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A restaurant in central China has apologised for encouraging diners to weigh themselves and then order food accordingly.

The policy was introduced after a national campaign against food waste was launched.

The beef restaurant in the city of Changsha placed two large scales at its entrance this week.

It then asked diners to enter their measurements into an app that would then suggest menu items accordingly.

Signs reading "be thrifty and diligent, promote empty plates" and "operation empty plate" were pinned up.

The policy caused uproar on Chinese social media.

Hashtags about the restaurant have been viewed more than 300 million times on the social platform Weibo.

The restaurant said it was "deeply sorry" for its interpretation of the national "Clean Plate Campaign".

"Our original intentions were to advocate stopping waste and ordering food in a healthy way. We never forced customers to weigh themselves," it said in an apology posted online.

President Xi Jinping ignited the campaign this week, calling the levels of national food wastage "shocking and distressing".

Following Mr Xi's message, the Wuhan Catering Industry Association urged restaurants in the city to limit the number of dishes served to diners - implementing a system where groups have to order one dish fewer than the number of diners.

State TV also criticised livestreamers who filmed themselves eating large amounts of food.