American Idol Runner-Up Spews Information About Her Eating Disorder

American Idol runner-up Katharine McPhee has revealed that she was treated for an eating disorder right before the program began taping.

McPhee came clean about being a recovering bulimic in the new issues of People and Teen People. The singer dropped three dress sizes during the taping of the show, but claims that the weight loss is a by-product of her recovery, not her disorder.

McPhee began having body image issues when she was 13. Before puberty she was very thin and could eat anything that she wanted to without putting on weight. That changed as she acquired "womanly curves," which made her uncomfortable, she told People.

McPhee's battle with bulimia began in her junior year in high school, where she began purging to deal with her post-pubescent emotions.

"Food was my crutch. It was how I dealt with emotions and uncomfortable situations. It was literally a drug."

McPhee began forcing herself to throw up at age 17, but her disorder became more severe when she went to study musical theatre at the Boston Conservatory.

McPhee realized that her actions were brutalizing her body, but she felt that being thin was the only way to succeed as a singer. Prior to appearing on Idol, McPhee claims to have been rejected at 195 of 200 auditions and attributed her lack of success to her weight. She described the daily exercise of purging as "putting a sledgehammer to your vocal chords."

During the peak of her problems, McPhee was throwing up seven times a day and knew she could never succeed on Idol if her illness wasn't taken care of.

McPhee now claims that she hasn't done any binge eating since two weeks before entering a three-month rehabilitation program at the Los Angeles Eating Disorder Center of California last October. She doesn't consider herself fully healed, but is delighted at the progress she's made so far and hopes that her admission will help others come to terms with their problems.