| Sumario: | In general, participating in activities for self-determined reasons (i.e. because you “want to” engage in the activity) results in stronger levels of motivation that last longer than participating for more controlled forms of motivation (i.e. because you feel you “have to” participate). As having unsatisfied physical needs through drinking alcohol, eating poorly, and sleeping little or less consistently may interrupt self-determined forms of motivation for physical activity, we hypothesised that basic psychological needs satisfaction and self-determined motivation would mediate the lifestyle–leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) relationship. Undergraduate college students (N = 887) completed an on-line survey assessing food consumption, alcohol use, sleep patterns, basic need satisfaction, self-determined motivation, and level of LTPA. Eating breakfast more regularly, eating more fruit and vegetables, sleeping earlier in the night, and staying up later on weekends than weeknights were associated with higher LTPA levels and these effects were mediated through psychological variables. In contrast, eating more carbohydrates and dairy and drinking more alcohol directly associated with LTPA, but not through the proposed psychological mediators. Results support the link between physical and psychological factors promoting LTPA, identify those lifestyle choices that most closely relate to psychological need satisfaction and self-determined motivation, and encourage searches for other possible mediators for linking dairy and carbohydrate intake and alcohol use with LTPA.
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