No Thinspiration

Katharine McPhee discusses her courageous decision to enter rehab for her eating disorder.
“American Idol” second-place runner-up KATHARINE McPHEE credits the hit TV series with helping her get her life on track. In the December issue of Shape magazine, currently on stands, the 22-year-old beauty talks about her decision to enter the Eating Disorder Center of California to deal with her bulimia.

“After I made it through the first round of auditions, I knew I had to get better if I was going to go all the way,” Katharine recalls in her interview. “In this way I can say the show literally saved my life.”

After discussing her bulimia with her mother, Katharine entered the program, finishing up the three-month outpatient program just days before “Idol” stopped airing the audition episodes and began focusing on the Top 24.

“The therapists asked me if I was ready to let go of bulimia, and I definitely was,” Katharine told the magazine. “Yes, I was scared, but I knew I had suffered enough.”

Growing up, Katharine had always been considered skinny. It wasn’t until she decided to try modeling and acting that food became an issue. She was only 15 years old, but casting directors kept telling the size-10 teenager to lose 10 more pounds. The end result was that she became obsessed with her weight, and when she saw a TV show about purging, it sounded like a good idea at the time.

Since leaving Eating Disorder Center of California, Katharine says she has been successful in using the tools they gave her, so that she made it all the way to the “American Idol” finals, through this past summer’s “Idol” tour and through the stress of recording her upcoming CD without suffering a relapse.

“It’s hard to eat healthy on the road, but as I learned in the center, it’s not necessarily what you eat but how much,” she says.