Kevin Goode is a registered nurse at Riley Hospital for Children with his own motivations for losing weight — after an alarming meeting with his doctor.
INDIANAPOLIS — Weight loss can be challenging, but every pound counts during that journey.
Kevin Goode is a registered nurse at Riley Hospital for Children with his own motivations for losing weight — an alarming meeting with his doctor.
“He told me that I wasn’t going to make it to 40 if I didn’t make some sort of change, and that kind of kicked it into gear,” Goode said.
Goode is 28 years old. In February 2023, he weighed 465 pounds. At the time, he had hypertension, sleep apnea and Type 2 diabetes. At the end of that year, he had bariatric surgery. He said he was supposed to lose 20 pounds before surgery — he lost 80.
With the motivation and support of his mom, Riley co-workers, and his gym in Martinsville, Goode started to see progress. As he lost weight, he realized how much better he was feeling.
“I take the stairs every day to get up to work here, and I’m not winded by the end of it,” Goode said. “In fact, sometimes if I skip cardio in the morning, I will literally walk the stairs up and down three times just to make sure I get my cardio in.”
The lowest weight Goode reached was 176 pounds. As of July 2025, he weighed 205, a difference of 260 pounds since February 2023. He said his previous health conditions are gone. While he was always able to care for patients at Riley, he explained now he can do more for them and better interact with kids.
Shelby Nation, day shift coordinator at the hospital’s heart center, said Goode’s weight loss journey inspired his co-workers to also live healthier lives. She explained how they encouraged him to never give up.
“Whether it’s participating with him or just sending him an encouraging text or just telling him here on the unit, ‘Kevin, you look great. You’re doing so well, just we’re really proud of you.’ Just any kind of motivation that we can give him,” Nation said.
Goode will take his body transformation to the stage in October — thanks to some encouragement from a trainer at his gym. He will compete in a transformational bodybuilding competition, which is judged based on before-and-after photos, his story and 20% for his physique.
“I’ve already won, obviously, with shedding the weight off and changing my life and my lifestyle and everything I’m able to do now,” Goode said. “But just trying to put it in that next person’s mind that you can literally do whatever you set your mind to.”
Goode is getting his certified trainer license and will graduate in May to become a nurse practitioner. He said his main goal is to inspire others — considering where he was at and what it took to become confident on a bodybuilding stage.
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