Lady Gaga Talks Eating Disorders: Singer Reveals She Was Bulimic In High School

Lady Gaga revealed that she was bulimic as a teenager at "It's Our Turn," a conference held at the Brentwood School in Los Angeles over the weekend, reports the New York Post.

Gaga sat down for an interview with Maria Shriver and took questions from students in the audience. The 25-year-old "Born This Way" singer was surprisingly honest when a student asked her how she deals with body issues.

"I used to throw up all the time in high school," Gaga admitted. "So I'm not that confident. I wanted to be a skinny little ballerina, but I was a voluptuous little Italian girl whose dad had meatballs on the table every night. I used to come home and say, 'Dad, why do you always give us this food? I need to be thin.' And he'd say, 'Eat your spaghetti."

According to RadarOnline, Gaga advised the student to seek help for her own weight struggles and warned that constant vomiting could take a toll on her voice.

"It's really hard, but ... you've got to talk to somebody about it." she said. "It made my voice bad, so I had to stop. The acid on your vocal cords ... it's very bad."

Even though she's one of the most famous women in the world, the singer said she still struggles to maintain her weight and feel good about her body.

"Weight is still a struggle. Every video I'm in, every magazine cover, they stretch you -- they make you perfect," she confessed. "It's not real life. I'm gonna say this about girls: The dieting has got to stop. Everyone just knock it off. Because at the end of the day, it's affecting kids your age -- and it's making girls sick."

Gaga sent a positive message to the students, but it's a far cry from remarks she made just a few years ago. In 2010, she told New York Magazine, "Pop stars should not eat," and the magazine noted that Gaga "looked flush from a strict diet of starvation."

More celebs who have battled eating disorders:

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[rossco1874]

04:28 AM on 05/15/2012

Hi, There is a competition in scotland to guess missing word when putting "i've survived long periods of very bad performances & very bad" into google it takes to this page.

Can anyone help with the missing word?

[aka62792]

04:45 AM on 02/14/2012

i also suffered from an eating disorder, not bulimia, starvation. I would eat celery and iced coffee and nothing else. I LOVED BEING THIN, it never occurred to me to think about what I was doing to myself. I always wore 4 inch stilettos, I was walking towards the parking lot, my head was spinning,

I was halfway up the cement staircase and I fell down 12 cement stairs. 30 stitches on my head, 4 broken ribs, broken wrist. The Doctor really let me have it on my lab work, he said if I did not stop I'd be dead before I was 30. I've been OK for awhile but I still look at my body.

[RichelleRichie]

11:37 PM on 02/12/2012

Its very big of Gaga to share her past struggle with the disorder that affects SO MANY girls around the world.

[AAAce]

10:14 PM on 02/12/2012

How do you get acid on your vocal cords? What is she talking about? Maria Callas was bulimic too ya know.

[imanormalalien]

07:12 AM on 02/17/2012

hmm maybe because throw up is acidic

[Ashley Charron]

07:15 PM on 02/12/2012

Say whatever you will about Lady Gaga. Criticize her style, her looks, her music, whatever. But I applaud her for sending a POSITIVE message to the young girls in America, who struggle with their self-esteem for a myriad of reasons (one of which is the media, who projects a false image of "beauty" and "perfection."). Is Lady Gaga perfect? No. But no one is.

[anilimili]

06:24 PM on 02/12/2012

Well, good for her for speaking Truth about this, and for letting girls know that what they PERCIEVE as perfection, is not really perfection in reality, but is the result of a lot of technology and photo shopping and 'stretching' and other gimics that end up showing a pop star with a body that is not really their actual size. Now, granted, Gaga is tiny, and she should NOT worry about her weight (other than, maybe, on increasing it a bit); but the reality is that the media makes it very hard for stars to not fuss about their body and the tabloids are brutal.
Good for Gaga for telling girls to quit dieting and be who they are. Maybe they can take a page from her own poem "Born this way" and let themselves know that as long as they are healthy, active, social, and happy, their size is just one more variation on creation.
God did not make cookie cutter size 0 models as the feminine cut-out woman. We come in all shapes and sizes for a reason. Not to mention that there are many places in the world where people fight tooth and nail to get ENOUGH to eat, let alone worry about dieting.
Be healthy. Be active. Eat well. Find your passion. Share kindness.
You'll be ok and gorgeous, no matter your shape.

