Background Obesity and metabolic syndrome (MS) are global health concerns, with high rates of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The current guidelines recommend lifestyle modifications as the best initial treatment for obesity and MS. However, lifestyle interventions have modest effects and high 1-year failure rates. Bariatric surgery offers more weight loss with sustained effect in the long term. Aim The aim was to assess the effect of bariatric surgery on MS and all its components and to detect the probable risk factors for persistent MS after bariatric surgery in Egyptian patients. Patients and methods This prospective multicenter study included 250 obese patients who underwent bariatric surgery and completed 1 year of postoperative follow-up. The patients were evaluated preoperatively and at 1, 6, and 12 months postoperatively for presence of MS and its components according to criteria of the third report of National Cholesterol Education Program-Adult Treatment Panel (NCEP-ATP III). Results and discussion After 1 year of follow-up, the percentages of patients who had MS, obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia, and low high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol were significantly decreased from 92, 100, 84, 50, 74, and 50% to 17, 2, 8, 17, 42, and 25%, respectively. Smoking, family history of obesity, and less percentage of excess weight loss were the most important risk factors for persistence of MS after bariatric surgery