Objective To analyze the cardiac function and consumption characteristics of three major substrates in patients with non⁃alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) with different body mass indexes. Methods A total of 45 NAFLD patients were selected, and they were divided into normal group (15 cases), overweight group (13 cases), or obesity group (17 cases) according to body mass index. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) was used to measure oxygen uptake, consumption of carbohydrate energy, and consumption of fat energy and protein energy when exercise reached anaerobic threshold and maximum. Cardiac function of patients in the three groups was assessed by employing the Weber cardiac function classification standard. Results The Weber cardiac function classification of patients in the three groups was class B. When exercise reached maximum, oxygen uptake was decreased successively in the normal, overweight, and obesity groups (P<0.05). When exercise reached anaerobic threshold, the obesity group exhibited higher consumption of carbohydrate energy as compared with the overweight and normal groups (P<0.05), but there was no statistically significant difference between the overweight group and the normal group (P˃0.05). When exercise reached anaerobic threshold, consumption of protein energy was increased successively in the normal, overweight and obesity groups (P<0.05), but there was no statistically significant difference in consumption of fat energy between the three groups when exercise reached anaerobic threshold and maximum (P˃0.05). Conclusion NAFLD patients suffer from mild to moderate cardiac function damage. During higher exercise intensity, NAFLD patients with greater body mass index have lower oxygen uptake capacity and poorer cardiac exercise tolerance, and when performing moderate to low exercise intensity, NAFLD patients with high body mass index tend to require energy provided by carbohydrate metabolism and protein metabolism; in addition, regardless of exercise intensity, energy consumption of fat oxidation metabolism in NAFLD patients is basically not affected by body mass index.