The patients after cardiac surgery often suffer from malnutrition due to insufficient energy intake, which increases the incidence of complications and mortality. Thus, energy and protein intake can accelerate patients' recovery. Previously, enteral nutrition has been widely considered to be the major nutritional way, however, an increasing studies suggest a combination of enteral and parenteral way can provide nutrition to patients maximally. Albeit the timing of the inception of parenteral way of nutrition remains controversial, it is confirmed that early start of the enteral way is salubrious to patients, and the duration of nutritional support should be determined according to the specific situation of patients. Additionally, nutritional scoring system plays a crucial role. Various nutritional risk scores can predict the clinical outcome of patients, thus, the most adaptable nutritional score for patients after receiving cardiac surgery needs further study. This article reviews the importance of nutritional support for the patients after cardiac surgery, selection, timing, and duration of post-operative nutritional support, and the advances in nutritional risk assessment etc.