AceShowbiz -

The season five American Idol runner-up, Katharine McPhee, talks the truth. The starlet said in a new interview with People magazine published Thursday June 22nd, 2006 that she struggled for years with bulimia before seeking help.

McPhee, who struggled with the disorder since the age of 17, reveals that she, at her worst, would throw up as many as seven times a day, putting her singing career in jeopardy. "Growing up in Los Angeles and spending all those years in dance class, I'd been conscious of body image at a young age, and I went through phases of exercising compulsively and starving myself," the young beauty explained.

However, as McPhee told the magazine, she sought help last fall after successfully auditioning for American Idol. She enrolled in an eating disorder center in Los Angeles and spent three months in group and individual therapy. And as a result, she had lost 30 pounds thanks to the "intuitive eating" approach she learned in therapy.