No you won't lose your apps. I've done it, and not lost anything at all. I have gained more than double the battery life. see my previous post with screenshot.
Not lose your apps, lose your app data. Like any levels you've gained in games, records you've created (e.g. accufuel) or files you've added (e.g. stanza). Unless you restore from backup (which defeats the purpose of this suggestion) or export and later re-import the data (possible with, say, iXpenseit but not, say accufuel), you will lose that data.