THE MYSTERY

Where can you participate in the Fascination with Kimmer threads, without being censored, having your posts deleted, your knuckles rapped, or the final insult, being banned…

…where freedom of expression is not only encouraged but embraced…

… and where people are now flocking?

FASCINATED

Ask anyone who is still clinging to the Kimkins site and each of them will scream–But it Works!!!! Well of course ANY diet is gonna cause weight loss if your daily caloric intake is less than your BMR. That’s just natural. You can consume 1000 cals of pure sugar and nothing else and you will still lose weight. The thing about any weight loss regimen is, can it be maintained.

Researcher have shown time and time again dieting does not work.

“You can initially lose 5 to 10 percent of your weight on any number of diets, but then the weight comes back,” said Traci Mann, UCLA associate professor of psychology and lead author of the study. “We found that the majority of people regained all the weight, plus more. Sustained weight loss was found only in a small minority of participants, while complete weight regain was found in the majority. Diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits for the majority of people.”

One study of dieting obese patients followed them for varying lengths of time. Among those who were followed for fewer than two years, 23 percent gained back more weight than they had lost, while of those who were followed for at least two years, 83 percent gained back more weight than they had lost, Mann said. One study found that 50 percent of dieters weighed more than 11 pounds over their starting weight five years after the diet, she said.

WEIGHT LOSS: Fact and Fiction.

The War on Fat

It would be very surprising if anyone in this country was not aware of North America’s “War on Fat.” Since the l 950s there has been increasing pressure in this country to lose weight. You can’t read a newspaper, listen to the radio, or watch TV without hearing the constant injunction to be thin. All the rewards - money, friends, jobs, sex, health are supposed to go to the thinnest people. Everything from sodas to breakfast cereals to cigarettes are sold with the promise of weight loss. Like evangelists at the pulpit, the diet and medical industries tell us to shed those “extra pounds” or face the consequences. In 1990, there were 53 million dieters in the United States who spent an estimated $33 billion on weight loss programs. One survey found 62% of adults are dieting and 18% are constantly on a diet.

Diets Don ‘t Work

One would think that with the enormous amount of time and money spent on weight loss, people would be getting thinner. Yet, US. Department of Health statistics show that Americans are getting fatter and living longer.

National Institutes of Health and other studies show that 98% of people who lose weight gain it back within five years. And 90% of those gain back more weight than they lost. The failure of weight loss programs is so great that a leading researcher has said, “Dieting is the leading cause of obesity in the US.”

Most( companies claim that their program will work and many even claim that “they are not a diet.” Yet these claims are not substantiated by research. The top programs are so cavalier in their claims that the Federal Trade Commission is investigating them for fraud and there have been Senate Subcommittee hearings looking into regulating the diet industry.
What Controls Weight?

Study after study has shown that our natural weight range is determined by genetics. Twins separated a~ birth and raised in different environments were within a few pounds of each other’s weight. More than a dozen studies have tried and failed to show that fat people eat more or differently than thin people. Some even showed that fat people ate less than their thin counterparts. One of the biggest problems with weight loss programs is that they assume that weight is regulated in the stomach. Our metabolism is controlled, like most of our bodily functions, by the part of the brain called the hypothalamus. We call this the set-point. Like a thermostat, our weight varies slightly with environmental factors such as temperature, food quantity, food choices, and exercise. Yet, this accounts for only about 10-15% of a person’s weight range. So a person’s weight may fluctuate naturally by 10-20 pounds.

Weight loss attempts which try to force the body’s natural weight range to change, instead of resulting in a lower weight. actually reset the weight range higher in the body’s attempt to compensate for starvation.
What is a “Sensible Diet?”

We are told that if one eats a sensible diet” one will maintain a low weight or lose weight. Yet. studies show that most diets proscribe an amount of food far below the normal amount of food people need. The normal daily intake for adults is 2400-3000 calories a day. yet most commercial weight loss programs range from 945- 1200 calories a day . The World Health organization defines starvation (the point at which the body is dying) as 900 calories or less a day. That means that most programs are starvation or semi-starvation programs.

