Although the management of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its risk factors have been widely concerned, the changes of cardiopulmonary endurance caused by MetS are usually overlooked. Cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) is the gold standard for detecting cardiopulmonary endurance. CPET has important application value in evaluating the cardiopulmonary endurance of MetS patients, formulating individualized exercise prescriptions, evaluating the effect of clinical intervention, and playing a role in the prognosis of diseases. For patients with disease risk factors, CPET may be a supplementary screening tool for the diagnosis of MetS during follow-up, but more large-sample clinical studies are needed in the future to provide evidence for the application of CPET in MetS.