I think keeping them in a small area to eliminate all of the walking helps. I also like to to feed sudex hay during weaning. Seems it's palatability is far superior to my fescue hay. By eliminating the cardio, and keeping the calorie count up, I can't tell mine lose much if any.
Doing a little sorting Saturday, my daughter accidentally turned a freahly weaned steer out in my heifer calving pen. He hasn't jumped the fence to back to his mother. Small wonder, because they stand on each side of the fence Day and night, and bawl. I'm feeding the heifers, but this thing don't know what feed is, and won't leave mom to follow them too feed. Shy of necking him, and wrestling him to the barn with a horse, I guess he's just there till he jumps out, catches on, or finally gets weaned. Long story to get to this---------He looks gutted. Ain't no telling how much weight this steer has lost. He was a big old slick 650 pound steer about the middle of last week. He looks bad today.