The Effects of Dieting

While weight loss is rarely permanent, the damage it can do to your body can be permanent. When you don ‘ t eat enough to maintain your body, your body begins to consume itself. Most people think they are losing fat when they diet, yet study after study shows that dieting destroys muscle, bone, and even brain tissue.

The muscle affected most is your heart. The Framingham study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1991, found that the risk of dying from heart disease is 70% higher in those with fluctuating weights than in those whose weight remains stable, regardless of their initial weight, blood pressure, smoking habits, cholesterol level, or level of physical activity.

High blood pressure is another side effect of the mental and physical stress of dieting. The nutritional stress can also result in electrolyte imbalance, which is excessively low levels of potassium in the blood, and which can lead to heart attacks.

Recent studies have found a direct link between osteoporosis and dieting. Osteoporosis is a deadly disease in which calcium is leached from the bones, resulting in fragile and deteriorating bones. One study found that a single five month weight loss program resulted in “significant bone loss.” Usually thought of as post-menopausal condition, now many women, especially dancers and athletes, suffer from osteoporosis.

In addition, older women who have maintained a higher body fat percentage are less likely to suffer from osteoporosis as well as many other conditions associated with menopause. Fat cells retain estrogen which helps maintain the calcium in the bones. And for young women, if they drop below 15% body fat, they lose menses (their period) and suffer from a host of estrogen deficiency illnesses including infertility.

The list of illnesses now associated with dieting is long and growing longer every day as new studies find our “cure” is killing us. The list includes: anxiety, depression, lethargy, lowered self-esteem, decreased attention span, weakness, high blood pressure, hair loss, gall bladder disease, gall stones, heart disease, ulcers, constipation, anemia, dry skin, skin rashes, dizziness, reduced sex drive, menstrual irregularities, amenorrhea, gout, infertility, kidney stones, numbness in the legs, weight gain, eating disorders, reduced resistance to infection, lowered exercise tolerance, electrolyte imbalance, bone loss, osteoporosis, and death.

One study found that even “successful” dieters, who have kept the weight off, have the chemical signature and many of the illnesses associated with anorexia nervosa even though they have an average weight.

Eating Disorders

The epidemic rise in eating disorders is staggering. It is estimated that in the U.S. alone, 150,000 women will die from eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, this year. Studies now show that dieting is the precursor to developing these deadly diseases. Dieting alienates us from the natural process of hunger and sets us up for the real physical side effects of dieting, resulting in women and men who have learned to ignore their own “survival mechanisms” and literally starve and binge themselves to death. Current estimates indicate that one in five women is suffering from a severe form of an eating disorder, and eight out of ten have some of the symptoms of one or more of these illnesses. And more men are developing these disorders as well.

What is Normal Eating?

Normal eating does not need a meal plan. Normal eating is being able to eat when you are hungry and continue eating until you are satisfied. It is being able to choose food you like and eat it and truly get enough of it - not just stop eating because you think you should. Normal eating is being able to use some moderate constraint in your food selection to get the right food, but not being so restrictive that you miss out on pleasurable foods. It is giving yourself permission to eat sometimes because you are happy, sad, bored, or just because it feels good.

Normal eating is three meals a day for some but it can also be choosing to eat between meals. It is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow. In short, normal eating is flexible. It varies in response to your emotions, your schedule, your hunger, and your proximity to food. If you eat foods that are good for you and get regular exercise, you won’t necessarily be thin but you will be healthier and probably happier.

What is “Overweight?”

Many dieters are upset because they aren’t “normal” - they are upset about being “overweight”. Over what weight? Over the weight charts, right? One recent study found that 64% of Americans weigh more than the charts suggest, and another 14% weigh “underweight” according to the charts. That’s 78% of us who don’t fit the charts.

The charts are a statistical report created by Metropolitan Insurance in 1959 and only slightly revised in 1979. The research was not based on medical studies, mostly included white males, and was economically biased. It does not reflect any real population. Because of this, the term “overweight” is inaccurate and, to many, offensive. Terms like fat or large are only bad if we think being fat is bad. It is a description, not a judgment: people do come in many sizes. The charts are not helpful, especially since dieting does not work.

What About the Dangers of “Obesity?”

Many of those so-called “obesity diseases” are already in our list of the risks associated with dieting. Most researchers who study fat people do not separate those who have been dieting from those who don’t. In America, it is difficult to find a fat person who hasn’t been yo-yo dieting most of his or her life.

