In recent years, the treatment of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and coronary heart disease has made remarkable progress. However, the incidence of heart failure (HF) remains high and has become an important challenge in the cardiovascular field. At present, the urgent problem is how to effectively delay the occurrence and development of HF and reduce its fatality rate. Recent studies have shown that insulin resistance (IR) is closely related to HF. This article summarized the current research status of the correlation between heart failure and insulin resistance, and provided new ideas and strategies for the treatment of heart failure. The review is now reported as follows.