Kimkins Diet Review

Our Rating (out of 5)   

Kimkins was created by a woman named Heidi Diaz, known on internet forums as "Kimmer". She supposedly once weighed 318 pounds and tried every diet in there was before she created the Kimkins Diet. The program that she designed is based off of the Atkins and Stillman's Diet.

The Kimkins Diet combines low carb and low fat diets. Other low carb diets allow you to subtract fiber from the carb count of a food, creating an "effective carb count". Kimkins' plan does not allow this, making it extremely low carb. When the body does not have carbohydrates or dietary fat to use, it will quickly turn to the body's stored fat for energy.

This is one of the only low carb diets that claims upfront to be vegetarian friendly and offer significant support for vegetarians. Other low carb diets say that it's possible for vegetarians to do them, but it's hard to find the support.

It should be noted, however, that Kimmer is not a medical professional. She is just a person who has lost a lot of weight. Some people have criticized her for promoting additional unhealthy behaviors such as "fasting" (not eating) and not drinking water.

There has been a lot of controversy over this diet. The food is so highly restricted that it's difficult to eat enough calories in a day. People within the Kimkins community often reported that they were encouraged to not eat food, or eat as little as 300 calories in a day.

Because of these bad dieting practices, many Kimkins users (or "survivors" as they like to be called) have experienced a host of medical problems, including extremely low heart rates (under 40 beats per minute, a condition often associated with anorexia) and hair loss.

Furthermore, the pictures and success stories that were featured on the original website were faked. Kimmer herself never lost must weight, as undercover photos proved. These were removed after the diet received negative coverage from news media outlets.

Reportedly, Kimkins is under new management, but the new owner wishes to remain anonymous. Changes have been made to the diet to make it more healthy, but there still remains a hint of former bad habits.

If you are interested in a low carb low fat diet, you would do well to look into other programs such as the South Beach Diet or the Protein Power plan.