Hyde
Legend
Stay in 220. You can easily keep lean with a little cardio.
I vote this as well. As Duffin says, just become more proficient with your lifts. I bet you can achieve that total as 220.
It is most definitely doable. But it's much easier and healthier on me not to cut weight. Sean, you're at the top of the sh*tpile for tested squatters; cutting weight is an integral part of you being at that spot. As for me, I'm an untested guy just getting into 500 - as Donnie Thompson says, "Nobody gives a damn about your squat!".
Everything I read from literally every elite lifter says that unless you're gunning for a record or really want to win your class, cutting is pointless and unnecessarily hard on your body (especially considering the load on liver and kidneys already if you're loading an oral coming into a meet). All you do is risk decreasing your performance and slowing growth. Yet all I see is run of the mill, mediocre novice-intermediate lifters like myself killing themselves trying to make weight & then get it back on - for what? Everyone I aspire to be like is bigger than 220 anyway.
Not that I intend to get fatter, by any means.