At what point do you notice water gain from protein shakes?

[ironserenity]

Just kind of an off the wall question, but at how many shakes/day do you start to actually notice some softening occurring?

Personally, if I exceed simply my post workout shake, I start noticing a drastic increase in water, particularly in my face, makes me look mushy and pasty.

I remember back in my beefcake days when I was consuming multiple, multiple, multiple shakes per day I was exceptionally puffy.

I cut out shakes altogether for about a year and noticed how dry I looked year round. I just recently began incorporating a post workout shake vs. chicken back into my daily regime and just this one shake made a difference. Now if I have a shake say first thing in the morning, it seems to set the pace for the day as a puffy, ugly one!

So at what point do you notice it? And any pointers to reduce this water?

Edit- I did a little bit of further research and found that it could be the lactose in the whey concentrate that is causing me to be a little bit more bloated, would make since due to the fact that I am mildly lactose intolerant

 

[VNV]

It doesn't have anything to do with the water in the shakes. What are in your "shakes?" Drinking more water will just make you piss more once you're saturated, not look soft.

 

[ironserenity]

Just whey.

You have a good handle on it, however (And I may very well be wrong, I've been wrong many times before) I thought it was sort of common knowledge that whey will make you retain water to an extent.