A MARATHON effort has seen a British man lose two stone just by playing a smartphone app.

Sam Clark, 32 from Southampton walked the equivalent of five marathons in a fortnight just by playing Pokemon GO.

Mr Clark was the first person in the UK to catch all of the available Pokemon in the UK, all 143 of them.

Working as a full-time electrical engineer, the father-of-four has spent every waking hour when not at work scouring his home town to catch them all.

Mr Clark said: "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."

Pokemon GO has divided opinion with millions flocking to play the game, as others have mocked it as silly, as hundreds of people mill around in city centres catching Pokemon.

However, Mr Clark spoke about the positive impact that the app had had on his life.

He said: "

"Pokemon 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."