Sunday, June 24, 2012 3:16am ET by  
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Claire Richards discusses battle with anorexia and bulimia during Steps’ heyday

Claire Richards has revealed that she became obsessed with her weight during Steps’ heyday, resulting in a battle with both bulimia and anorexia.

The 34-year-old, who last year reunited with her former band-mates for a TV documentary and subsequent arena tour, admits in her new autobiography, All Of Me, that she struggled to deal with the problem ever since she joined the group:

“During one six-week tour I ate only ONE meal a day — a Happy Meal from McDonald’s — even though I had demanding dance routines every night. When I watch footage of Steps from that time I look horribly thin.

“If I’d have seen myself back then I’d have thought, ‘You’re ill, there’s something wrong with you. By now, my weight loss wasn’t due to stress taking my appetite away. I actually thought I was fat and was seriously limiting what I ate. I couldn’t see that in reality I was a bag of bones.

And the ‘Tragedy’ star also confessed that during another period in the band, she only stopped making herself sick after eating when she found out it causes teeth to rot:

“I didn’t do the throwing up thing a lot because I didn’t like being sick. And I never considered I had an eating disorder because I never gorged and did it.

“Maybe my bulimia was worse because I didn’t do that. But I loved the feeling of a flat stomach, like you hadn’t eaten anything. It made me feel brilliant.

“I liked that feeling of getting thinner and thinner. That empty feeling makes you feel thin. It was only when I read in a magazine that bulimics’ teeth rot that I finally stopped.”

 

 

 

Watch Steps perform 'It's The Way You Make Me Feel' below: