In 5 weeks your only good option is water manipulation. Losing any legitimate weight that quickly will shoot your strength in to the crapper.
If it were me, the only reason I'd make that cut is if I am gunning for a 220 record or if there is a 220 that I fucking hate and want to smash in a meet ( I've cut and bloated to chase down guys I don't like at meets)
if neither of those is happening at this meet just lift as a light 242 and go for some of the numbers you want in a meet, set a new PR now and THEN cut for the next meet.
Long term cutting has lots of options, the one I have seen work the best for most of the top lifters I know is the carb backloading diet that John Kiefer wrote. EliteFTS and dangerouslyhardcore have lots of good info, or you can buy his book for $90. It was worth it for me.
If you want to cut water, and a 12# cut at your weight should be easy the easiest way to do it and not fuck yourself is sodium loading. My wife did this to make weight, cut from 139.6 to 130 to lift 132.
Basically, if your meet is Sat ( fri weigh in) you'd start at a week out.
Sat - high water high sodium
Sun - High water high sodium
Monday - High water zero sodium
Tuesday - same
Wed - stop drinking water at noon, switch to coffee. Stop eating after dinner. Make all meals high fiber. Take your milk thistle and dandilion root or any other mild diuretic ( heard of guys using some arimidex here as well)
Thursday just coffee until noon then stop all fluids. More dandilion root and start pissing. By Thursday night you should be 3-5# over.
Friday get up early and weigh in, most guys lose 2-4# over night from breathing and farting and sweating. IF you are a pound or three over draw up a hot bathtub of epsom salts and wintergreen rubbing alcohol. Soak with just your face exposed as long as you can then towel off, repeat as necessary until you sweat it all out. If I am only 5# over for a meet this is the only part of this I do. This alone will sweat 5# out of me ( but I weigh 300+)
After weigh-ins start on bloating back up. Get someone to run an i.v. for you, start drinking pedialyte, V8, chicken broth, and gatorade. Go to the chinese buffet ( a few times if you need to) eat a pizza, pour a quart of milk over a whole package of oreos in a bowl.... but Sat morning you will be back over 235 and the carb load usually makes you feel great.
If you lift in a god-awful fed that doesn't have 24 hour weigh-ins then scrap all this and just go 242, you're fucked.
Good luck
