Purpose : This study examined the relationships between psychological needs, self-determined motivation, leisure satisfaction, and subjective well-being among college students. Further, we probed gender differences in the case of research variables and verified the fit between the hypothesized model and observed data. Methods: The 2,840 participants were recruited from a national university, and completed a battery of questionnaires including demographic data, psychological need of leisure sports, self-determined motivation, leisure satisfaction, and subjective well-being. Results: Autonomy was the most psychological need, intrinsic motivation was the most self-determined motivation, and relaxation was the most leisure satisfaction of college students. However, there was a need to enhance the degree of subjective well-being. With respect to gender difference, male students showed higher levels of psychological-need, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, and leisure satisfaction than female students. The hypothesized model was found to properly fit the observed data either based on male samples or female samples. Conclusions: Compared with male students, it is more important to encourage female students to nurture regular exercise behaviors. The best way is to enhance their psychological need of leisure sports and self-determined motivation, which can be considered as a strategy for college to promote students’ participation of physical activity.