Amanda Folstad is knows for being one of the nicest ladies in female fitness. It seems like every time I’ve seen her in a contest, she is in A+, 100%, top shape. Sometimes we hear feedback from judges on the female side of the sport that they don’t want to see ladies looking too lean. I really think that has hurt Amanda a few times, as she always gets her diet practically perfect and seems to come in shredded. This is part of the debate and the dichotomy of female fitness.
She had bounced from figure contests to bodybuilding contests, which really is a classic way of dealing with a “criticism” of being too lean or too muscular (at least for women).
Amanda got started in the sport when she was 18. She was just dabbling at first, mainly with the goal of dropping a few pounds and looking better. But as a few months turned into a year, Amanda became more aware of other ladies in the iron game, and she started setting serious goals to be on the cover of magazines and compete.
I’ve seen/read in interviews where Amanda laughs about being addicted to competing. At her level, so much time an energy is put into living the lifestyle that promotes success, that it really becomes a let-down when your effort isn’t validated with good placings. To help her ease into contest shape, and to keep her mentally in the game, Amanda says she rarely goes more than 10-20 lbs over her contest weight, which really isn’t much for a person with her size.
Amanda is 5’7″ tall, and competes at about 135 lbs. She says her best bodypart is her abs. Although I can’t disagree with her there, obviously her quads are out of this world.