Defense
The Grand Army of the Republic also suffered great casualties when it had to surge to defend loyal planets.  While the fact that the defender had the advantage and could provide a significant amount of troops in its own right meant that it required a smaller force then an offensive operation, it still required the commitment of thousands of troops.  The battle of Duros saw the commitment of seven Acclamator class troop transports (“transports of limited effectiveness” per Republic Holonet News 15:3:29, article “Senators Farr and Coor Censured” in SW Insider 76, page 72), a Victory class star destroyer and three Dreadnaught class heavy cruisers in addition to two wings of clone piloted starfighter forces and 60 shipboard starfighters for a total 117,388 of clone troopers (minus ships crews); all of whom were lost. (CIS Shadowfeed 15:2:29, article “Breaking News: Confederacy Storms Duro" SW Insider 74, page 67)  Assigned to but missing from the battle were three Venator class star destroyers.  According to the Revenge of the Sith novel a Venator carries three regiments [2], and 192 V-wing fighters, 36 ARC-170 fighters, and 192 Etis starfighters according to the Revenge of the Sith Incredible Cross Sections, which translates to another 25,164 clone troopers for a total of 142,552 that were supposed to be at the battle.  This does not correspond to an estimate or average for the usual strength committed to defending a planet however.  Duros has an extensive shipyard and space station network that allows it to bring a large amount of force to bear for its own defenses and the battle was hampered by Senate corruption and a lack of reinforcement from neighboring systems. (Republic Holonet News 15:3:29, article “Senators Farr and Coor Censured” in SW Insider 76, page 72)  Another example is the defense of Kuat, which saw twenty-four Acclamators (384,000 troops) assigned to the system as part of a defensive arms race.  Again, this is a poor example as “holding Kuat’s ground is largely meaningless.  It’s holding the shipyards that matter” (CIS Shadowfeed 14:7:01, article "Kuat-Neimoidian Arms Race Escalates" SW Insider 68, page 69) and Kuat’s extensive sector defense force, which includes the powerful Mandator class star dreadnaught and Procurator class star battlecruiser (Attack of the Clones Incredible Cross Sections).  Early in the war the troops were streched so tight that the Jedi in command were reluctant to commit even less then a platoon of men to security work on Coruscant in the face of a low threat terrorist network (Republic Commando: Triple Zero).  Not only were loyal worlds defended, captured systems had to be held as well.  Geonosis (Star Wars: Complete Locations; Death in the Catacombs), Brentaal (Star Wars: Victories and Sacrifices), and Utapau (Star Wars Databank – Utapau) all received garrisons to maintain order.  Even small outposts like Qiilura with a population of 200,000 received a garrison (Republic Commando: Triple Zero).  Garrisons could not be made out of local non-clone forces; aside from their questionable loyalty, they were clearly unable to defend themselves from an attack in the first place.  So garrisons had to be established and maintained by the Grand Army of the Republic.  This was an important act as if worlds were not protected the Confederacy could retake them in a manner similar to the Vietnam “single hill” debacles.
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