that message here). I was banned 10 minutes later.

November 2007 - Heidi Diaz is called for a public deposition where she finally tells the truth about her identity, finances, and her fraudulent claims. Kimkins is discussed on a national morning TV show. Another PR director, who appeared on that show, left Kimkins. (More Details on All of This)

To this point, the diet is unchanged. There is no minimum recommendation of vegetables, carbs, or even food on most of the Kimkins plans. If followed to the letter, the option labeled "most popular" would contain less than 600 calories and could be much less. Most worrisome of all is that people would not necessarily know if their bodies were being damaged until it was too late.