Studies done cross-culturally in areas where fat is accepted found that the rates of the so-called “fat diseases” were lower than the American average, and indicate that it is the dieting and stress of being fat in a fat phobic society which causes many of our problems.

A lot has been said about the insurance studies linking heart disease and fat. Yet., Ancel Keys, who coordinated sixteen separate long-term studies in seven different countries concluded: “In none of the areas of this study was overweight or obesity a major risk factor for death, or the incidence of coronary heart disease.”

With all the suggestions that we lose weight for our health, you would expect mortality studies to show that thin people live longer, wouldn’t you? They don’t.

The Seven Country Study, the Framingham, Albany, Tecumseh, Chicago People’s Gas, and Chicago Western Electric studies all found that people 20-40% over the weight charts lived the longest. And although mortality, or the chance of dying, increases with weight, the people who actually lived the shortest life spans were those at or below the weight charts.

In addition to longer life spans, fat people can have lower rates of most cancers and respiratory diseases. Fat people have lowered incidence of pre-menopausal breast cancer. stomach cancer. lung cancer, meningioma. and colon cancer. They also have lower rates of bronchitis. tuberculosis. scoliosis, peptic ulcer. anemia, hip fracture, and vertebral fracture.

Most Americans have been taught to view fat as some sort of poison in their bodies. And while eating high quantities of fat may be bad for your health, fat tissue is a vital part of our bodies which provides energy stores, insulation from the cold, and cushioning for the rest of our bodies.

Different body types have different strengths and weaknesses. While a fat person might have more complications from a broken leg, they also are less likely to break bones in the first place. Looking at how to be healthy and happy in the body you have is more realistic and more productive.

Thanks go out to all of those who expressed interest in being added to the blog feed.

Here is the URL for the Feed. You can add this to your blog’s side bar.

Blogger users: Click “edit layout” “template” “page elements” and then click “add a page element” in the sidebar section. Select “Feed” insert the URL above at the prompt, and customize to taste. Save.

WordPress.com users: just use add the RSS widget (under “design,” “widgets”). Click on add RSS Feed, click on the edit button on the Feed widget, put in the feed URL above. Title and customize to taste. Save.

You can also add the feed URL to your own feed reader.

To read the latest posts on the Kimkins Scandal, you can also use this Google link.

I added many but am still missing a few. If you blog is not on this list please let me know.

2big4mysize’s Weblog
Amy B : Food For Thought
Big is Beautiful
Conquering demons, losing weight
Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Pickles
HMS Kimtanic
HoneyBee’s Blog
I Am Not Ready To Make Nice with Kimkins
Kimkins Exhausted
Kimorexia
mariasol (blogspot)
Medusa (blogspot)
MJR’s-Duck Squad
Prudentia
Say “NO” to Kimkins
The Journey
The Open Bench
The TRUTH Starts Here
WEIGHING THE FACTS
Winning Weight Loss

I’m looking to compile an Aggregate RSS Feed of the Kimkins bloggers.

If you are interested in being added to this feed please post a comment with your blog’s URL. If you know the Feed URL for your blog that would be better.

Once I get them all together I will post the links for the feed. That way you can add it to your site. One stop shopping so to speak….

This man is really getting on my last nerve. Yes article sites are glorified spam. Experts authors my ass. Any Tom, Dick or Harry can write an article and submit it. You don’t have to be an expert. The so-called experts for the Kimkins diet claim 20 years of experience with it. The Kimkins site has only been in operation 2 years. These expert authors are lying and committing fraud just like the owner of the Kimkins site.

Here’s the latest from Mr Harris. These are 2 posts found on Digital point.

Remember - ezines page rank 6 applies only to its main page - not its individual articles though.

P.S. want to see the joy running an article directory can bring?

http://kimkinsscam.wordpress.com/200…-kimkins-scam/

You get accused of all sorts of things - apparently I “personally” promote the kimkins diet - Like I even knew what it was?

Matt - are you really sure you want to run an article directory. If you’re successful at it you attract all sorts of things!?

Hey at the end of the day - its free publicity and links to my website - so hopefully it will help build my page rank.

