The threat of an early death is not enough to get us Brits moving, according to a recently published survey. The study is released as the British Heart Foundation launches a campaign to get us all to up our heart rates for 30 minutes a day.

Of 2100 people questioned, only 38% said that they would take more exercise if their life depended on it.

In fact a much stronger motivating factor was appearance – with many 16-24 year olds saying that they would start to exercise if they saw an unflattering photograph or if someone told them they were fat.

But exercise is necessary to maintain health and fitness.

Physical activity and obesity are two different risk factors so even if you're lean, if you're inactive you increase your risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease. Many experts believe that it is better to be overweight and exercise, than to be thin and do nothing.

It is becoming an increasing problem in British society – we all use labour saving devices in the home, and lead very sedentary lifestyles often spending most of our waking hours seated at a desk. We drive to the shops, drive to work, and unless we actually make an effort could easily never exert ourselves.

Levels of activity have fallen too in children, and this is especially worrying in view of the latest statistics on childhood obesity. A report launched last week found that only 1 in 40 eleven year olds met the national target for one hour of exercise each day. Most of the children monitored averaged 17 minutes of moderate exercise. This is extremely worrying as it will undoubtedly have an effect on the health of the nation in the future.

One of the problems is that if we don’t naturally learn to be active in childhood, it is exceptionally hard to develop in adulthood.

The British Heart Foundation says that someone dies every 15 minutes as a direct result of physical inactivity.