Sylvester Stallone Admits he was Suffering from Bulimia While Filming 'Rocky III' — 'It Became An Obsession'
Sylvester Stallone has opened up about his secret eating disorder in his new memoir, 'The Steps.'
Sept. 28 2026, Published 7:28 a.m. ET
Sylvester Stallone claims he was suffering from bulimia while filming Rocky III.
RadarOnline.com can reveal the Hollywood superstar, 80, has opened up about his secret health struggles in his new memoir, The Steps, in which he referenced the extreme measures he took to maintain his physique.
'I Couldn't Hold Anything Down'
Stallone detailed his desperate to stay in top shape for the 1982 movie.
Stallone said: "It became an obsession.
"Really bad. It got to the point where I became bulimic.
"You heard it here first. I got down to 2.6 per cent body fat when I was doing Rocky III, and I couldn't hold anything down.
"Or I didn’t want to keep it down because I became so obsessed with staying at that point of fitness, literally an obsessive body-worship kind of thing."
Stallone said any actor pressured to stay in top physical shape at that time had to do drugs.
He explained: "It isn’t as though you’re a junkie, but if you're going to work out and try to stay in shape for six months straight, and you're eating yogurt and pudding, it's not happening."
Quizzed On Steroid Use
Stallone admitted to taking steroids.
Speaking to the The New York Times, the actor revealed he would undertake a six-week steroid cycle that he viewed as necessary to play boxer Rocky Balboa.
But the star did not specify which performance-enhancing drugs he used.
Asked if he ever took steroids, Stallone said: "Oh, my god, you have to.
"But you do it in a sensitive way – six weeks on, six weeks off.
"People go, 'Oh, you don’t get that way naturally.' No, you don't. But that also took a terrible toll."
Stallone also claimed he was once sent to a punishment block inside a residential school facility, where a fellow patient attacked him.
Terrifying High School Attack
The actor told of frightening altercation.
He told how he attended a high school that would punish misbehaving students by putting them in "a place called Park Lodge or the Snake Pit."
He recalled: "On the outside it looked like a big, old Tudor home from the '20s, and then you walked inside and you entered the heart of insanity.
"The smell, the filth, people running around naked, clawing, hands tied, drooling. This is what they thought would impress you never to break the rules again."
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Stallone was rescued by guards.
Stallone said he was left there for two weeks and was attacked by a "guy named Jay Bird."
"They called him Jay Bird because he was always naked as a jaybird. And I go into the bathroom on the way to the food mess hall, and he comes in and comes around me and he's like ripping on my throat and he is going into my pants and grabbing my groin."
Stallone alleged that two guards ran in and began "beating the c--- out of him (Bird) with razor straps."
