Abstract: Viruses cannot grow or replicate independently due to their lack of the basic metabolic ability; instead, they usually hijack the host cell’s metabolic machinery to complete their life cycle. Therefore, the regulation and exploitation of host metabolic resources is central to virus-host interaction. During the long-term co-evolution, viruses have developed multiple strategies to regulate and ‘hijack’ the host cell’s metabolic system which provides energy and macromolecules for virus replication and propagation. Consequently, hosts have evolved a variety of countermeasures, including the activation of antiviral immune response to detect and counteract these virus-induced metabolic alterations. In this review, we discuss the advances in understanding how core host metabolic pathways, such as host glucose, glutamine, and fatty acid metabolisms manipulated by different classes of viruses, including those infecting mammals and aquatic species. We also highlight the host responses to virus evoked metabolic changes. The literature summarized here not only deepens our understanding of virus-host interactions, but also provide new insights into novel therapeutic strategies for preventing viral infections.