BANSHEE WAILS...at KimKins

The Blog Banshee is Wailing a Warning.

It's all over the web. But I'd like to add my own little caveat. Allow me to let the Banshee have her way. She's howling this:

DO NOT GO ANYWHERE NEAR ANY KIMKINS SITE OR FORUM OR PLAN OR PRODUCT.

I recognized the name when I read the 3 Fat Chicks article yesterday. I'd seen a link to it many months ago, round when I started this blog in May. I clicked on the link. I scoped it out. I quickly decided to leave. It was just too extreme a plan for me. It sounded a bit nuts, frankly.

Let me say, with all honesty, that I understand the lure of such hardcore dieting.I can understand, totally, why some folks, feeling desperate, paid money to join this ridiculous diet that, basically, starves you with insufficient nutrition. Desperation makes sense go right out the window. I've felt desperation.

Please. Don't support KimKins. Every report out there rings the "shady" bell. Don't sign up for KimKins. Don't link to the site. If you have links or ads, please take them down.

If you wanna know why, start with "KimKins: Anatomy of a Diet Scam"

There are plenty of links there. A simple google with "Kimkins" and "scam" or "fraud" or similar words will get you other links, many from former KimKins members and some administrators, such as:

Becky and her insider story at KimKins
KimKins Exposed
Kimorexia
KimKins Sucks
KimKins Survivors
Slamboard on the KimKins Diet

Here's a quote from a former KimKins member, who discontinued her KimKins blog and started a new one called "Healthy Low-Carb Living" (emphasis mine):

A few days ago I was reading some comments from others who were once on Kimkins. They were experiencing the same thoughts I was. They had the same feelings I did. Some were afraid to eat anything! Those similar experiences caused something to click in my mind. I realized I could have easily developed an eating disorder. I was on the verge. I was so obsessed with losing weight quickly, that only having 3 protein shakes a day, which totaled 330 calories, actually seemed acceptable. I would have laughed in the past had you EVER told me I'd feel that way.

Yes, eating disorders of the anorexic sort can begin just like this: super-deprivation becoming the norm in the dieter's mind. Rapid weight loss becoming "God"--the end-all and be-all.

Do not support alleged scammers. Do not support diet extremists. Rather:

~Be careful at all times not to be seduced by crazy plans.
~Be sensible. Be alert.
~Eschew the desperation that blinds.
~Think of health and lifestyle, not just "I want it gone now."
~Read and be informed.
~Never listen to anyone who recommends laxatives for weight loss. Ever. (Remember Karen Carpenter?)
~Be doubly-careful as you choose to whom your money will go and which organizations you will join. There are sharks out in the waters, smelling the blood of angst-ridden, heart-shattered, will-try-anything dieters.

It's seductive, claims of such radical weight loss. We all want to LOSE THE POUNDS FAST AND NOW AND RIGHT NOW! But think about it. Eating 300 or 500 or any other extreme diet is almost always detrimental. (Never do it without close medical supervision and with a darn good diagnostic justification. Make sure you get proper supplementation. Unless you're gonna drop dead from co-morbidities without that kind of starvation diet, just don't do it.)

You didn't put on 50 pounds in one month. Or 100 in two. Why expect you're gonna lose it safely in one month...or two?

Be kind to your body and soul today. And be patient.

And nix KimKins.

~~