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With marathon season almost at its height, many runners are putting in those final long runs, tapering, and setting their sights on the finish line. And while the miles matter, what you put (or don't put) in your belly can be just as important.

Whether you're running your first 26.2 or are looking to take home a PR, Susan Kleiner, Ph.D., R.D., bestselling author of numerous books including Power Eating, has advice to help your marathon be your best.

RELATED: Top 25 Marathon Mistakes to Avoid

1. Let thirst be your guide.
According to Kleiner, nothing beats the impact of hydration on performance. She recommends drinking a sports drink with electrolytes to replace fluids.

"If you are racing just to participate and finish, then drink when you are thirsty throughout the event," she says. "If you are racing to win or achieve your personal record, then have a structured fluid replacement plan during the race and be sure to stick with it."

See more tips for eating on marathon day after the break!

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar. This week Shape turns to dietitian Cynthia Sass.

When I saw the New York magazine headline "Pumpkin Is the New Bacon," I have to admit, I rolled my eyes and thought, “Really?” But after reading the article, I get it. Pumpkin is popping up in dishes across the country.

One research firm noted a 38 percent jump in "pumpkin presence" on menus since 2010, and another discovered a whopping 400 percent increase in pumpkin drinks in the past five years. Sometimes it shows up in unexpected ways, like pumpkin tacos. But too often, it's folded into decadent dishes such as pumpkin fritters.

RELATED: 10 Delicious Ways to Cook Pumpkin

On its own, roasted pumpkin, and even unsweetened pumpkin puree, are nutritional all-stars, loaded with immune-boosting vitamin A and filling fiber. And it's relatively low in calories — one cup mashed clocks in at less than 50.

But when it's wrapped in layers of butter, refined carbs, and sugar, or simply a flavoring rather than the real deal, the benefits are pretty much null and void, and the calories rack up fast. Here are five of the worst offenders, with the three most egregious nutrition facts for each:

Panera Bread Pumpkin Bagel
Calories: 380
Carbs: 74 g
Sugar: 24 g

See the nutritional stats of other pumpkin treats after the break

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar. This week Shape turns to dietitian Cynthia Sass.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you probably know that I don’t recommend counting calories. In fact, I believe it’s a strategy that can actually backfire (check out my previous post about the biggest calorie mistakes).

Instead, my focus is on reaching for delicious foods that naturally help you manage weight; choices that boost satiety, rev up metabolism, build calorie-burning muscle, or provide key nutrients involved with weight control. High up on that list of naturally slimming foods is produce.

RELATED: Top 50 Fall Diet Foods for Weight Loss

According to the latest data, 75 percent of Americans fall short of the minimum recommended five daily servings, but a recent study published in The Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that filling that gap can help you trim down. Over a four-year period, women who added just two servings of fruits and vegetables to their daily diets lost three pounds. This may not sound like much, but that’s without “dieting.” And shedding three pounds of body fat can be very significant, both for your health and how your clothes fit (think three 16-ounce tubs of shortening).

RELATED: How to Lose Weight Without Feeling Hungry

While the produce-weight loss connection isn’t a hard sell and there are many other benefits (such as a glowing complexion), many of my clients still struggle to consistently hit the daily goal. If you tend to fall short, put these two rules into action:

See the two rules after the break!

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar. This week Shape turns to celebrity trainer Jay Cardiello.

Does the early bird always get the worm? In the land of exercise, many experts feel that morning workouts hold greater advantages than those in the evening, while other fitness professionals believe the opposite to be true. With science to back both fields of thought, who is right? Does it even matter? To help end the debate, I've rounded up a thorough list of advantages for both sides of the argument to find out: Which is more beneficial, a morning sweat session or an evening workout?

Advantages to Working Out in the Morning:
1. Consistency: Generally speaking, it is easier for an individual to stay on track with a fitness regime first thing in the morning because there is less time for family, evening plans, commuting, late nights in the office, and other distractions to get in the way. Fatigue from a long day can also lead to skipped evening workouts.

2. Avoiding crowds: Fitness centers see the most traffic between 5 and 8 p.m., making it difficult to get the machine or group fitness class you really want. Mornings see less traffic making a.m. workouts more efficient. And while there may be an influx of gym-goers between 6 and 8 a.m., these patrons tend to get in and get out within a fixed amount of time, leaving no room for socialization and clogging up the gym floor.

RELATED: Is the gym packed? Grab a medicine ball and do this nine-move total-body workout.

See more on the argument of a.m. vs. p.m. workouts after the break!

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar. This week Shape turns to dietitian Cynthia Sass.

When you walk the aisles of the supermarket, do you grab packages and toss them into your cart, or do you stop to turn a product over and read the label? According to a new study, the latter may help you fend off weight gain.