Well see the thing is Mr Harris, when this whole campaign to bring an end to Kimkins started over a year ago. The bloggers took some pointers from the SEO people. We know all page rank and backlinks and lots of other tips and tricks. That is how now when you do a search for Kimkins—you’ll find many of our blogs right there on the front page. Because of this knowledge of SEO, your links were stripped from the comment section.

Mr Harris whatever you feel is just fine by me, but those freedoms you cry out about, also allow us to take the course of action we have chosen. You need to read the post below here. Jeanessa sums things up pretty well.

If article sites continue to allow fraudulent material on their sites, we will continue to contact them. So set keyword filter for ArticleDashboard to keep anything from being posted with the keyword Kimkins. Then you won’t hear from us.

This in from Jeanessa:

Big is Beautiful: Confessions of a Bored Housewife

I woke up on my soapbox today and in attempting to calm myself down, I realized that I am still angry at Heidi. Everything that she’s done has caused this tiny burning inside of me and every time I turn a corner, someone douses the flame with a little gasoline.

I understand the nature of opinions (as they relate to certain sun-don’t-shine areas of the human anatomy) and the irrefutability of free thinking, but it continues to bother me that some people liken us to bored housewives, fat girls with chips on our shoulders, skinny girls who don’t want anybody else to lose weight, obsessed maniacs and the like.

It further bothers me that some people feel that they so adamantly must warn us of the potential for failure, or of the logisitics of the California civil justice system. It’s like the mother who warns her child, “Well, don’t reach for your dreams, honey, because, you know, they probably won’t come true.”

Half of the fun in the process of dreaming is actually having the dream. I can tell you that 90% of the satisfaction in speaking out against crimes against fat (and formerly) fat girls on the Internet is the actual speaking out (not to mention the quiet and not-so-quiet Rockstars you meet along the way).

Yes, I was wronged. You are free to think of that wrong what you will. I, however, as a party to that wrong, am free to act on that wrong in the ways that my government has deemed appropriate.

It might not bother you very much that a few thousand of us were ripped off because people get ripped off all the time, because you think we were stupid to sign up in the first place, because you admire the intracicies of what amounts to modern thievery, because there are bigger and more noble causes to care about, because people shouldn’t get fat in the first place, because you don’t like it when people stand up for themselves, because you want to lose weight by any means necessary, or because you just don’t care.

I, however, am allowed to be just as bothered by Heidi’s scams as you aren’t. And I choose to be. No matter the outcome. At the end of the day, I will rest easy knowing that I stood up for myself, for what I believed was right and did everything that I could to rectify a wrong.

So, call me what you will and I’ll be that.

There’s nothing anybody can say to convince me that loving myself enough to speak out when I’m wronged and loving others enough to speak out when they are wronged is a petty thing to do. Because if people didn’t do this, I wouldn’t be here typing this message to you and you probably wouldn’t be free to surf to the ends of the Internet and read this.

Sincerely,

Jeanessa
aka A Bored Housewife
aka An Angry Duck
aka A Fat Girl with an Attitude
aka A Stupid Chick
aka An Obsessed Maniac

Let’s add AKA angry weight loss people who must be missing food….

Comments left on this blog by Alastair Harris:

I would appreciate if you would put up the second email I also sent you.

The two articles were removed -
1) One for failing to comply with out terms of service (namely it had links in the body of the article)
2) The second one because it had an untruth - even the real “promoter” of the kimkin diet - i.e. the truth about how much weight she lost - therefore also in breach of our terms of service.

I am and also will be a supporter of the FREEDOM OF SPEECH - as I believe it is in also a shining principle of the U.S. Constitution - although personally I am an Australian citizen. However in this case the articles were removed for reasons as outlined above.

We approved at this time some 200 articles daily at article-gems.com We rely on the authors of those articles to comply with our terms of service. Our terms of service clearly points out that we do not “promote” one particular article over another - other than the 244 of which I am an author myself. There are articles on numerous topics, some I agree with, some I do not. Although a Christian I have articles in the religious section on Islam, Kabbala, myticism, astrology, etc - most of which on a personal level I oppose - however if I am going to be true to my principles of respecting the freedom of speech of others - I approve articles that I don’t always agree with.

