Just tuck them out of the way.
Removing leaves of any type? Your removing the food factories of the plant. The bigger they are - The more food they make..
#1: Lower buds do not need direct light to form or develop
#2: Direct lighting on buds - helps them ripen properly, near the end (last cpl weeks)
#3: Simply leave the leaves on, and harvest the ripe buds, leaving the lower unripe buds on the plant, under the light.. In about 1.5 -2 weeks and these buds are ripe. They will actually be more potent then your mains...
Lastly, I do remove some bud fans in the last 2 weeks on a cpl of strains I run that are very, very "leafy." This allows some light for ripening to the interior buds on the top branching. Stepped harvest is still done.