After collecting information from 25,000 men and women to see who checked nutrition information, researchers found that 58 percent of men frequently or always read labels compared to 74 percent of women, and that habit has a greater impact on women's weight. On average, female label-readers have a body mass index that's 1.48 points lower than nonreaders versus a BMI difference of just 0.12 points for men. For an average woman, that can mean a difference of nearly nine pounds!

12 Salads Worse Than a Big Mac

In my private practice, I sometimes meet clients at the grocery store so we can check out labels together. In my experience, it can be a powerful tool — if it's done correctly. One source of confusion for my clients is the reference to 2,000 calories. Take a peek at any label, and you'll see ". . . based on a 2,000-calorie diet." Because of this wording, I've had many clients assume that they should be striving for a daily intake of 2,000 calories, but the truth is that's just a reference number. The Food and Drug Administration had to choose something to provide consumers with perspective, so they selected 2,000 based on the average needs and intakes of both men and women. But that may be above or below your body’s needs.

Find out how many calories you should be eating after the break!

We are pumped to share one of our favorite stories from Shape here on FitSugar.

Halloween candy has been lining store shelves for at least a month now, and if it's not hard enough to resist buying those gigundo-sized bags of chocolate bars, there's now another October-31-inspired treat to tempt you: Last week Nabisco released Candy Corn Oreos in Target stores. As you may guess, this version is white vanilla wafers sandwiching yellow and orange cream. Following up on my popular Anatomy of a Cadbury Crème Egg post, I wanted to take a closer look at these colorful cookies. 

12 Salads Worse than a Big Mac

When you take a quick glance at the nutrition facts and compare them to regular Oreos, things don't appear that different.

See the comparison after the break!

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar.

You do your sun salutations. You breathe deeply. You try to clear your thoughts and feel the burn in your legs as you deepen your lunge in warrior I. But are you really getting the most out of your yoga practice, both physically and mentally? In honor of National Yoga Month, celebrity yoga instructor and CoachClub.com resident trainer Kristin McGee—who's trained Tina Fey, Bethenny Frankel, and LeAnn Rimes Cibrian, and others—offers five tips to help you get the results you want.

The Best Yoga Poses for Flat Abs

1. Know the basics. To get the most from each yoga pose, you need to do them properly. Whether that's by getting extra attention in class or watching a yoga DVD, pay attention to your form and the positioning of your body. This will help you avoid injury and boost results. If you're not sure where to start, CoachClub.com, which has free membership through mid-September, offers McGee's "technical module" pose gallery to get your form down pat. 

See more tips on loving yoga class after the break!

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar.

By nature, I am not a comparer. Everything has its plusses and minuses in my book (except, of course, yoga which is all plusses!). So, while I am not anti-gym, I do think that yoga kicks the gym’s derrière on every level, and you can kick your own (butt, that is) in yoga, literally, if you feel like it!

The Best Yoga Poses for Flat Abs

People are always curious as to “what else I do” to “work out” other than yoga. The answer? Nothing! Yoga is everything my body needs to function at it’s absolute best. Here’s why:

It’s efficient! Why would I waste so much time at the gym working each part of my body separately when I can connect all of the dots and do it all at once with yoga? No amount of lifting weights is going to make my arms as strong as holding up my own body weight in yoga. Also, practically everything you do in yoga is engaging your core, from core-centric poses to moving from pose to pose, using your core to stabilize your body. And in different inversions and arm balances, yoga allows you to raise your heartbeat, strengthen your muscles, and lengthen them out all at once. How’s that for efficiency?

See more reasons yoga is better than the gym after the break!

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar. This week Shape turns to dietitian Cynthia Sass.

My diet is at least 50 percent raw but I do love my oven and grill. Roasted or grilled in-season produce are always staples on my plate, from zucchini and stone fruits in the summer to Brussels sprouts and pears in the winter. So I was disheartened to read the Mount Sinai School of Medicine study linking dry heat cooking to belly fat and type 2 diabetes. 

Can Raw Food Improve Your Sex Life?

In the study, researchers found that mice with continued exposure to a compound called methyl-glyoxal (MG), gained significantly more mid-body weight, and developed type 2 diabetes. MG is a type of advanced glycation end product or AGE, which is produced when food is cooked to high temperatures using dry heat, like roasting, baking, broiling, and grilling. Previous research has found that AGEs lower the body's ability to control inflammation, a known trigger of premature aging and disease.

Learn more about a raw food diet after the break!

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar.

Two things you might not know about me: I love to eat and I hate feeling hungry! I used to think these qualities ruined my chance for weight-loss success. Luckily I was wrong and I've learned that feeling hungry is more than just no fun: it’s not healthy and can actually make it harder to lose weight.

