Attention, gum chewers: Your habit may be healthier than you think. As for the rest of you, listen up!

There’s more and more evidence that chewing sugar-free gum can help you lose weight in the long term. Laboratory research findings from the University of Rhode Island, released last October, suggest that chewing gum may help reduce your calorie intake and enhance energy expenditure (calorie burning).

More specifically, the study shows that over half a day you might be able to save over 60 calories just by casually chewing sugar-free gum for an hour in the morning. The research also showed that when people chewed gum before and after eating, calorie burning could be higher than in non-gum chewers by about 5 percent.

This hasn’t been the only study reporting on the benefits of sugar-free gum. Several have concluded that by chewing gum before snacking, you might be able to curb your cravings, reduce your hunger level, and shrink your calorie intake from the snacks. Though all these studies are talking about small calorie differences, we’re reminded frequently by dietitians that little changes can add up to major differences in the long run. After all, if you’re reducing 60 calories daily, that may add up to a weight loss of about 6 pounds in a year!

And chewing gum has caught on in “reality,” too: Contestants on NBC’s The Biggest Loser in the U.S. are encouraged to chew sugar-free gum to potentially help reduce food cravings.