Hi Rach, no, you cannot substitute Quorn for meat. They are not at all the same in terms of calories, protein, fat or carbohydrate. Quorn products are lower in all of those categories except for carbs, of which they have more than meat. One 63-gram Vegan Chik’n Cutlet, for example, has 70 calories, 3 grams net carbs, 10 grams protein. The same size chicken breast has 105 calories, 0 grams carbs, 20 grams protein. Also, read the ingredients of everything before you buy. Many Quorn products use bread, wheat flour, sugar and its cognates like maltodextrin.
In the end, you’re going to have to start looking things up when you’re planning your meals. The information in the book can be inaccurate, for one thing, (calorie counts in particularly can be way off, and they are cals per serving, by the way, not total calories) and for another, you’re going to have to do a lot of modifying so that means doing your own calculations.
I use MyFitnessPal to look up the nutrtional information of everything I eat, from fresh vegetables to name brand products. Other people here use Fat Secret. These apps have large databases of thousands of items to search through. Pick the item, the amount you used or plan to use and add it to your diary. The app will then do all the adding up for you and spit out the totals of protein, carbs etc.
Best of luck to you in your weight loss goals and most importantly, in recovering your good health. I lost around 180 pounds in a year strictly adhereing to the BSD. If I can go from debilitated, couch-ridden, sugar-addicted wreck to energetic low-carb evangelist with an unquenchable thirst for fermented foods, then you can shed the weight you need to beat back idiopathic intercranial hypertension.