Dietary fat intake, with special emphasis on dairy products, was estimated from questionnaires for 42 underweight, 80 normal weight, and 64 overweight adult women. Frequency of consumption of fresh and processed meats, frozen dairy desserts, pastries, and snacks such as potato chips was greater for the overweight than for the underweight subjects. However, preferences between verbally-described high- and low-fat versions of 14 food pairs did not differ by body size. Overweight subjects reported that they consumed more non-fat milk and less whole milk than did the other groups. Discrimination, perceived intensity, paired preference, and hedonic rating of fat in milk and in chocolate milk did not differ significantly according to body size, fat intake, or type of milk consumed. Ad libitum mixing of non-fat milk and "half and half" (12% fat) to individual levels of liking also showed no significant variation with body size. However, subjects with higher dietary fat intakes mixed to higher fat-preference levels in milk than did the low- and medium-fat intake subjects. Those reporting consumption of regular milk (3.5% fat) mixed to higher fat levels than did those who consumed low-fat (2% fat) or non-fat milk. The ad libitum procedure gave better reproducibility and appeared to be a more realistic measure of liking than the hedonic rating or paired-preference tests.