It is well known that intrauterine growth restricted (IUGR) neonates lead to escalation in the incidence of metabolic syndrome due to postnatal early catch up growth. We hypothesized that postnatal nutritional restriction may improve metabolic status of liver and white adipose tissue (WAT) in IUGR neonates. Piglets with a birth weight near the mean litter birth weight (SD 0.5) were defined as normal-birth weight (NBW), whereas those with at least 1.5 SD lower birth weight were defined as IUGR. Twelve pairs of NBW and IUGR piglets at 7 d of age were randomly assigned to adequate nutrient intake (ANI) or restricted NI (RNI) for a period of 21 d, which produced 4 experimental groups as NBW-ANI, IUGR-ANI, NBW-RNI and IUGR-RNI (n = 6 per group). The NBW-ANI and IUGR-ANI piglets had free access to formula milk, the NBW-RNI piglets were provided the same amount of formula as the IUGR-ANI piglets, and the IUGR-RNI piglets were provided approximately 70% of the formula intake of the IUGR-ANI piglets. At d 28, blood, liver and WAT samples were collected at necropsy and analyzed for hormone, metabolites and gene expressions. Data were analyzed by SPSS software using the MIXED procedure. The results indicated that IUGR significantly increased leptin concentration (P < 0.01). Compared with NBW piglets, the mRNA abundance of glucose-6-phosphatase and acetyl-CoA carboxylases were significantly decreased (P < 0.05) while sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1c (SREBP1c) was markedly increased (P < 0.01) in the liver of IUGR piglets; moreover, the mRNA abundances of CD36, hormone-sensitive lipase, adipose triglyceride lipase and carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1A in WAT were significantly decreased by IUGR (P < 0.05). Irrespective of BW, the hepatic mRNA abundances of SREBP1c, glucose transporter 4, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, lipoprotein lipase and peroxisome proliferator activated receptor α were significantly increased by RNI (P < 0.05). In summary, postnatal nutritional restriction changed blood metabolites and hormone concentrations by the metabolic related genes in piglets with IUGR.