Courtney Thorne-Smith claims showbiz pressure is to blame for her eating disorder

Published: January 17, 2021

The life of Courtney Thorne-Smith is a perfect example of the life of a person who is affected with eating disorder. The actress is well known for portraying her role of Alison Parker in ‘Melrose Place’, and she caught the audience’s eye as Georgia Thomas on the famous TV show ‘Ally McBeal’.

An eating disorder affected Courtney Thorne-Smith’s life when she quit ‘Ally McBeal’. The actress had to quit the series after 8 straight seasons, and said that she was drained because of dieting relentlessly in order to compete with other rail thin co-stars. “I started under eating, over exercising, pushing myself too hard and brutalizing my immune system. The amount of time I spent thinking about food and being upset about my body was insane,” said the 42 year old actress, as quoted by caringonline.com.

In order to maintain the ultra-skinny look the actress ate small amounts of salad and ran almost 8 miles daily. While growing up she was never worried about putting on pounds, saying: “I was a skinny kid. When I was in high school, I was eating Eskimo Pies for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But when I put on some weight, the producers commented on it, and it just triggered me.”

After that she started to workout day and night and lost weight drastically. “It was a cycle of reading the latest diet book, doing that and then jumping to the next diet,” says Courtney Thorne-Smith.

The actress admits she “felt pressure to look a certain way”, which took a toll on her body. The problem started affecting her life as she desperately wanted to look lean because of the increasing pressure of work. “I ate fruit all week just to try to be really lean by Friday,” she says.

Her colleagues and co-stars started noticing her extremely thin structure. “I remember Gil said ‘You look good,’ and I was like, ‘I’d better. I haven’t had a piece of chicken in five days.’ There was something terribly wrong with that,” she said.

The actress dropped 15 pounds from her thin frame and was told by a nutritionist that she was actually starving herself. This was the time when the actress realised that she needed to regain control over her body and started stepping back from work. She began to eat properly and exercise less. The actress today exercises in a less obsessive and more  controlled way, which has allowed her to gain 10 pounds. She had the will power to recuperate from such a serious disorder.

“I’ve been getting so many more compliments on my strong, fit, healthy body than I did when I was skinny,” she said.

Other celebrities who have suffered from eating disorders include Mary-Kate Olsen,Sharon Osbourne, Daniel Johns, Oprah Winfrey and Jane Fonda.

Image: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1080084

Published January 17, 2021 by Carolin W. in Celebrities
Tags: anorexia, anorexia nervosa, eating disorder, weight loss