Cutting weight while staying strong

[italiangumbi]

How would someone get the benefits of barbell training while trying to cut for a weight class? I'm a 21 years old woman at barely 5'2", normally walk around at 58kg (127ish lbs), but I am trying to compete in a -55kg (121 lbs) class this year. I eventually want to work my way down to -50kg (110) in 1-2 years. I compete in WKF-style karate point sparring, which is why I include the kilo weight classes. Here are my max lifts as January 2009:

Full C&J: 124.6 lbs
Full Snatch: 77 lbs (I know I can do more, but my technique is crap)
Backsquat: 186.12 lbs
Press: 76.12 lbs
Bench: 110 lbs
Dead lift: 220.5 lbs

I used to work myself to death with hour long cardio sessions 6-7 days a week as a means of cutting weight; I'd use the sauna, I'd spit in a cup, I'd starve myself, I even listened to coaches who told me that I needed to stop weight training since that made me gain too much weight. Subsequently I would make my weight class--- And then I'd fight like crap (surprise) with no strength or speed.

I now train in O-lifting and Crossfit 4-5 days a week in addition to my karate training with amazing improvements in my conditioning. I want to thank you for your SS and Practical Programming texts; I hope to follow SS closely in my off-season when I don't have to focus on weight classes and can get real strong. I love lifting, I want to lift more, but I am struggling to drop weight while staying strong. What can I do?

And I apologize for any stupid-ness in this post.

[Mark Rippetoe]

You can easily lose 7 lbs. of bodyfat in 1-2 years with a clean diet. The problem is that you are quite likely to gain that much muscle through correct training in the same length of time. And you may find that in 1-2 years your goals have changed. But if you are determined to weigh 56kg the week before the meet (you can lose a kilo of water in 3 days with no adverse effects on performance) the technical problems of losing 2 kg in 2 years are not worth mentioning. Just eat clean with an eye towards maintenance instead of growth, train hard, and you'll be fine.

[justinbass]

Give the zone diet a try(god I hate that name). It is really hard to gain weight when you are controlling your daily block(caloric) intake that strictly.