Fara Williams slams culture of 'fat leaderboards' and being made to 'run for their breakfasts' in Lioness camp
Former Lioness Fara Williams has opened up on a 'toxic' culture of 'body fat leaderboards' and being made to 'run for their breakfasts' during England training sessions.
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Speaking as part of a Lidl GB panel ahead of the UEFA Women’s Euros - which sees the Lionesses kick off their campaign this weekend, Williams opened up about her own experiences with body confidence and food inside the camp.
Sharing the normalised concept of 'body fat boards', the former international football star admitted "it felt like shaming".
"We did a lot on body fat, a lot of weighing when we were players - having your name and body fat up on the wall, with 23 other female athletes alongside you."
The 41-year-old pundit, who remains England's most-capped international player - making 172 appearances for the side over the course of her nearly 20 year career, shared that at times, it left her feeling "ashamed".
“You feel a little bit of embarrassment that everybody else can see that you weigh a little bit heavier," she explained.
Highlighting the way that dietary fads have the power to infiltrate top flight football, Williams explained that fasting was widely employed behind the scenes in the England camp and at club level for a period of time.
It comes despite recent research, flagged by panel member, nutritionalist and influencer, Dr Hazel Wallace, suggesting that fasting does little to benefit women.
Dr Wallace went on to describe how women have been categorised as "small men" where nutrition is concerned.
"[Fasting] became a big part of the women's game for a period of women's game - when you were in the 'fat clubs', at the top professional clubs, that's what they labelled it as," the footballer revealed.
"I was in the 'fat club' - but it wasn't called a 'fat club'; they'd say 'oh, you're coming in to do a fasting session this morning?'
"You'd do a bike or an uphill walk or whatever before you'd eat - and then you'd have a little bit of protein, eggs before we'd do a session. That was a heavier bit of the game."
The ex-England star also shared details of a culture - within both clubs and at a national level - in which women were treating like "small men".
She explained how much of the women's training programme was lifted from the men's game rather than tailored during her international career, with Williams sharing how women would "always under-fuel".
"Nutrition in the women's game has been non existent," she explained, before adding: "the culture is changing".
It comes as exclusive stats revealed by Lidl ahead of the launch of the women's Euros revealed that only one third of women know how to fuel their bodies correctly, compared to around half of men.
“In my time it was people coming over and kind of introducing you into food and kind of putting you into that head space of how you calculate X amount of grams of whatever.
"But in terms of knowing if that’s right for my body weight, type, being a female, hormones etc we didn’t have any information to kind of marry up the two together,” said the football pundit.
“I noticed that a lot of the athletes were underfuelling, and a lot of that came from the whole carbs being the devil idea, and wrong information out there led to harmful effects.
“But I have been in contact with some players now and they have more nutritionists on board now."
Sharing the takeaways England had instilled in her after transitioning out of the professional game, Williams added: "Cut carbs, eat protein, pretty much that".
England's Euros 2025 campaign kicks off on Saturday at 8pm with their opening match against France in the Group D opener.