Well although I won't know till I've finished this 'cut' what the results will be, I can honestly say, I don't regret doing it. This is the first time I've gained weight on purpose and it's quite liberating. With the 8lb gain, I've stayed in the same size clothes (granted, they are tighter) and the fat seems evenly distributed (whereas it would normally all end up on my belly). The biggest benefit was seeing my lifts go up after stalling and deloading many times when I was at deficit and maintainance - 10 whole kilos on my squat!

And from averaging out what I've eaten on maintainance week I have appeared to give my metabolism a good 'boost'. It might take longer but at least I'm not getting to a goal weight then getting in the old mindset that I'm finished now, eat all the food. The plan is to cut down to 140 (will be paying attention to the great advice on here and concentrating on measurements/mirror etc though) then start the whole process again