“The Biggest Loser” trainer Jillian Michaels, who now has her own weight loss reality show (“Losing It With Jillian Michaels”), has finally confessed that her life as an overweight teenager was pure hell in an exclusive interview featured in the latest issue of Redbook Magazine (July 2010).

Jillian went through a very difficult stage in high school when she was 175 pounds and her life was absolutely miserable. The 36 year-old personal trainer revealed that karate saved her life and her body. And to prove she is, in fact, now very comfortable in her own skin and at peace with her past, Jillian showed one of her “fat teen” high school pictures (pictures below).

Here are some highlights of Jillian Michaels’ Redbook interview:

On people’s biggest misconception about her: “That I’m a bitch. I really don’t have a mean bone in my body! Do you know how easy it would be to tell people what they want to hear? It would be heaven! But, unfortunately, it doesn’t get the job done.”

On her weight struggles as a teen: “Oh, my God, it was pure hell. I spent all of eighth grade in my classroom because God forbid I ever left. I was terrorized. And karate saved my life. It all stopped the day I broke two boards with a kick.”

On being in therapy at age 5: “I was a really disturbed kid. You know how kids have night terrors? Mine were really bad. I thought sharks were coming out of the drain in the bathtub. I couldn’t sleep at night, every night, waiting for aliens to come. I’m not kidding you: I. Was. Traumatized. And mom got me into therapy.”

On how families react in her new show: “I think they presume it’s a fitness show. And the next thing you know, I’m in your marriage, I’m going to school with your kids. I’m, like, in the middle of everything, and it’s just like, “What the hell, what’s happening?” I’m lying with one eye open in the middle of the night, waiting for the mom to come in and put a knife through my heart. It’s brutal. It is brutal.”

Jillian Michaels Redbook & High School Photos

[images courtesy of Redbook]