I hope your readers, supporters, etc will visit and support our website with your own article submissions, or read the now nearly 50,000 articles present. If you are so concern with the dangers of this diet, then why not submit an article on why you believe the kimkins diet is dangerous. As long as it complies with the Terms of Service it will be approved.

yours sincerely,

Alastair Harris
Chief Editor - Article-gems.com

Mr Harris,
I have had no contact with you. Your correspondence has been with a fellow Consumer Activist.

Be advised that an article directory spams no one. Visitors come to our sites of their own free will or at the whims of search engine results.

As for the “huge profits” I make - at this time I make less than $2 a day - for an hours work. I don’t do it out of greed, but out of a service to the wider internet community.

Articles are not spam - much of the information is informative and very useful - why else would search engines keep coming back to article directories.

r Harris,
I did not make any statement about any “huge profits”. Article directories have to be making something or they would not be popping up everywhere. As for the articles being spam. Spam is more than just email or newsgroups spam. Spam is defined as “flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive it.“

P.S. seeing you freely engage in libel - i.e. your post “Article-gems Supports the Kimkins Scam” - It would be appropriate for you to publish a formal apology here.

Mr Harris,
It is my opinion as I stated before that not removing the articles in question you were supporting the Kimkins Scam. I do apologize if you were offended by it and have updated my post.

Now readers let’s see how Mr Harris feels about all of us. In his own words posted on the Article-gems blog:

Running an article directory - like article-gems is not always easy. Apart from the hundreds of articles each day to approve you occasionally are targeted by spammers - or in the latest case an email campaign from angry weight loss people (must be missing the food). Seriously though we received a number of emails demanding we removed articles on the Kimkins diet because the diet was the subject of litigation.

We make it quite clear in our terms of service will take no responsibility for the content of articles on article-gems. We chose to remove two articles - the first one for failing to comply with our terms of service (it had a link in the main article body) and the second one, because it had an untruth that was publically admitted to be untrue and therefore failed to comply with the spirit of our TOS.

However the over riding principle at article-gems.com is FREEDOM OF SPEECH. If your article complies with our terms of service IT WILL REMAIN - no matter how many angry dieters send us emails.

First let me say I take offense to your discriminatory remark about “angry weight loss people (must be missing the food).” We are a group of consumer activists attempting to stop the viral spread of the deadly and dangerous diet. Your attempt to belittle each of us in such a crass way is not only intolerable, but in many states is illegal. It’s discrimination, bottom line.

I urge each of the readers to contact Mr Harris to let him know what we think of his discriminatory remark.

UPDATE

ARTICLE-GEMS HAS DECIDED TO LISTEN TO ALL OF US AND HAS REMOVED THE ARTICLES. WOOO–HOOO!!!!

Article-gems is one of the many viral marketing sites we have contacted concerning the Kimkins Diet Scandal. Here is his reply:

Alastair Harris, Chief Editor of Article-gems states the articles are the responsibility of the authors - not article-gems. We accept no liability for the content of articles as clearly stated in our terms of service.

I don’t promote the program as far as I am aware.

We promote freedom of speech here at article-gems but have removed articles in the past when we received sufficient evidence

- e.g. some medical articles were removed because they were not the authors own work

Mr Harris, I beg to differ with you. The simple fact you are refusing to remove the articles means you promote it.

The viral marketing techniques utilized by these so called “article” sites are nothing but glorified spam. I for one an sick of all of them.

We ran into the same opposition at EzineArticles. Yet they finally removed all the offending articles.

I urge each of you to contact Mr Harris with the link above and let him know we don’t give up easily. We will keep contacting him until something is done.

Sam Redman has captured our attention. Why he chose to descend on the FWK threads is beyond me.

Head over to these blogs to check things out.

Prudentia: An Invitation To Dialogue …

Prudentia: Who is Sam Redman?

Prudentia: The Devil’s Advocate

mariasol: What do Kimmer and Sam Redman Have in Common?

mariasol: Kimkins Hacked!

Medusa: “PRAIRIE JUSTICE,” SAM REDMAN? I THINK NOT! UPDATED!!!

the program « i’m just here for the shoes

Stay tuned for further updates as they become avilable…..