Man loses 2 stone playing Pokémon Go

A father-of-four has lost two stone after walking the equivalent of five marathons as he became the first person in the UK to catch all of the Pokémon Go characters available in the country.

Sam Clark has posted a video on YouTube showing his haul of 143 of the virtual characters which he found while playing the hit game.

The 32-year-old, a founder of Cyberjam Gaming in Southampton, Hampshire, wrote in his video description: “I think this to be the first full set in the UK but I could be wrong.”

The electrical engineer said that he had spent almost “every waking hour” playing the game since it was launched on July 6 during which time he had walked around much of Southampton and Gosport.

“It’s been a long, old slog, I walked about five marathons, 225km, to do this. I have lost two stone, I can put on jeans that I haven’t worn for six years, the last time I tried I couldn’t get them over my legs.

“I am not obsessive, I have a full-time job, I have a wife and four kids, it’s just fun.

“I didn’t do it for the kudos, I reached 100 and thought I would carry on to see if I could get all of them and I put up the video to see if I was the first in the country and it appears I am because no-one else has come forward.”

Mr Clark said his success had brought him a degree of fame, both good and bad.

He said: “I have been called some really nasty names, the internet has been its normal golden tap of love, people have been calling me a virgin, that I’ve never seen a woman in my life, but my wife and kids will disagree with that.

“It’s been all old people, but I have lost two stone getting outside with this game, probably two stone that I have put on sitting inside playing other games.

“Pokémon Go has been so popular, it is a really social game, we had 200 people come along to a meet-up. I was in the park earlier and I was mobbed by people, I had like a fan group and I had one girl asking to take a selfie with me.

"I also got a message from a woman who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after seeing a road accident and she said the game had enabled her to get outside.”