[Barfomattic]

03:18 PM on 02/12/2012

... and what girl was NOT bulimic in high school!?!?!? WHY IS THIS NEWS???

[jacmed]

04:29 PM on 02/12/2012

And where did you get that idea, Barfomattic? Oh, I just realized what you've named yourself - never mind! LOL

[Brianna Cole]

07:50 AM on 05/15/2012

Ummm.. Me!

[xgomazx]

03:05 PM on 02/12/2012

Only in a country like America can we develop such disorders, Other countries have people who starve. This country we have people who starve themselves.
Maybe we should trade our group of screwballs who "suffer" from such rediculous disorders and trade them for the people in other countries who are starving.

I agree with Carlin.
"Rich chick doesnt wanna eat? F em"

[normandyv]

03:13 PM on 02/12/2012

A "rediculous" disorder to you is deadly serious to someone else

[xgomazx]

03:45 PM on 02/12/2012

Brought upon themselves. Damn shame
I dont feel a bit sorry for someone who brings upon themselves a rediculous disorder

[Barfomattic]

03:18 PM on 02/12/2012

learn to spell moron

[jacmed]

04:30 PM on 02/12/2012

Learn to not criticize, Barfo!

[normandyv]

02:59 PM on 02/12/2012

Gaga admits to having an eating disorder in HS and the people here just DUMP on her. Why does she deserve that?

[anilimili]

06:32 PM on 02/12/2012

People dump their OWN issues. It is not about her, really. She has moved on and is being open about something that is real enough for many teens. Those who feel the need to take a dump...well... it basically means that it is THEM who feel the urge...

[karmabites2011]

02:46 PM on 02/12/2012

Really? Prove it.

How come it always feels like this broad comes up with "stuff" to ingrate herself with certain groups to make fans.

And last time I heard, meatballs are PROTEIN and since when does protein make you fat?

[anilimili]

06:34 PM on 02/12/2012

"And last time I heard, meatballs are PROTEIN and since when does protein make you fat?"

Actually, meatballs are made from ground meat, which is often quite fatty. Often up to 30% of calories coming from fat, even more if one does not use lean meat. So actuallty, meatballs have a lot of FAT as well as the protein that's in them. Sometimes even more fat than protein, actually. And too much of ANYTHING will result in more calories in than calories spent--which means weight gain.

[foxbatt211]

02:41 PM on 02/12/2012

The poor kid.

[caroleann926]

02:39 PM on 02/12/2012

Such mean posts full of hate and jealousy. She's hurting no one and entertaining many. If you don't like her, don't watch or listen to her.

[aspman07]

03:14 PM on 02/12/2012

I think it's funny how people on this site think just because you disagree with someone that you're jealous.

[caroleann926]

03:36 PM on 02/12/2012

Disagreeing is one thing, but what I read here is very hateful and jealous. Sad.

[rohrscheibcroh]

03:41 PM on 02/12/2012

i don't . i think she a freak

[caroleann926]

04:08 PM on 02/12/2012

I'm sure she'll lose a lot of sleep over what you think. Don't be calling someone names. I think your sentence construction needs a lot of work. Spend time on it.

[JoeAnomie]

01:56 PM on 02/12/2012

Maybe thats why she is such a clumsy dancer.

[imanormalalien]

07:13 AM on 02/17/2012

what does being bulimic have to do with dance? besides, in the dance world many have eating disorders, but you wouldn't be able to tell "by the way they dance"

[ginausa]

01:26 PM on 02/12/2012

Oh man, what idiot wrote that headline? "Gaga reveals heartbreaking confession"! That wasn't "Heartbreaking"! She should feel blessed that she came home to a father who had meatballs on the table and not crack pipes and guns and half dead people laying around everywhere! Some kids come home to drunken fathers who beat them and lock them in closets. Some kids go home to a roach and rat filled house with NO food on the filthy table! Some kids are tortured and starved and used as slaves! She's crying because her father had meatballs on the table? BOO HOO! That was HER choice to make herself throw up! It's horrible but it's totally not concidered "Heartbreaking"! There's WAY worse things in life that are heartbreaking!

[normandyv]

02:55 PM on 02/12/2012

Gaga thought it was heartbreaking that her father served her meatballs? Better read that again

[rohrscheibcroh]

03:42 PM on 02/12/2012

she just used them later. pot smoking freak

[tomd1rx]

01:15 PM on 02/12/2012

cheezzzz, couldn't live today without knowing this