How to Lose 10 Pounds Safely

The Secret to Losing Weight For Good
You don't have to follow a strict diet plan to lose extra pounds and keep them off. In fact, the best strategy is very straightforward: fill up on nutrient-dense foods throughout the day. Rather than focusing on how much you’re eating, it’s much more effective to watch what you’re eating. It's almost impossible to overeat if your plate is filled with high-fiber, nutrient-packed foods.

Junk Food After Dark: Why It’s so Hard to Resist

I made the shift from calorie counting (and constant frustration) to filling up and leaning out (without counting calories) by adopting a vegan lifestyle. By eliminating animal products from my diet, I was able to make lasting positive changes in my life, including weight loss, increased energy, better complexion, improved athletic performance (beach volleyball), and relief of all digestive problems. To top it off, every meal I eat tastes amazing and leaves me completely satisfied.

Learn how this weight-loss plan can work for you after the break!

We are pumped to share one of our favorite stories from Shape here on FitSugar!

If you’re one of the 20 percent of people—most of them women—who struggle with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), you know that bikini season is one of the worst times to deal with symptoms like chronic bloating, diarrhea, and/or constipation. The condition is not completely understood, but new, natural ways to ease the discomfort have been emerging— like these suggestions from colleen Webb, r.D., a nutritionist at the Jill Roberts Center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Weill Cornell Medical college:

Best and Worst Foods for Flat Abs

Take supplements
Both peppermint and ginger, sold in capsule form at health food stores, may help fight muscle spasms in the intestines.

7 Quirky Weight-Loss Strategies that Really Work

Try hypnosis
A Swedish study found that hour-long weekly sessions (for 12 weeks) reduced symptoms in 40 percent of sufferers.

The Best Abs Exercises You’ve Never Seen

Cut back on sugars
Research suggests that 30 to 60 percent of people with IBS might have trouble digesting fructose—found at high levels in apples, pears, watermelon, honey, and agave, as well as high-fructose corn syrup. A gastroenterologist can give you a breath test to diagnose this sensitivity. “Sugar alcohols, often found in ‘diet’ foods, can also make symptoms worse,” says Webb. (Dead giveaway: ingredients that end in -ol, like sorbitol or mannitol.)

To get the latest health, fitness, beauty, and fashion news follow @Shape_Magazine on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar.

Supermodel Gisele Bundchen hasn't officially announced she's expecting her second child with hubby Tom Brady, but she's definitely going to have a hard time denying it now. The bikini-clad bombshell was recently spotted in Costa Rica sporting a growing baby bump. With another bundle of joy on the way and a 32nd birthday last month (July 20), there is a lot to celebrate!

Hollywood's Hottest New Moms

No stranger to showing off that incredible bod, the Victoria's Secret angel sure makes staying in shape look easy. During pregnancy No. 1 (with son Benjamin, now 2 years old), she was still wearing non-maternity clothes in her ninth month! Bundchen told Vogue in 2010, "I was mindful about what I ate, and I gained only 30 pounds. I did kung fu up until two weeks before Benjamin was born, and yoga three days a week."

Marisa Miller's Supermodel-Worthy Ab Workout

There's no doubt she'll be continuing her dedicated workouts during pregnancy No. 2, so we spoke with her kung fu instructor, Yao Li of the Boston Kung Fu Tai Chi Institute, to get the scoop on her routine.

9 Celebrities Who Got Fit Fighting

"Gisele is very focused and very disciplined. I am often surprised by how quickly she grasps the nuances of the movements. When I teach her new techniques, it often seems as though she already knows them," Li says. "She is very intuitive and knows what it takes to make the move look right."

Bundchen, who has worked with Li for the past four years, trains an average of three times per week for 90-minute sessions. The benefits of kung fu for a strong body, a clear mind, and a calm spirit—as well as learning self-defense—are truly inspiring.

See Gisele's kung-fu workout after the break!

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar. This week Shape turns to dietitian Cynthia Sass.

You're probably familiar with the term body mass index, or BMI. In a nutshell, it's a formula that compares your weight to your height.

There are tons of calculators online that allow you to plug in your weight and height and do the math for you, but regardless of how you get to the final number, BMI has its flaws. First, there is a range for what's considered to be a "normal" BMI, a result between 18.5 and 24.9. For a woman who's 5-foot-4, that means a weight anywhere between 108 and 145 pounds, a fairly large difference. Also, BMI doesn't tell you anything about where you're carrying your weight. That's key, because numerous studies indicate that carrying excess belly fat, or being apple-shaped, is more risky for your health than being bottom-heavy, or pear-shaped.

7 Quirky Weight-Loss Strategies That Really Work

Learn more about ABSI after the break!

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar.

Who’s got all the guys going gaga? As one of America’s most beautiful bachelorette’s, Emily Maynard is sweet, stunning, and just so happens to be heating up TV screens all across the U.S.

The 26-year-old Southern bell is more than just her blonde hair, radiant smile, amazing bod, and charming personality… she’s a proud and devoted mom at heart. Capturing our attention — and wooing some pretty good lookin’ men in the process—this West Virginia native is one strong, incredible woman, inside and out.

