Looking for a new diet? There are many, many offerings online and most of them ask you for money. Some have inventive names such as Kimkins, The Magic Chicken Diet, The Genie Diet, and the WeightLoss4Idiots diet to name a few. How do you know if they offer value for your money, or if they are just out to scam you?

There are a few clues:

1) Asking for a one time payment. After you have paid, you are useless to them. They have already gotten your money and have really no interest if what they sold is working for you or not. It’s not like they care about you. They just want to make money, and they did.

2) Paying for a Lifetime membership. A “Lifetime” membership will only be valid as long as the website exists, OR until the webmaster decides to lock you out by banning you for any or no reason at all.

3) No information up front. That probably means that what they sell is not worth paying for, but you will not know until you have paid.

4) No money back guarantee. Even if they claim to have one, how are you going to get your money back? This is an online business and who knows who the owner is and how to contact them. At least for kimkins, there is now a class action lawsuit. Please join if you have been scammed by Heidi Diaz aka Kimmer.

5) Exaggerated claims such as “no faster weight loss, none,” “no exercise,” “better than WLS,”, “100 pounds in 3 months.” If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.

6) A large number of success stories and testimonials. Pretty girls and professional photos. How do you know they are true? Do these people exist? Did they do this particular diet? There is no way to find out. It is so easy to do what Kimkins did; scour the internet and copy pictures at random.

7) The owner/founder hides under a fictional name and refuses to show herself in public. Did she even do the diet herself? What are her credentials? Are the photos really of her? The pictures Kimmer tried to pass off as herself were all proven to be fake. They don’t even look like the same person! And even less like the person they were supposed to resemble, Heidi Diaz.

New Year’s Resolution to lose weight? Looking for the magic pill?

There are many online resources for weight loss. They all promise FAST, EASY, TURBO weight loss, provided that you either buy their product, pay to download a program, or pay a fee to join a support forum. They typically use pretty pictures with slim women that allegedly lost weight on their program, and there is very little information available until you have parted with your money.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

Before shelling out money for any of the online programs, it is a good idea to do a little research. Just using Google to look into what other people say about the program can save you money and prevent physical and mental ill effects from a dangerous diet, promoted by unscrupulous people.

Also be aware of the many, many FREE resources available on the internet. There is something for all preferences, and they are FREE.

Kimorexia has really good advice on what to look for when choosing a diet forum.

FREE support forums are available in all shapes and forms.

Diet specific forums like Atkins offers FREE information and support.

“General” lowcarb forums offer a great variety, FREE. Details of all the popular plans are provided FREE. There are also members on these sites that willingly share their extensive knowledge in nutrition and of dieting FREE. Challenge groups and journaling are provided FREE. And if nothing else, go there for all the wonderful recipes provided FREE by members.
The larger forums are typically FREE to read for anybody. Registration is required to post and ask questions but registration is FREE.

Smaller forums offer a more intimate setting, and may be focused on a more limited selection of plans. They may require FREE registration to access the forum.

Yahoo groups exist for any type of diet imaginable. It is easy to make a search for a group that follow the diet of your choice. Some are private while others are public but they are all FREE to join.

I follow a lowcarb plan and these are my two favorite FREE sites:

Active Low-Carber Forums

Low Carb Friends
FREE to read. FREE registration required to post and ask questions.

Oh, and the pretty girl in the red dress used to promote Kimkins was fake. Well, the girl isn’t fake. It’s just that it wasn’t Kimmer and she had nothing to do with Kimkins. It is a Russian girl on a bride web site. This is how Kimmer of Kimkins actually looks: