Ok, here's the moment you've all been waiting for - I'm finally going to spill the beans about the "Jeff Buff" picture and end the controversy. Are you ready? Ok, the "Jeff Buff" picture is an actual picture of me. Whew, glad to get that off my chest! Ok, it's not a recent picture of me. It was taken in June of 1995, if I remember correctly. I had joined Gold's Gym that January. I was about 140 lbs. and was over 20% bodyfat. I worked out hard in the gym, usually 3-5 days a week. I first ran on the treadmill after working out, and later did it first thing in the morning. I gradually worked up to eating 6 meals a day. At first I followed a low-fat diet, but as my knowledge of nutrition grew, I continued to lower my carb intake. I was probably using meal replacements, whey protein, and eventually creatine. I don't remember if I was using caffeine/ephedrine or not.
Now's here the weird thing. The day I had this picture taken, I was only 119 1/2 lbs., with a bodyfat level of 11% (I'm 5'2".) The lighting may have made me look a little leaner.
The controversy arose as to whether or not I altered the picture. Some people even accused me of "splicing my head on someone else's body." Ok, yes I did edit the picture. Of course, I have to edit every picture that's on my site! The originally wouldn't fit in a browser, so I made it smaller, This was also the time before I had a digital camera, and was scanning pictures. This always messed up the brightness and contrast, which I usually edited to make it look better. Did I do any splicing? I am really not that good at Photoshop. Even today, years later, I still don't know how to splice two pictures together. And if I did, I would think I would have given myself a bigger body.
So I hate to break it to all those who doubted me, especially those at EDS (you know who you are), but the picture is real. I am currently (April 2002) just about the same bodyfat level that I was in the "Jeff Buff" picture. However, I have more than 10 lbs. more muscle, and have not started taken creatine yet (this will probably add another 5 lbs. or so on me within a month.) Soon, I'll have some current pics of me to put on my site, and yes, they will be real.