Background: About 25 % of all global population adults have metabolic syndrome. The syndrome requires at least three of the following criteria: abdominal obesity, type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes, high blood pressure and abnormal levels of blood fats. It is well known that patients that are at risk of developing metabolic syndrome or already have the diagnosis, need to make lifestyle changes in order to prevent further complications, such as cardiovascular diseases. More knowledge is necessary of how patients experience lifestyle changes in order to be able to adjust the approaches so it will become more beneficial for the patients to perform these changes.

Aim: The aim of the paper is to describe how people who are at risk of or with metabolic syndrome, experience lifestyle changes.

Method: A qualitative literature-based method was employed by using Friberg’s five-step analysis. Nine articles were included in this literature study.

Results: Two main themes and six subthemes were identified. The category The individuals inner and outer resources describes the patients experiences of how their resources affected their lifestyle changes. Hand in hand with the caregiver describes how the caregivers approach inflected the patients success in creating new lifestyle habits.

Conclusion: It is not an easy procedure to make several lifestyle changes at once and the support from the caregiver is essential if the patient shall succeed. After forming their new habits, the patients felt in control of their choices and became more confident in dealing with similar struggles in the future.