The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Sports Medicine issued the current public health physical activity recommendation in 1995. This recommendation states that adults should accumulate 30 minutes or more of moderate physical activity (MPA) on most, preferably all, days of the week. The majority of young adult women are not meeting this recommendation. To date, there has been little, if any, research that examines whether or not female college students understand the current recommendation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to qualitatively examine female college students’ understanding of this recommendation. Sixteen full-time, undergraduate female students (age = 19.31 ± 0.94 years), who had not completed any college-level health or physical activity coursework, participated in focus groups conducted by a female facilitator. During the focus groups participants were asked open-ended questions about the intensity, frequency, and duration of physical activity (PA) necessary to be considered MPA. Data were transcribed and then analyzed using NUD*IST® qualitative software. In terms of frequency, most participants indicated that MPA needs to be performed on most days of the week. However, some participants commented that MPA could be performed as little as 3 days per week and still provide health benefits. In discussing the duration of MPA recommended each day, the majority of participants identified 30 minutes as the threshold for health benefits. Yet, participants incorrectly believed that the health benefits would be greater if the 30 minutes of MPA were performed at one time rather than accumulated throughout the day. Confusion about the relationship between intensity and duration was also found. Many participants mentioned that an increase in the number of minutes spent performing PA each day leads to an increase in the intensity of the PA performed (i.e., a moderate activity done for a long period of time would eventually become vigorous). These results suggest that female college students understand the frequency component of the current public health physical activity recommendation but that they are confused about the relationship between intensity and duration. Based on these results, messages that clarify the relationship between intensity and duration and the health benefits offered by the accumulation of MPA throughout the day are needed for college women.