The purpose of this study was to assess the relations between amount of physical activity and measures of body image and reasons for exercise and to explore whether amount of physical activity, body image, and reasons for exercise differed by gender and locus of control (LOC). Two-hundred-seventy-four college students (156 women, 118 men) enrolled in a personal health course in Fall 2000 completed the Adame, Cole, Johnson, and Matthiasson 9-Point Amount of Exercise Scale, The Cash 69-Item Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire, the Silberstein, Striegel-Moore, Timko, and Rodin Reasons for Exercise Inventory, and the Adult Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Control Scale. Correlations revealed that women who exercised more were not preoccupied by being overweight and there was a trend for them to exercise for fitness and health management and not for socializing. A median split (median=9.00 ) was used to create groups of subjects with lower LOC scores who were classified as internals (M=6.19 , SD=2.05) and subjects with higher LOC scores (M=13.89 )(SD=3.41) who were classified as externals. A series of two (women, men) by two (internal, external) analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were conducted with scores for physical activity level, body image subscales, and reasons for exercise subscales as dependent variables. The analyses revealed that men exercised significantly more than women. Internally oriented subjects, compared to externals, placed greater importance on appearance, placed greater importance and investment on fitness and health, and were generally content with most areas of their bodies. Internals exercised more for health and fitness management while externals exercised more for attractiveness and weight loss. There were no statistically significant sex x LOC interactions. In a time of concern regarding the physical fitness of the nation's youth, exploring the motives for exercise of young people and taking into account gender, body image, and other psychological variables, may assist health and physical educators in developing timely and appropriate curricula for fitness activities.Keyword(s): exercise/fitness, gender issues, physical activity