Research by Oxford University showed that every extra inch of belly fat raises the risk for heart failure by 11% and poses a greater danger to cardiac health than overall weight.

According to the Daily Mail, researchers analyzed data on 430,000 British men and women aged 40 to 70 who were tracked for 13 years. Each additional inch on a healthy waist size was associated with a higher risk of a cardiac event, such as heart attack, stroke, or irregular heart rhythm.

People with the largest waistlines were 3.21 times more likely to suffer from cardiovascular health problems than those with the smallest waists. Surprisingly, those with the highest body mass index, or BMI, were only 2.65 times more likely to suffer heart failure than the those with the lowest. Every extra unit of BMI increased the chances of heart failure by 9%, says the Daily Mail.

“The amount of fat people carry around their trunk is more important in tracking body fatness and cardiovascular risk,” noted lead researcher Dr. Ayodipupo Oguntade, adding that people should measure their waistlines regularly. “We know that the fat around the organs in the abdomen is very active and contains a lot of inflammatory factors that can cause heart disease.”

Heart failure is a long-term condition in which the heart cannot pump blood through the body efficiently and can trigger breathlessness and other symptoms. According to the Daily Mail, the best way to check if you are at increased risk for heart disease is to take a piece of measuring tape and wrap it snugly around your bare waist. If the measurement is half your height, this is a healthy weight range.

The findings of the Oxford team of researchers were presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Barcelona, Spain.