What is a ketogenic diet?
A ketogenic diet is a way of eating that puts your body into a state of ketosis. So, what exactly does that mean?
First, you want to restrict your carbohydrates low enough for your body to start producing it’s own ketones. The general rule is to eat under 20g of net carbs per day (we will explain what that means and how to do it later in this guide).
When you restrict your carbohydrates, slowly you will switch your body from using glucose (sugar) as it’s main fuel source to fat.
By reducing the amount of carbohydrates in your diet down to 20g or less, this will put your body into ketosis. Ketosis is where the fat that you eat and/or the fat from your body is burned for energy (ketones).
The main fundamentals of a ketogenic diet are;
- Eating 20g or less of net carbohydrates per day
- Avoiding all grains (wheat, corn, rice etc)
- Avoiding all starchy vegetables and most fruits (potatoes, apples, oranges etc)
- Avoiding all sugars (table sugar, honey, maple syrup, agave etc)
- Replacing the starch on your plate with low carb vegetables and healthy fats
- Don’t be afraid of fat as it is now fuel for your body!
Before we get into the nitty gritty of getting started, let us introduce ourselves.
Who are we?
Hi, we are Dan and Erika! We are the creators of Have Butter will Travel and have been living a ketogenic lifestyle since July 2016. We have had great success and wanted to share our experience, meals and recipes with others, so we created Have Butter will Travel at the end of 2017.
Have Butter will Travel includes this website with over 200 delicious keto and low carb recipes. We also have cookbooks that are full of easy to make and delicious keto recipes.
We also have a YouTube channel where we show you how to make delicious keto recipes and how to live a keto lifestyle long term.
We have also found that support has been really key to our success, so we started an Australian low carb Facebook group called Aussie Low Carb Community. This is a wonderful community were we focus on positivity and support for anyone living a low carb lifestyle. We would love for you to come a join us!
Does Keto work for us?
Keto is the very first way of eating that we have been able to make into a long term lifestyle. Prior to starting the ketogenic lifestyle in 2016, we had tried everything. Shakes, Weight Watchers, Lite and Easy, Jenny Craig, vegetarian and everything else in between. While some of these worked short term, none stuck and the weight always came back on and then some.
It didn’t take long for us to start to notice some amazing benefits when we started on keto. Erika had little to no joint pain after only a few weeks. She didn’t realise how much pain she was in, until one day she just sprang out of bed without any issues. This was due to a reduction in inflammation in her joints. Dan’s moods and energy improved almost immediately.
Not only were we feeling better, we lost weight. In the first year we lost over 90kg between us. That means we lost the equivalent of a person between us.
While we have definitely had our ups and downs since 2016, we have been able to make the ketogenic lifestyle our new normal. This is a very normal way of eating for us and we know we feel so much better when we are in ketosis.
Ready to learn how to get started? Click on the button below to find out how to get started on a keto diet.