Kimmer appeared on the lowcarb scene in early 2000. She joined Low Carb Friends
and immediately became a prolific poster there. She claimed an incredible weight
loss success and soon got a huge following. Her low fat variant of Atkins was
named Kimkins, a combination of the words Atkins and Kimmer.
In response to a poster starting a thread with the subject: “Kimmer your stats
are fantastic”, Kimmer responded with this fairy tale of how she lost 198 pounds
in 11 months:
I used to have a photo posted in the gallery, but during an update the "older"
photos got purged. I don't have my photos on disk anymore. I'm not a "photo"
type person. I don't like the attention, honestly.
I have low carbed off and on since I was 16. My first LC experience at 16 was
with Stillman's. I lost weight so quickly, I had to stop because I was a teenage
welfare mom and had no body to buy new clothes. I didn't have a scale to know
how much I lost, but I was a size 14 and my pants were nearly falling off after
2 weeks.
Kimmer always blended in some grains of truth in her fairy tales. Yes, she was a
teen mom and most likely on welfare. No doubt did she try many diets during the
years but the alleged results are questionable.
Still, I was 5'6" and size 12/14 which is a very good size for me (big boned)
and my weight stayed for about 3 years. When I was 165 lbs, I read a book "The
Last Chance Diet" by Dr. Robert Linn which is liquid protein. I did that for
about a week, but the liquid stuff is so horrible (Dr. Linn calls it "the most
vile substance this side of Venus") that I began skipping the protein and just
drinking diet soda & vitamins (I'm not a water drinker). I lost 67 pounds in 43
days and felt wonderful ... my first "euphoria" experience. I stopped when my
fiance invited me to go camping with his family for the weekend. They were
Hispanic and his mom was NOT going to understand fasting. (I was 19 then, now I
wouldn't care, LOL!)
I gradually regain the weight because I was eating more carbs (not candy &
chips, but potatoes, pastries, coffee w/ sugar & cream). A coworker was doing
Weight Watchers and it looked fun (and organized!) so I tried it. The carbs were
too high and I was only losing 1-2 pounds a week. Compared to how I lost
previously on low/no carb, this was WAY too slow! I was also hungry constantly
because of the high carbs. So, I changed the "exchanges" from bread and fruit to
protein and began losing 5-6 pounds a week. I wasn't able to finish all the
"exchanges" because of ketosis/loss of appetite. I lost 88 pounds and quit
meetings because I felt like a hypocrite when the leader would ask me to share
with the group how I lost so much each week.
I gradually regained the weight over 2 years after my little brother died in a
horrible hospital accident. I didn't "pig out" but I wasn't careful about
choices. My priority wasn't on weight loss. Incidentally, my little brother was
Type 1 diabetic. He was 6'1" and 135 pounds, a virtual skeleton. He often
refused to inject his insulin, ate like a horse, lost vast amounts of body fat.
This is what absolutely convinced me of low carbing. In the absence of insulin
(what we try to accomplish by restricting carbs), the body will not hold onto
body fat.
During the next 10 years of my marriage I gained 110 pounds. Did my version of
LC off and on, always losing 40-50 pounds, but not sticking with it ...
especially during stressful times. I had a repeat C-section and suffered serious
muscle/nerve damage, which left me unable to walk at one point. I still have
residual difficulties, although I look and act normal to everyone (well, I don't
know about 'normal', LOL), but I didn't exercise during my weight loss phase.
When I weighed 288 pounds I got worried. I wasn't eating large amounts, just the
wrong things and my weight kept creeping up every month. If I didn't do
something soon, I'd weigh 300. So I investigated weight loss surgery. I've
posted on that several times so you can search if you want to read it. But,
bottom line, I'm not a big eater and I wasn't sure the surgery would help me.
You can only eat small amounts, but I was already eating small amounts. The idea
of surgery doesn't bother me at all, but to know that it would be FINAL and
maybe unsuccessful, deterred me from going through with it.
After my divorce (16 year marriage), I was nearing my 40th birthday. I figured I
had to decide whether to finally lose and maintain the weight once and for all
... or just accept my size 26, 318 pound body. Granted, going through a divorce
and custody battle does wonders for motivation and loss of appetite, LOL!
My trouble was that I never saw myself as fat. I knew I was larger than I should
be, but actually didn't recognize my jeans as being mine when I'd fold them.
When the seatbelt in my husband's truck wouldn't fasten, I assumed the belt was
faulty. When I couldn't tie my shoes (or bend to put them on), I chalked it up
to joint stiffness (never mind that I didn't have arthritis). Even when I
realized it was stomach turning on the stove burners when I'd reach to the
cabinets above, I thought my kids were playing around with the burners.
I found this site and Fitday. Decided to get serious or forget it -- I never
looked back. I tracked my carbs and protein on Fitday, ignored fat and calories
and lost rapidly. I'm in a different mindset now then when I was 20 something.
Hopefully, the emotional turmoil is gone, also.
And that's it!!!
As with all Kimmer’s fairy tales, there is a grain of truth sprinkled in here
and there among the lies. She was a teen mom, she was on welfare and she tried a
lot of diets over the years, unsuccessfully. She probably never did see herself
as big as she is. How could she otherwise have put up the red dress picture as
herself? Only a delusional person would do that.
But the big lie is that she did never lose the weight. She now says that she
once lost 100 pounds in 6 months, and it could be possible. We now believe that
she did in fact have weight loss surgery, and perhaps that’s when she did lose
the 100 pounds. Before gaining it all back.
She is still morbidly obese, and possibly the heaviest she has ever been.
She did not post pictures because she didn’t have any. At least no skinny
pictures as she never lost the weight. When people keep on insisting that she
post pictures, she finally relented and put up a fake picture of a girl that has
been confirmed as not being her. Her “before” picture is likely Kimmer at her
lowest weight. There are rumors that she initially tried to photoshop it to look
slimmer but couldn’t make it realistic and therefore had to use a photo of
another person. That was just the first fake picture, more were to follow: The
lady in the lawn chair who is still to be identified, the Russian bride used for
Women’s World magazine, the Russian bride in the red dress used on Kimkins.c