Abstract Introduction The incidence of heart failure (HF), a cardiovascular disease, has been widely reported to be gradually increasing. Although the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index is associated with the risk of HF, this relationship may be affected by differences in nutritional status among individuals with varying levels of obesity. Waist circumference combined with the TyG index may be more accurately associated with HF. Methods This study analyzed data from 8769 participants from the 2011–2020 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). After weighting the data, multivariable logistic regressions were used to calculate the associations between HF and the TyG and TyG-waist circumference (TyG-WC) indices in adults with different body mass indices (BMIs). Restricted cubic splines were employed to assess for linear or nonlinear relationships. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to demonstrate the efficacy of the models for different indices. The Net Reclassification Index (NRI) was used to measure the improvement in the TyG-WC index relative to the TyG index in the different models. The Integrated Discriminant Improvement Index (IDI) supports this conclusion. Results TyG and TyG-WC indices were positively associated with HF (TyG: odds ratio [OR], 1.765; 95% CI], 1.390–2.242; P