After more than 15 years of aerobics classes, including five through Jazzercise, Jennifer Portnick decided last summer to buy a Jazzercise franchise in San Francisco.

        She began working out six days a week in training for the Jazzercise certification tests and says she was “pretty darn fit.”

        But Jazzercise officials rejected her application because of her weight.

        “Jazzercise sells fitness,” the company said in a letter to Ms. Portnick. “Consequently a Jazzercise applicant must have a higher muscle-to-fat ratio and look leaner than the public.”

        San Francisco, however, is one of a handful of U.S. cities with a law prohibiting discrimination based on weight or height. Ms. Portnick filed a complaint against Jazzercise with the city's Human Rights Commission.

        Last week, the company and the aerobics instructor reached a mediated settlement.

        “Recent studies document that it may be possible for people of varying weights to be fit,” the company said in a statement. “Jazzercise has determined that the value of "fit appearance' as a standard is debatable, and has therefore eliminated this as a means of evaluating franchise applicants.”

        In the meantime, Ms. Portnick began teaching her own Feeling Good Fitness program at a San Francisco church. She has received offers to write a book, star in an aerobics video, speak to various groups around the country and to train people in her own approach to exercise.

        “I don't know what's coming up next,” she said. “But anything is possible.”

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