Exercise / Protein / etc. to maintain lean mass?

 I am eyeballing a RNY surgery date in late September, early October.  One of my primary goals is to make SURE that I lose as little lean/muscle weight as possible during the FAT loss!!

I am 5'9", 345ish at the moment (50BMI or so)  When I weight 330ish my fat% was approx 49%, so that would mean my lean weight would have been say 165 lbs approx.

(BMI of "normal" would be 169!!?)

I assume a LOT of muscle is in my legs, I always have been strong (leg press, I could do the entire stack on the Nautilus machines)

My upper body is pretty strong too, I have done strength training on/off since a teenager.

SO.. I realize that losing NO muscle is probably unrealistic, but should I be working on specific plan to maintain as much as I can?

(If you have read Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, you have an idea of my mindset, just never could lose much FAT..sigh)

Should I hit a certain protein goal per day?  My readings have suggested that the body will burn fat first IF I supply it enough protein to maintain my current muscle!?

I have seen on here there will be a period of time post-surgery I will not be able to strength train, but I plan to WALK like crazy during that.. 

So thoughts!?

Thanks in advance!

welcome!  the thread right below this one (DS and muscle) has most of what you are looking for, check that out to see if that answers your question.