To determine selfreported physical leisure activity level and physical fitness in women with fibromyalgia we sent questionnaires to the female members of a local fibromyalgia association and the same questionnaire to the women in a population based cohort study. The fibromyalgia patients had higher physical leisure activity level, but lower physical fitness than the women in the population survey. The difference in physical leisure activity persisted even after controlling for a series of possible confounders, including employment status and work load in a logistic regression analysis.