A little extra weight and physical inactivity can almost triple a man's risk of heart failure and one of the best ways to avoid it is to exercise, stay lean, and get fit, a study has found.

Satish Kenchaiah, MD and researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital, who did a  study tracking 21,000 middle-aged and senior doctors for two decades, found out that obese and inactive men faced a 300 per cent risk of heart failure compared to lean and active men.

Heart failure can lead to coronary artery disease and high blood pressure which makes the heart incapable or too weak to pump blood efficiently from the heart to other parts of the body and the most common cause of heart failure is a previous heart attack, but having high blood pressure can also lead to heart failure for which there is no known cure.

Researchers tracking 21,094 colleague's weight for two decades found that even those who were only slightly overweight faced the risk of suffering a heart failure with the risk increasing with more overweight persons.

The study found that those men who were 5ft 10in tall, for every seven pounds of excess weight gain, risk of heart failure increased by 11 per cent.

When the research started two decades back, the average age of the doctors who took part was 53 and by the time the research concluded, more than 1,000 of them had developed heart failure throughout the period of research. 

The research found that the risk increased by 49 per cent in men classed as overweight, according to their body mass index and the risk rose dramatically by 180 per cent for men classed as obese.

The data also showed that excess weight and physical activity did not influence each other's effect on heart failure risk.

Dr Kenchaiah said, "Higher [body mass index] increased the risk of heart failure in active and inactive men and by the same token, the beneficial effect of vigorous physical activity in reducing the risk of heart failure was observed in lean, overweight, and also obese men.

Exercising and physical activity was not seen as a benefit for reducing the risk of heart failure among overweight and obese men as no matter how much exercise a person does, those with a higher body mass index still have a higher risk of heart failure.

'The lean and active group had the lowest risk and the obese and inactive group had the highest risk,'' he said.

Men who vigorously exercise five to seven times a week had a 36 per cent reduction in heart failure risk compared with men who reported no physical activity, the data showed.

The risk rate was as follows:

• 19 per cent in the lean and active
• 49 per cent in the overweight and active
• 78 per cent in the overweight and inactive
• 168 per cent in the obese and active
• 293 per cent in the obese and inactive

'As far as vigorous physical activity is concerned, even if somebody said they exercised one to three times per month - which is a very low level of exercise - they had an 18 per cent reduction in the risk of heart failure after accounting for all other established risk factors.'

Last week, research conducted by UCL and the National Centre for Social Research in the UK and published in the 'Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health' said that one in three UK adults or 13 million people will be obese by 2012. (See: One in three UK adults will be obese by 2012: report) 

Between 1993 and 2004, the prevalence of obesity was found to have almost doubled in men, from 13.6 per cent to 24 per cent, and to have risen by almost 50 per cent among women, from 16.9 per cent to 24.4 per cent.

The British Heart Foundation had also said that heart failure affects more than 900,000 middle-aged and elderly men and women in the UK and it also affects the young in rare cases.