So since bulking up a bit last year I walk around at 87ish kilos (with a couple more % bodyfat than I'd like). For nationals in June my coach recommended I go -81kg because of the greater competition in -90kg class and the relative lack thereof in -81kg.

So basically the last 6 weeks has been miserable. Despite a strict diet the weight has come off slowly, and there is still 4 weeks to go. While I like the way my body looks now, I don't want to cut down a weight class again (and my mrs jokingly threatened to leave me if I did because I've been a cranky depressed ****).

So nationals is on the 13th June, there's another international comp on 21st September. I've been considering going straight to a GOMAD diet as soon as it's over and hitting the weights hard. This raises a couple of questions:

1. Is this enough time to go up a weight class successfully?

2. I figure going straight to such a high calorie diet will mean by body is more receptive to the extra cals after 10 weeks of deficit. Is my body gonna say to itself hey party time let's store a whole lot of fat! or will I add muscle and fat as anyone would trying to bulk up?

3. I'm not sure how to hit the weights. I've been doing stronglifts in one form or another for a couple of years now because of how great it is for strength. My concern is because I'm used to the 5x5 method my body won't react as much as I need it to in putting on muscle. Do I need to go straight to a pure hypertrophy workout with a high volume of training days?
I do need to focus somewhat on strength as there's no point going up a weight class only to be the weakest there.


Any further advice or opinions are welcomed

I'll give my quick two cents on my experience with the GOMAD diet:
I did it for two months, and gained about twelve pounds of lean mass. I was on a 5x5 program where I was doing squats 3-4 times a week, and that worked out pretty damn well. I also went from squatting 140 to 230.
The other plan I've heard for the GOMAD diet is the 1x20 squat program.
I'm afraid I can't answer your other specific answers questions without talking out of my ass, but hopefully Emavas will pop by soon.

There's no actual "1x20 squat program", but there is what's called "20 rep squats" and "Super Squats", which is a great program independent of drinking a gallon of milk a day.

I can't speak towards the athletic aspect, but going from a caloric deficit to an extreme caloric surplus is going to **** with your body. You want to introduce changes gradually.