12 Salads Worse Than a Big Mac

How does our favorite sweetheart — and very busy mama — keep her figure so fab? Maynard told SHAPE, "Honestly, our schedule was so intense that I didn’t have a lot of time to think about working out or a diet plan. The hours alone kept my metabolism burning off calories! Does kissing boys count as exercise?" We’d say it does!

See How Emily really stays in shape after the break!

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar.

I just read this quote from super-svelte former Dancing with the Stars pro Julianne Hough, "if I deprive myself, I end up binge eating." I hear the exact same thing from so many of my clients, which is why in my newest book S.A.S.S! Yourself Slim, I included a section called 'how to build in a splurge.'

Recipes: Make room for splurges with these 15-minute bikini-friendly meals

For most of us, deprivation leads to intense cravings, which can trigger rebound overeating. Now, new data from Mintel finds that moderation is the message that really resonates with consumers. They found that just six percent of those surveyed say they adhere to a strict diet, forty two percent strive for balance instead, and nearly ninety percent believe that moderation is the key to wellness.

Find out when it's OK to splurge after the break!

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar.

Ranked right up there with the Loch Ness Monster and Shangri-La, the "runner's high" is one of the most elusive yet sought-after myths in modern lore. But is it a real biochemical response or just marathoners trying to justify spending their entire Saturday running? The anecdotal evidence is mixed: For people who get a runner's high, it's not only real but amazing; but for those who've never experienced the high, it can seem like a whole lot of hooey. A new study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology takes a closer look at the runner's high — and the results are very interesting!

10 Ways to Improve Your Running Technique

The Real Deal
A team of researchers led by David A. Raichlen, Ph.D., assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona, measured endocannabinoids (a brain chemical that indicates increased pleasure) in humans, dogs, and ferrets before and after a treadmill session. According to the results, humans and dogs both experienced a significant increase in endocannabinoids after high-intensity endurance running. Ferrets did not experience the same exercise-induced increase. Here's why: Unlike humans and dogs, ferrets as a species are not adapted to run, especially at high speeds or for long distances. The researchers conclude that the neurobiological "reward" for endurance exercise may explain why humans (and similar mammals) continue to engage in aerobic exercise despite the extra work (energy) and injury risks.

8 Common Running Myths Busted

Who Can Get a Runner's High
Unless you're a ferret (or similar mammal), you can get a runner's high. You just might not feel it right away. While all humans have the same brain chemicals, the researchers say there is a tipping point for achieving the pleasure response. That point has everything to do with the intensity of your exercise.

Keep reading to see how you can catch the runner's high.

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar.

I look forward to summer fruits all year, and now new research from Texas A & M University finds that a particular type can also help ward off metabolic syndrome and weight gain. Stone fruits, or drupes, which include nectarines, plums, peaches and cherries, contain natural substances that fight inflammation and create a domino effect that protects against diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.

The Best and Worst Foods for Flat Abs

The scientists found that fruits' phenolic compounds have anti-obesity, anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic properties. The compounds work on different cells in the body, including fat cells, immune cells and cells that line the circulatory system, to protect them from aging and disease. They also found that each fruit contains similar phenolic compounds, but in different proportions that complement each other, which means that eating a variety is a smart strategy.

Learn how to pick the best fat-fighting fruits after the break!

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar. This week Shape turns to nutrition consultant Mike Roussell, Ph.D., for some help!

Q: Does where I get my protein really matter as long as I'm eating protein?

Protein, Carbs, and Fat: What You Should be Eating

A: As long as you're eating a well-rounded diet, the source of protein isn't as important as the fact that you're eating protein. But before people start tweeting that I condone Spam as a quality protein source, allow me to elaborate and clarify a few things.

10 Foods You Should Always Have in Your Fridge

Much of the confusion surrounding protein centers on the plant vs. animal protein debate. Is one truly better than the other? Thanks to nasty processed animal products like Spam and other processed meats that are pumped full of nitrates and sodium, plant protein certainly paints a prettier picture in your head. But if we remove those types of foods from the discussion, then the short list of plant vs. animal proteins looks something like this:

See the recommended protein sources after the break!

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar.

The American Council on Exercise (ACE) has finally answered the question women have been asking for decades: how can I get rid of arm jiggle and what is the single best arm exercise to target this troublesome area? Scientists at the Exercise and Health Program at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse conducted a study using 70 female participants to find out once and for all. By attaching electromagnetic (EMG) electrodes to women’s triceps while performing various arms exercises, the scientists were able to record the women's real-time muscle activity and determine which arms exercises produce the most muscle activity; read: blast arm jiggle the most!

WORKOUT: The Best Arms and Abs Routine

See what the best arm exercise is after the break!