Sound stranger than fiction?

It's not. It's strange, but only because it's true. Who else could fabricate the story of a California divorced mother of two who sold people a dream based on a very low calorie diet and a seductive woman in a red dress?

Kimmer, whose real name is Heidi Diaz, took the Diet World by storm when Woman's World magazine published her story. Diaz claimed to have lost 198 pounds in 11 months and has kept it off.

Or so the claims went.

Kimkins.com grew to tens of thousands of members, each shelling out $60 to find out the secret which make Kimmer thin, only to find the dream they were paying for turned out to be a nightmare.

One Kimkins.com member, named Susan, states: "I sent my diet log personally to Kimmer/Heidi and was instructed to reduce my calories (running around 700 at the time) and my protein "If I wanted faster
losses." When I was a member on KimKins, I complained that I was stalling due to starvation mode and was chastised that there was no such thing! All I had to do was lower my calories further!"

Between very low caloric advice being meted out by people running the website, others were being led to use laxatives, some actually fighting a new addiction as a result of advise.

From LaurieB: "I have all my life had problems with bowel elimination but now it was non-existant. I tried the Epsom Salt drink that Kimmer recomended to get things going and that didn't work for me. Realistically in my head I said - nothing in = nothing out.. but I
didn't get it. I bought into the "laxatives aren't addicting" advice that was freely given on kimkins.com. When I went on vacation early
August of last year - I got so constipated I resorted to taking EX-LAX - there it started. I was using EX-LAX almost daily and realized that it couldn't be good, so I went to Smooth Move tea, a natural alternative LOL! Daily! sometimes twice - from August 2006 until last Monday July 23 - I drank the tea almost every day and a few times would take an EX-LAX or two in addition if things weren't moving. I was ADDICTED!"

Kimkins is not only problematic in these respects, but new evidence shows that questionable marketing techniques have been employed in an effort to bring in teenagers and young people.

Promises of Jessica Alba's adherence to the Kimkins plan was concoted in an effort to win kids--and their money-- to Kimkins.com.

From the article, "Mama, Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be Anorexic,":

"This plan is known as "Kimkins," a Hello Kitty adorable (and seemingly safe) name of cute affixed to a dark way of eating that the magazine is said to have actually modified due to its insanely low
caloric counts. Now appearing to be barely more balanced at 1,000 daily calories, one visit to the fitday.com accounts of any one of many dedicated followers of the plan reveals numbers anywhere from
300-600 calories per day..."

From the comments section, the author added, "I found claims and specific names of celebrities who have supposedly done Kimkins. While I don't believe these claims, I do believe this is a definite low
blow in terms of advertising to children whose thinspiration tend to be people like Alba, Lohan, Paris Hilton and Beyonce who are already inexorably thin.

Your help in warning parents, consumers and your viewing audience a multi-million dollar fraud in her tracks before any more damage is done.

Respectfully,
BamaGal